In mid-November, the European Commission tabled the long-awaited review of its Bioeconomy Strategy and Action Plan. European Biotechnology spoke with Waldemar Kütt, Head of Unit Bioeconomy Strategy, about the development the bioeconomy has made since its launch in 2012 by the European Commission and the instruments needed to attract investments, make it circular, and create a stable policy environment for companies and investors.

A brand-new survey conducted by auditing and consulting firm PwC and Strategy& has found out that 80% of data protection-prone Germans would share their data in case of being diagnosed with cancer. The results show that cancer could act as a gate-opener to approaches in personalised medicine that depend on the accessiblity of patient data.

US and Dutch researchers have found that carcinogenic E. coli and B. fragilis versions in the gut of patients who developed precancerous polyps early in life trigger development of colon cancer by secreting proinflammatoy signals, depleting mucus and inducing DNA damage.

Using CRISPR-Cas 9 genome editing, US and German stem cell researchers have corrected clustered mutations in the dystrophin gene in heart mucle cells obtained from induced pluripotent stem cells of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Rentschler Biopharma SE, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biopharmaceuticals, today appointed Dr. Ralf Otto as Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective February 1, 2018.

Following critisism from the industry, the European Patent Office has drafted a proposal to allow exemptions to its Early Certainty Initiative. Industry associations had pressed the EPO not to limit the time to grant a patent to 12 months arguing it would have detrimental effects on the life sciences sector.

A complaint against the EMA’s handling of a referral procedure related to potential side effects of Sanofi/MSD’s HPV vaccine Gardasil and GSK’s HPV jab Cervarix, filed by the Nordic Cochrane Centre and physicians, has been rejected by the European Ombudsman.

Storm Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Nobel Prize Winner Professor Thomas Cech as a Scientific Advisor. This appointment follows STORM Therapeutics’ successful Series A Financing Extension announced in January 2018. 

Briefly after Belgian nanobody maker Ablynx rejected a €2.3bn take-over bid of Novo, its board accepted a €3.9bn tender of its R&D partner Sanofi. It’s the second large take-over of Sanofi this month.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) greenlighted seven medicines for approval at its January 2018 meeting, including one orphan medicine, and one biosimilar.