Neovacs : ...safety, immunogenicity and therapeutic effect of the company's Kinoid approach...

Paris, November 26, 2009 - Neovacs' preliminary clinical trial results (presented at the GASTRO conference) are supportive of the safety, immunogenicity and therapeutic effect of the company's Kinoid approach; clinical testing is to be expanded - Neovacs, a biotechnology company developing proprietary immunotherapeutics for autoimmune and chronic diseases, released a summary of the presentation made by Chief Medical Officer Pierre Vandepapeliere at the GASTRO 2009 conference in London, UK. The presentation featured preliminary data from the ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial of Neovacs' TNFα Kinoid active immunotherapy in Crohn’s Disease patients.


The Phase I/II study is testing three different dose levels of the Kinoid in patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s Disease. Thirteen patients out of a planned total of 21 have been recruited to date. The study's primary objective is to assess the Kinoid's safety and its ability to induce an immune response to tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). A secondary objective is to look at the therapeutic effect as measured by the clinical disease score and markers of disease activity... [PDF] Neovacs' Press Release - PDF du communiqué de presse de Neovacs -

About Neovacs :

Neovacs, a spin-off from Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris, is a biotechnology company focused on an active immunotherapy technology platform, with applications in autoimmune diseases and other chronic conditions. It was founded by Professor Daniel Zagury, MD, one of the world’s leading immunologists.

The Company’s lead program, an immunotherapy targeting certain inflammatory diseases, is currently in a Phase 1/2 study in subjects with Crohn’s Disease. This product candidate is also the subject of a collaboration with the diagnostics company BMD, with the objective of developing the theranostic tools to permit personalized care. The clinical program has received substantial public funding support from Oséo ISI... About Neovacs -

Aterovax : sPLA2 Activity Test significantly improves prediction of cardiovascular events in the PEACE large scale prospective study

Aterovax SA, a company developing innovative products for atherosclerosis, announced at the AHA scientific sessions (November 14-18, 2009, Orlando, USA) data demonstrating that its blood test for secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) activity significantly improves cardiovascular risk prediction in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) over a 5 year period, independent of established risk markers, including C-reactive protein.

sPLA2 is a family of pro-inflammatory enzymes liked to the formation and destabilization of atherosclerotic plaques. Aterovax's sPLA2 activity test was used in 3778 patients in the PEACE (Prevention of Events with Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibition) trial and the results were presented at the American Heart Association's annual scientific sessions... Aterovax's Press Releases -

About Aterovax

Aterovax is an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of its own portfolio of innovative products for a better diagnostic, prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis. This pathological condition underlies several important adverse vascular events including coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral arterial disease, and is responsible for most of the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the developed and under development countries today... About Aterovax -

DNA Therapeutics : award of the Antony Bernard Foundation against Cancer

October 23, 2009, Dr. Marie Dutreix, co-inventor of siDNA technology and co-founder of DNA Therapeutics, received an award of the Antony Bernard Foundation against Cancer in union with the General Council of the Department Oise, the Municipality of Beauvais and the Committee of the Oise League against Cancer. DNA Therapeutics' Press releases -

DNA Therapeutics' mission & strategy :

DNA Therapeutics S.A. is a privately-owned, emerging biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of life-saving therapeutics to combat treatment-resistant cancers. It is founded on a uniquely positioned breakthrough technology, siDNA, which deals with DNA repair pathways as a global target, instead of targeting a key gene/protein whatever its biological importance and clinical relevance. This is an innovative approach in conjunction with radio- and chemotherapies for cost effective and efficient therapeutics focused on highly unmet medical needs... DNA Therapeutics' mission & strategy -

ARGENE : release of a new real-time PCR range of products for the detection and/or the quantification of the novel 2009 Influenza A(H1N1)

ARGENE announce the release of a new real-time PCR range of products for the detection and/or the quantification of the novel 2009 Influenza A(H1N1)
The recent emergence of the novel 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) and the fast global spread of this virus highlights the urgent need for a reliable diagnostic assay to readily implement into daily routine.
Being aware of our responsibility as a key player in the domain of In Vitro Diagnostics, we immediately reacted and decided to develop a Real Time PCR assay for the diagnosis of novel 2009 Influenza A(H1N1).
Argene mobilized a dedicated team with the aim to develop a diagnostic molecular assay for the detection and/or quantification of this virus... ARGENE's Press Release - Communiqué de Presse d'ARGENE -


About Argene Biosoft

THE IN VITRO DIAGNOSTIC INDUSTRY

As a key partner of public and private medical biological analysis laboratories, the in vitro diagnostics industry provides the reagents and materials required for the analysis of blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid or any other biological sample.

