Bio Screening Industry News

Date: 26th & 27th April 2006, Brussels

Event Summary:

Recruiting patients has become as complex and as competitive as marketing the products. It should be therefore considered what variations may occur in patient populations due to cultural or ethnic differences and the spread of individual sites in relation to patient populations, as well as the internal healthcare facilities in different countries and the impact this has on the site’s ability to recruit patients and conduct trials. This event brings together experts involved with patient recruitment & retention tactics in clinical trials from different continents and countries representing both the academic and commercial area to discuss and share their tactics and experience and to identify the key factors for a successful clinical trial results.

Key Speakers:

Key topics:

Who should attend:

http://www.jacobfleming.com/buxus/generate_page.php?page_id=213

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 - http://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 - http://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 - http://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 - http://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 - http://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 - http://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 - http://www.vaxon-biotech.com

SOURCE Genopole

This library has been created as a part of a project aimed at design of a large set of receptor-based sharp-focused libraries. In the framework of this project, Life Chemicals provides its Collection of 300 000 compounds and subsequent chemical optimization. Otava provides its drug-like Green Collection (50 000 compounds) and also is responsible for molecular modeling tasks.

Design of the focused libraries consists in Lipinsky/Veber rules filtering and flexible docking in a protein target of certain enzyme family. Further computational analysis for the presence of critical receptor-ligand hydrogen bond(s) and docking score refinement makes our focused libraries good starting point for drug discovery purposes. In case of this library detection of H-bonding between ligand and key FGFR1K hinge region residue (Ala564) was used for its preparation.

• About Otava
Otava supplies fine organic chemicals including unique building blocks for combinatorial organic synthesis. We provide compound libraries for screening, custom synthesis, molecular modeling services, targeted compound libraries and protein kinase inhibitors, prescreened anticancer compounds, peptide and chromogenic substrates. We offer design and development of fluorescent probes, kits and reagents.
• Please contact us at:
Otava
P.O. Box 88
Kyiv 187, 03187
Ukraine
Phone/Fax: +380 44 5222458
E-mai: info@otavachemicals.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Web site: http://www.otavachemicals.com

Fremont, California (Press Release)— March 31, 2006—VM Discovery Inc. (VMD), a drug-design and discovery company, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center today announced they have entered into a collaboration to jointly pursue a cancer-drug discovery program. Under the collaboration, VMDI will use its proprietary multi-property drug design and optimization technology platform, the “VM OptimizerTM, to generate and optimize small-molecule ”drug-like” leads and clinical candidates, while the Hutchinson Center will leverage its expertise in cancer biology and proprietary technologies. Other terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

“It is exciting to collaborate with the distinguished scientists and professionals at the Hutchinson Center to translate their strong and unique cancer-biology knowledge to the drug-able molecules for the potential breakthrough treatment of cancers,” said Jay Wu, president and CEO of VM Discovery Inc. “Having a successful track record with our industry clients, academic research institutes and our internal drug-discovery programs, we are confident that our proprietary technology platform will allow us to design and optimize advanced small-molecule drug candidates against an important cancer pathway ..“

This is the Hutchinson Center’s first collaboration with the chemistry industry this year. “We are excited about this collaboration,” said Spencer Lemons, vice president of Industry Relations and Technology Transfer at the Hutchinson Center. “Bringing together our world-class research with the drug-discovery expertise of industry helps in our mission to eliminate cancer as a cause of human suffering and death.”

About VM Discovery Inc.

VM Discovery Inc. (VMD) is a privately held, venture-backed drug discovery company located in Silicon Valley, California. The company has developed proprietary drug design and optimization technology “the “VM OptimizerTM”) to discover novel, potent small-molecule drug leads with balanced ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination and toxicity) properties in various therapeutic arenas. VMD has been developing a portfolio of optimized preclinical drug candidates, including new uses of old drugs, in various disease areas including cancer, diabetes and neurological diseases. In addition, VMD has been a source of optimized molecules to drug development companies for out-licensing, sale or “compound partnering” purposes. VMD has ongoing drug discovery collaboration with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies as well as prominent academic/research institutes. For more information, please visit www.vmdiscovery.com.

About Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

The Hutchinson Center’s interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists and humanitarians work together to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Center researchers, including three Nobel laureates, bring a relentless pursuit and passion for health, knowledge and hope to their work and to the world. For more information, please visit www.fhcrc.org.