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NEWSLETTER
December, 2018
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EDITORIAL |
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Over 550 Participate in Genopole's 20th Birthday Conference
For any biocluster, turning 20 has to be a very special occasion, and it filled our hearts to see over 550 people showing up to share in the celebrations during Genopole's 20th birthday conference on November, 13, 2018.
On the one hand, the bioclusters that have survived over two decades represents a small club, for sure.
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On the other hand, those that have actually grown steadily and thrived over 20 years have not all stuck to their original mission as Genopole did.
This is what the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Ms Frédérique Vidal, and the President of the region of Greater Paris, Ms Valérie Pécresse, both acknowledged in their allocutions in citing our achievements so far.
They have also reiterated their full support to the development of Genopole in the future.
We are now looking forward to the next 20 years, and in the wake of the conference, I have announced that, as a first priority, our review of the 2025 strategy calls for Genopole to focus more systematically on four industrial sectors, namely Innovative Biotherapies, Personalised Medicine, Industrial Biotechnology, and Digital Genomics.
Genopole's second priority for the future is to support the development of talent to engage into those industrial sectors, both for basic research and for entrepreneurship ventures, as well as to improve the work-live-play services on site.
Genopole's third priority will be to pursue more European and international connections so as to develop targeted partnerships with biocluster counterparts.
I will expand on these priorities in upcoming issues of this newsletter.
Jean-Marc Grognet, CEO
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WHAT'S NEW AT GENOPOLE |
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Genopole Honored with Award of Excellence for Outstanding Research Park at AURP International Conference
Genopole was in College Park (Maryland) on October 23-26, 2018 to attend AURP’s Annual International Conference which was organised under the theme “Uniting Science and Innovation”. This was also a very special occasion for Genopole as it took back to France this year’s Outstanding Research Park Award.
Dr. Denis Gauvreau, Director of International Affairs, was on site to collect the award.
In thanking the AURP for this recognition, Dr. Gauvreau mentioned that this award couldn’t come at a better time as Genopole is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2018.
He also added that he hoped that this award, given to a non-US resident research park for the first time by AURP, stood as a metaphor as well as a strong message that should inspire greater transatlantic exchanges between North American and European university research parks.
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NEWS FROM THE BIOCLUSTER COMPANIES |
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Enterome Signs Global Licensing, Co-Development and Co-Promotion Agreement with Takeda |
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Enterom is a clinical-stage biotech company developing innovative therapies to treat microbiome-associated diseases with a focus on auto-immune disease and cancer. The company has recently entered into a global licensing, co-development and co-promotion agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. The agreement covers Enterome’s lead investigational drug candidate EB8018 in patients with Crohn’s disease, with the potential to expand to other gastrointestinal disorders and liver diseases.
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Enterome will receive an upfront payment of $50 million and a commitment from Takeda to make a future equity investment in the company. Enterome is also eligible to receive up to $640 million for achieving specified clinical development, regulatory and commercial milestones with EB8018. In addition, Enterome and Takeda will co-develop EB8018 under the joint agreement and, if approved, the product will be co-promoted in the US under a profit/cost sharing structure.
Takeda will receive an exclusive license to commercialize EB8018 outside of the US, and Enterome will be eligible to receive royalties on net sales generated in these territories. EB8018 is a novel, first-in-class, orally administered, gut-restricted small molecule designed to selectively disarm virulent bacteria in the gut that can cause inflammation without disrupting the local microbiome.
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Pharnext Progressing on Treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth |
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Pharnext is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new approach to the development of innovative drug combinations based on big data genomics and artificial intelligence.
The company, under CEO Daniel Cohen’s leadership, has recently announced positive topline results from a pivotal phase 3 trial of PXT3003 for the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 1A Disease. The study enrolled 323 patients aged 16 to 65 years in 30 sites across EU, USA and Canada. The primary endpoint was the Overall Neuropathy Limitation Scale (ONLS) measuring patient disability, in agreement with FDA and EMA.
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In this study, PXT3003 provided first evidence of a meaningful improvement of CMT1A patients in showing a statistically significant improvement on the ONLS disability scale (primary endpoint) confirmed by sensitivity analysis and secondary endpoints together with a good safety profile. Based on these results, Pharnext intends to file for market approval in the US and EU. Pharnext also expects to initiate a Phase 3 trial of PXT3003 in pediatric CMT1A patients in the first half of 2019, based on a Pediatric Investigation Plan (PIP) agreed upon with the EMA.
