Entries by Thomas Gabrielczyk

Vaccine production in Africa: an urgent priority

Africa produces less than 1% of the human vaccines it uses. To effectively respond in time of outbreaks and pandemics, Africa must expand its vaccine development and production capabilities to cater for its growing population. Successfully establishing such an industry at scale is a multifaceted endeavour to create an enabling environment. This article highlights key factors and considerations for establishing local vaccine manufacturing.

A very “cool” topic in the parmaceutical industry

The current debates regarding vaccine production and logistics have also made it clear even to the layman: Pharmaceutical production depends on cold. Temperatures below -80?°C are just as common as the requirement to freeze precursors such as blood plasma within a specified time period. Refrigeration specialists with pharmaceutical know-how are in demand for these challenging tasks.

Novel RNA extraction method speeds up COVID-19 PCR tests

Although innovative biotechnologies are developed continuously, the method of nucleic acid extraction stayed unchanged for several decades. The classical bind-wash-elute approach seemed sufficient, but the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered the need for a new technique to be able to process multiple samples fast and in parallel. BioEcho developed a completely new technology, which simplifies and speeds up the process of RNA extraction dramatically.

Origenis founds biotech company Neuron23

Together with star investor Kleiner Perkins, Origenis GmbH, a privately held German biopharmaceutical company, successfully establishes its new business model for the clinical development of its neuroprotective drug pipeline. The formation and financing of Neuron23 Inc. was announced in South San Francisco.