Genopole(R) And Six Of Its Campus Companies Will Attend The International Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) 2006 Trade Show
EVRY, France, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2006 edition of the BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization) trade show will be held in Chicago next week (April 10-12). Genopole(R) will attend this major event as part of a delegation coordinated by the Paris Il-de-France Regional Development Agency (ARD). Six innovative companies supported by Genopole(R) - BioMethodes, Drugabilis, GenOptics, MATBiopharma, Nokad and Vaxon Biotech - will equally be represented at the show.
"The annual BIO show attracts the world's key biotech players. For a cluster like Genopole(R), it's an event that we can't afford to miss", explains Thierry Mandon, President of Genopole and First Vice President of the Essonne County Council. Since its foundation in 1998, Genopole has attended this event on a regular basis - enabling the cluster to achieve true international visibility."
"The BIO event enables us to meet our foreign counterparts and benefit from their experience but also allows us to showcase the novel approaches to biotech business support that we have implemented here at Genopole", adds Pierre Tambourin, Genopole's(R) CEO. In fact, our biopark stands out by combining a company incubator and a pre-seed fund (Genopole(R) Day One), backed up by scientific and industrial infrastructure. Thanks to a broad array of financial, technological, scientific and real estate tools, a dense, rich fabric of companies has formed around Genopole(R)."
Therapeutic innovation is the core concern of Genopole's(R) stakeholders. The forthcoming establishment of a University Medical Center unit and the creation of a biomanufacturing facility at the heart of the campus will add the final building blocks to a biocluster which is already generating innovative medical techniques.
The Genopole(R) portfolio now includes 57 start ups, of which 35 have been founded or incubated on the campus. The Genopole(R) biopark (with a strong biopharmaceutical theme) brings together drug discovery & development companies, technology providers and service companies. Twenty business have already commercialized products and/or services and 15 therapeutics are currently under development for a range of indications, ranging from cancer to ophthalmological complaints.
Six Genopole-mentored companies - BioMethodes, Drugabilis, GenOptics, MATBiopharma, Nokad and Vaxon Biotech (see over) - will attend the international BIO convention this year. "This event will offer our companies a great opportunity to showcase their products, skills and know-how. The business conventions, seminars and forums provide a host of occasions for meeting their future partners and customers", explains Veronique Dufey, Executive Director of Genopole(R) Enterprise.
Genopole(R) key figures:
23 academic laboratories, including 2 national centers
2 national platforms, 7 open-access technology platforms, 6 major technical facilities.
57 biotech companies, including 35 founded and incubated by Genopole(R) 118 million euros in equity raised by Genopole(R)-based companies 87,000 sq meters of business and lab accommodation, including: 1 biotech business incubator with 2,600 sq meters of floor space 6 business accommodation modules, totaling 22,000 sq meters of floor space Contact: Veronique DUFEY, Executive Director of Genopole Enterprise +33-1-60-87-84-48 - veronique.dufey@genopole.fr - www.genopole.fr Six companies from the Genopole(R) portfolio will attend BIO 2006: BioMethodes
BioMethodes (a French biotechnology company founded in 1997) is a leader in the protein engineering field. Our company has invented Massive Mutagenesis(R), the first ever high-throughput, combinatorial, site-directed mutagenesis technology. In addition, we have recently developed two outstanding direct selection systems - dramatically reducing the time needed to obtain improved proteins:
- THR(TM), for identifying proteins with improved stability.
- Solexis(R), for directly selecting soluble variants.
Over 30 projects have been successfully completed for major industrial partners such as GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, AB Enzymes, Roquette and bioMerieux. BioMethodes also generates a portfolio of proprietary enzymes and therapeutic proteins using in-house technologies.
Contact : Ali AIT-IKHLEF, Business Development Manager -
ali.ait-ikhlef@biomethodes.com - www.biomethodes.com
Drugabilis
Drugabilis is the first CRO to specialize in pharmaceutical physicochemical characterization and formulation as applied to the early selection of new drug candidates. We deliver both experimental support and consulting services to a customer's research efforts by helping to select drugable compounds and delivery systems.
On a day-to-day basis, Drugabilis characterizes the physicochemical profiles of research compounds and the physical properties of early API bulks. Drugabilis also designs and characterizes custom formulations for use in any type of animal experiment. We are committed to working on minimal API amounts and to meeting very tight deadlines.
Contact : Joel VACUS, CEO & CSO
contact@drugabilis.com - www.drugabilis.com
GenOptics
GenOptics technology enables truly multiplexed protein analysis. Genoptics develops label-free protein array detection systems for accelerating disease screening and drug candidate identification. The company's innovative SPRi (Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging) technology enables real-time, simultaneous monitoring of up to 400 bio-interactions in an array format.
GenOptics has already currently developed two protein array platforms: SPRi-Plex(TM) automates large scale screening operations, whereas SPRi-Lab(TM) is an open configuration for innovative experiments. The company has also designed the SPRi-Biochip(TM), an innovative new bio-array chip capable of monitoring hundreds of interactions and label-free molecules.
Contact: Philippe KEROUREDAN, CEO
pkerouredan@genoptics-spr.com - www.genoptics-spr.com
MAT BioPharma
MAT BioPharma is engaged in the development of first-in-class antibody therapies for the treatment of cancer. The Company's most advanced product, Ferritarg(TM), is an antibody therapeutic for the treatment of Hodgkin's disease and will soon enter Phase I/II clinical trials. The MAT preclinical pipeline contains product candidates for acute myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, hepatocarcinoma, pancreatic cancer and metastatic melanoma. MAT is currently seeking partners in the US in order to accelerate downstream development of these compounds.
Contact :Franziska POSSMAYER, Director Business Development
f.possmayer@matbiopharma.fr - www.matbiopharma.fr
Nokad
Nokad is a service company developing a unique functional knockout technology that specifically inactivates protein functions. This innovative approach helps to break through the limits imposed by genetic KO (mice only, time-consuming and lack of reversibility). Nokad models are available in all mammalian species within only 6 months, with a switch from one animal strain to another or from one species to another within only 2 months. We obtain stable, reversible phenotypes which are equivalent to genetic KOs. This technology allows simultaneous inactivation of several proteins and is suitable for proteins arising from alternative splicing or from gene clusters. Other services: functional characterization, generation of antibodies against non- or poorly antigenic proteins.
Contact : Amine ABINA, president & CSO
abina@nokad-technology.com - www.nokad-technology.com
Vaxon Biotech
Vaxon Biotech (founded in early 2004) is a product-driven biopharmaceutical company focusing on the discovery and development of innovative vaccines for the treatment of cancer. Vaxon Biotech is the first entrant to make vaccines with a new class of antigens: optimized cryptic peptides. These innovative vaccines show good tolerance and immunogenicity, both in animals and in Phase I cancer patients. The most advanced products are Vx-001 and Vx-006. Treatment with Vx-001 induced lengthy disease stabilization or a partial response in about 30% of patients. Vx-001 is due to enter a pivotal phase IIb clinical trial in hepatocellular cancer, together with a phase IIa study in non-small cell lung cancer. Vx-006, the second compound, should enter phase I/II clinical development in the prostate cancer field by Q4-2006.
Contact : Philippe BERTHON, CEO
pberthon@vaxon-biotech.com - www.vaxon-biotech.com
GenopoleCONTACT: Contact: Veronique DUFEY, Executive Director of GenopoleEnterprise, +33-1-60-87-84-48, veronique.dufey@genopole.fr, www.genopole.fr