The results of this trial are not needed for market approval for the adult indication.
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SCIENTIFIC NEWS |
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World First in Gene Therapy at Genethon
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AFM-Telethon’s research laboratory Genethon has published a study in Nature Communications showing that it is possible to re-administer a genetic therapy treatment without inducing an immune response by using nanoparticles containing the immunosuppressor rapamycin and that were developed by Selecta Biosciences.
This is a highly promising result that comforts the idea of long term treatment of rare genetic disorders by gene therapy. If the efficacy of this technique is established in further studies, it may mean that one of the major obstacles in gene therapy – namely, the necessity to limit gene therapy to a single treatment – can be lifted conclusively. |
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I-Stem R&D Shows That Metformin Improves Motricity in Patients with Steinert Disease
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Genopole’s I-Stem has published recent findings in Brain that show encouraging clinical Phase 2 results for the most frequent form of myopathy in adults.
As metformin is a well-known anti-diabetic drug that shows a good toxicity profile, I-Stem investigated its potential for improving mobility in patients on 40 ambulatory adult patients. |
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NETWORKING |
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Agreement Signed with Tunisia’s BiotechPole
Genopole was in Sidi Thabet (some 20 km north of Tunis in Tunisia) to sign a Strategic Exploratory Agreement with BiotechPole on October 18, 2018.
This 18-month agreement provides the operational framework for the parties to explore potential collaborative initiatives and common R&D or development projects. |
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Exchanges between the parties will pertain to the transfer of know-how, expertise and best practices in matters relating to incubation and acceleration of start-ups and of early-stage companies, the identification of financing programs for joint R&D projects, as well as international business development. The signature of this agreement was part of the celebrations marking the official inauguration of BiotechPole’s incubator building, that was followed on the next day by a series of presentations on the Challenges of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Tunisia.
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VISITS |
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Chinese Biohub International Biotechnology Co.,Ltd. Visiting Genopole |
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George Li and Joannu Hu, respectively CEO and Business Manager of Wuhan-based BioHub International Biotechnology Co. Ltd, were on site on October, 15, 2018 to explore partnership opportunities. This visit results from the agreement signed between Genopole and Wuhan’s Biolake in May 2018. BioHub’s mandate is to support Biolake in its international development and the company specialises in MedTech. |
It also provides coaching services to companies wanting to settle in China through five incubators and accelerators located in large Chinese cities. BioHub has its own investment funds and has already completed 20 seed and early-stage investments, including in Hifibio and in Epibone. BioHub had also worked on the strategic development plan of the cluster Hetho in the Futian district resulting from the partnership agreement between the cities of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
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Japanese organisation NEDO Visiting Genopole |
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Dr. Yoshiyuki Fujishima, Senior Analyst of the Global Technology Research Unit of the Technology Strategy Center at NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation), was at Genopole on October 16, 2018 along with Christophe Debouit who is Project Coordinator of NEDO EUROPE. Dr. Fujishima is Japan’s delegate to the OECD on synthetic biology which is one of the four major sectors of interest to Genopole. NEDO is a major public research funding agency and Dr. Fujishima’s mission there is to assist in supporting technology transfer to spin-offs and industry.
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Canadian Concordia University, Perform Centre |
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Dr. Christophe Guy, VP Research & Graduate Studies at Concordia University (Montreal), visited Genopole on November 15 to present current R&D on synthetic biology by his faculty. |
This visit follows a series of exchanges initiated in 2018 with Dr. Vincent Martin who holds a Research Chair in Microbial Engineering and Synthetic Biology at Concordia, and also heads its Genome Foundry.
Dr. Guy was accompanied by Dr. Habib Benali who is the Director of Concordia’s Perform Center that provides an integrated and comprehensive environment to promote healthier lives through changes in behaviour and lifestyle by offering research opportunities, education, and preventative-based programs. Dr Benali met with Mr. Pierre Tambourin, the founding CEO of Genopole, who has retired in 2017 and is now responsible of the scientific affairs of Cluster Grand Paris Sport. These exchanges with Quebec’s Concordia University come as a result of the agreement between Genopole and Genome Québec.
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AND ALSO |
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Igem 2018 : Evry’s Team Wins a Gold Medal for Its Ingenious System on Communications Between Bacteria.
For the second year in a row, Evry’s team wins a gold medal at the prestigious competition on synthetic biology iGEM 2018, that was held on October 25-28, 2018 in Boston. The team’s R&D was also nominated for the Best New Composite Award.
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