ARGENE specialises in this domain and offers products and reagents for the detection of infectious agents in laboratories. These tests may be carried out for diagnostic or preventive purposes, but also as part of the follow-up of certain treatments... About Argene - A propos d'Argene Biosoft -

ResMed Acquires Laboratoires Narval

Oct. 5 - 2009 - ResMed Inc. (NYSE: RMD), a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of sleep and respiratory medical equipment, announced that it has acquired Laboratoires Narval. Based in France, Laboratoires Narval manufactures and distributes the Narval O.R.M.(TM), an innovative mandibular repositioning device (MRD) that offers a solution to patients for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), especially for those with mild OSA.

With this acquisition, ResMed adds another therapy to supplement its existing positive airway pressure-based solutions, providing a broader offering for this patient group. ResMed plans to commercialize this device in selected European markets... ResMed's Press Release -


About Laboratoires Narval

Laboratoires Narval's mission is to provide innovative therapeutic solutions to treat respiratory sleep disorders. Laboratoires Narval is a French company based in Lyon, created by Ludovic Baratier, the inventor of the O.R.M. device, Laurent Viviani, and Fabrice Paublant and backed by Aurinvest and S.H.A.M. investors.

BioPredictive : Announcing HepaTop, top 100 hepatologists

BioPredictive releases a new BETA service : HepaTop - top authors in hepatology, according to Google Scholar using Hirsch's Index (h-index)

Hepatology is a competitive medical specialty with an exponential increase of publications. Key idea of this study is to highlight key authors of the specialty, trying to identify raising stars too.

BioPredictive R&D teams have used Google Scholar to identify all the publications from AASLD authors, and the citations of these publications, in order to compute h-index from Hirsch. The index "h" (a reference for the bibliographists) represents the number of publications cited at least h times in the literature. It identifies the productive authors whose work becomes a reference. The higher h-index, the more the author is a reference...BioPredictive's Press Release - Communiqué de presse de BioPredictive -

...

BioPredictive presentation

The objective of BioPredictive is to discover and develop non-invasive diagnostic tests in order to faciltate the management and treatment of patients.

After the launch of FibroTest-ActiTest in 2002, which has since become the reference standard of non-invasive diagnostic tests, BioPredictive continues to innovate with the new tests, SteatoTest, NashTest, AshTest and FibroMax... About BioPredictive - A propos de BioPredictive -

ALPHELYS Wins European Competition for Innovative Company in 2009

Octobre 20, 2009 - ALPHELYS Wins European Competition for Innovative Company in 2009.
The European competition is organized by the French Junior Chamber of Commerce.
This awards many years of great efforts of Research and Development to bring to market a n innovative platform of technologi es to improve the effectiveness of the Cancer Research and increase the chances of cure while contributing significantly to the control Health costs... ALPHELYS' Press Release - version française du communiqué de presse d'ALPHELYS -

About ALPHELYS

ALPHELYS' mission is to design, develop and market innovative solutions including instruments, software and reagents for Pathology and Cytogenetics markets.

A unique concept of Integrated Solution
In research programs as well as in routine activity, one can frequently observe important losses of efficiency intimately associated to the absence of integration between the different technologies involved. Thus, one will be able to analyze a large number of samples but oppositely will be limited by its capacity to process the data generated and make conclusions. Human and financial resources will be higher for reduced result.
ALPHELYS objective is to develop top edge solutions that will allow answering to the whole problem encountered through a complete integration between all the technologies involved.
This is the unique concept of Integrated Solution.

