About 300 bioeconomy experts from science and business came together in Strasbourg for the first edition of BIOKET to discuss up-scaling challenges, new processing technologies as well as the potential of synthetic biology and digitalization.

The adage ‘you are what you eat’ is more than folk wisdom. Evidence that the food you ingest has a major impact on your health grows by the day. It’s now clear the bacteria that colonise the skin and gut from birth on are key sensors for environmental triggers in chronic diseases of civilisation. Ever since research showed that restoring microbiome balance cures 90% of all Clostridium difficile infections, food manufacturers, pharma companies and independent teams have been tracking it in other indications – including multiple sclerosis.

Evotec and Sanofi want to create an Evotec-led infectious disease open innovation R&D platform at Sanofi’s antiinfectives hub in Lyon. Talks are expected to close in H1/2018 with an option agreement.

Forendo Pharma, a drug development company developing novel oral treatments for endometriosis patients, today announces the appointment of David Colpman as a non-executive director to its Board of Directors.

Company Co-founder Josef von Rickenbach to retire after 35 years of leadership; serve as Chairman of the Board.

Personalised medicines, intelligent packaging and FDA deadlines seen as major trends for pharma packaging in 2018.

Under an exclusive licence option agreement, Heidelberg Pharma will develop ATACs (alpha-amanitin antibody conjugates) for Magenta Therapeutics Inc. across several targeted conditioning programmes for bone marrow transplants.

TRIANNI’s antibody discovery platform, The Trianni Mouse, represents best-in-class technology for efficient generation of fully-human monoclonal antibodies.

Investments into new drugs to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are set to boost the participation of SMEs. At the 11th Berlin Conference on Life Sciences, two new financing initiatives, which focus on innovations developed by SMEs, were presented to 200+ AMR stakeholders.

Swiss Santhera Pharmaceuticals EU-approved LHON treatment Raxone (idebenone) has failed to show clinical efficacy in another indication: After US and EU regulators rejected an extension of market approval in Duchenne muscular dystrophy last September, an NIH-sponsored trail now showed no difference to placebo treatment in patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS).