Archive: Company News
Company News: Prof. Cornelis Melief to Present Novel AMPLIVANT™ Platform at AACR Annual Meeting 2013
ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on rationally designed therapeutic vaccines against cancer and persistent viral infections, today announced that Prof. Cornelis Melief, M.D., will present details on the novel AMPLIVANTTM platform at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. AMPLIVANTTM is based on a powerful, proprietary toll-like receptor (TLR) ligand improving immunotherapies.
Presentation title: “Synthetic vaccine for immunotherapy of high risk HPV infections“
Symposium: SY27 “New Cancer Vaccines“
Abstract number: SY27-01
Date: April 9, 2013, at 10:40 a.m.
Location: Room 202 at the Washington Convention Center.
The abstract is available at the AACR website www.aacr.org.
Company News: Merus Further Expands R&D Capacity
– Company Contracts R&D Service Provider FairJourney Biologics –
Merus B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on innovative human antibody therapeutics, today announced that it has significantly expanded its capabilities to generate large collections of distinct, unique bispecific antibodies against target combinations.
Under an agreement signed with R&D service provider FairJourney Biologics, Merus will strengthen its R&D resources for selecting the most promising common light chain antibodies generated by its MeMo® transgenic mouse. These antibodies are then formatted into full-length bispecific IgG antibodies – called Biclonics™ – that can be further tested in high-throughput cell-based assays.
Company News: Curetis AG Strengthens Commercial Team and Expands Distribution Network
– Appointment of Helmut Hilbert as Head of Business Development
– Distribution Agreement with ELITech in Belgium and Luxembourg
Curetis AG today announced the appointment of Helmut Hilbert as Head of Business Development and the expansion of its distribution network into Belgium and Luxembourg by closing a distribution agreement with ELITech BNL (former Lucron Bioproducts), an ELITech Group company.
In order to strengthen its global commercial operations, Curetis has hired Dr. Helmut Hilbert, formerly Associate Director Corporate Business Development at Qiagen, as Head of Business Development. Helmut Hilbert has more than ten years of business and corporate development experience and built a strong track record in licensing, mergers and acquisitions, technology transfer and innovation management. At Qiagen, he was responsible for scouting novel technologies as well as evaluating potential acquisition targets and investment opportunities, including contract negotiation, due diligences and post-merger integration.
Moreover, Curetis has selected ELITech BNL as its Belgian and Luxembourgian distribution partner. ELITech BNL (former Lucron Bioproducts) has a long-standing track record as a distributor of quality diagnostic products and research supplies in the Benelux. Among others, the company supported the market entry of Cepheid into these countries. Acquired by the global in vitro diagnostics distributor ELITech Group in 2010, ELITech BNL is part of an extensive commercial network covering France, Italy, the UK and the rest of the world.
Company News: Anergis Presents Preclinical Data of its Ragweed Allergy Vaccine Candidate AllerR
– AllerR induces formation of antibodies recognizing natural ragweed allergens –
Anergis, a company developing breakthrough allergy vaccines for fast and safe allergen-specific immunotherapy, reported today that it will present preclinical data for its ragweed allergy vaccine at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) in San Antonio, TX.*
The results demonstrate the hypoallergenicity of AllerR and the successful recognition of the natural ragweed allergen Amb a 1 by the mouse immune system after immunization with AllerR.
The poster no. 136 will be presented on Saturday, February 23, 2013, at 9:45am CST in session no. 2210 “Immunotherapy I” at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Street Level, Exhibit Hall C. The abstract of the poster titled “Non-Detectable IgE Binding of an Amb a 1 Derived, Contiguous Overlapping Peptide Based, SIT Product Candidate Against Ragweed Allergy” is available at:
http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/pdfs/journals/0091-6749/PIIS0091674912028163.pdf
AllerR is a mix of seven Contiguous Overlapping Peptides (COPs) derived from the COP platform of Anergis. In the experiments, AllerR showed no detectable IgE binding in competition ELISA tests using sera from allergic patients and did not induce degranulation of humanized basophil cells, a standard test used to test the ability of a protein or peptide to elicit an allergic reaction in humans. In addition, mice sensitized to the natural allergen Amb a 1 showed no reactivity to AllerR, whereas the administration of Amb a 1 in these animals lead to anaphylactic responses. The immunogenicity of AllerR was also tested in naïve mice and showed that each COP composing AllerR elicited an antibody response and that these antibodies specifically recognized the natural Amb a 1 allergen.
In the U.S., ragweed pollen allergy is the major cause of hay fever: 75% of all patients suffering from pollen allergies carry a ragweed pollen allergy. It affects about 20% of the U.S. population and is also on the rise in Europe due to the spread of ragweed (Ambrosia genus) plants accidentally introduced to Europe. The major allergenic protein has been identified as Amb a 1, a 38 kDa non-glycosylated protein composed of two subunits.
________________________________________
* The poster entitled “Non-Detectable IgE Binding of an Amb a 1 Derived, Contiguous Overlapping Peptide Based, SIT Product Candidate Against Ragweed Allergy” is also being published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology – February 2013 (Vol. 131, Issue 2, Supplement, Page AB37, DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2012.12.815)