A significant technology expertise
For many years, ALPHELYS has known to develop an important expertise in various technology domains so as to be able to design and develop Integrated Solutions. These domains are data basing and management, image acquisition, processing, archiving and distribution, sample preparation automation.
Since recently, ALPHELYS is now developing a new expertise in reagent development in partnership with renowned biomedical research institutes.
ALPHELYS R&D team head count is 9 including PhDs and software engineers specialized in image processing and data management.

A high level of laboratory needs knowledge
To maintain a high level of expertise in its domains of activity, ALPHELYS has since the beginning concentrated its efforts on 2 markets:

• Pathology,

• Cytogenetics.

ALPHELYS has been able to cumulate along the years a very good knowledge and understanding of laboratories needs and their evolution so to anticipate future technologies needs.
For each market, ALPHELYS' strategy is to bring Integrated Solutions... about ALPHELYS - Mission d'ALPHELYS -

EUCODIS Bioscience presented enzyme offering at CPhI

October 20, 2009 - Enzyme development company EUCODIS Bioscience presented its recently launched products at CPhI, a major meeting for the pharmaceutical ingredients and services industry. CPhI 2009 took place in Madrid, Spain, from October 13-15.

In 2009, EUCODIS Bioscience has launched two products and product families: a beta-lactamase, used by leading manufacturers of antibiotics for sterility testing, and its portfolio of lipases... EUCODIS Bioscience's Press Release -

EUCODIS Bioscience overview :

EUCODIS Bioscience is an industrial biotechnology company developing high-performance enzymes for industrial applications.

The Company serves customers in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and feed markets, offering

* development of novel or specific enzymes,
* development of whole biocatalytic processes,
* industrial-scale manufacture of enzymes... EUCODIS Bioscience's overview -

MilleGen : publication of a paper in Nucleic Acids Research

August 2009, MilleGen announces the publication of a paper entitled "Alternative-splicing-based bicistronic vectors for ratio-controlled protein expression and application to recombinant antibody production" in Nucleic Acids Research (constructs that allow a ratio-controlled expression of proteins of interest in stably transfected cell lines. [PubMed]

...

About

MilleGen S. A. established in October 1999 is a french biotech company specialized in discovery and genetic engineering of antibody.

MilleGen won the national research innovation agency (ANVAR) prize for two consecutive years, 1999 and 2000. The initial goal of MilleGen was to use its proprietary MutaGen technology (a Direct Molecular Evolution technology) to establish a protein diversity platform essential for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies developing novel proteins for use as therapeutic agents, in diagnostics or for industrial or agricultural applications.

Since 2002, MilleGen has focused on antibodies, their engineering and their development as therapeutic and/or diagnostic molecules. This evolution has been supported by advances in the monoclonal antibodies field in terms of their use as therapeutic molecules as well as in the development of new engineering technologies.

In line with this evolution, MilleGen has developed a technological platform dedicated to the identification and development of fully human antibodies destined for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The tools developed by MilleGen allow an intervention at all stages of antibody development, from the generation of the candidate antibody up to the production of the whole antibody via phases of optimisation by genetic engineering.


Through the technological platform for antibody development, MilleGen strives to be internationally renowned as a major player in the design of therapeutic proteins (new therapeutic targets) and more particularly of human recombinant antibodies on behalf of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and also in the development of its own molecules... (About MilleGen)

TxCell : The collaboration project with TxCell, TcLand, INSERM U844/CHRU Montpellier, has been approuved

July , 2009 - The collaboration project with TxCell, TcLand, INSERM U844/CHRU Montpellier, has been approuved by the French Public Institutions for the development of Tr1 cell-based technology in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. [Txcell's news]



About TxCell

Based in Sophia-Antipolis, a large business park near Nice in France, TxCell is a biotechnology company founded in 2001 which is developing new therapies to cure inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

The natural balance between effector T cells and regulatory T cells is essential for the immune system to control autoimmunity against self or environmental antigens.
Its dysregulation leads to uncontrolled development of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. TxCell’s strategy aims to regenerate this immunologic equilibrium by bringing type 1 T regulatory cells to the body.

Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis are autoimmune chronic diseases which require alternative shock and long-term treatments. Current drug therapy for serious cases involves steroids and immunosuppressants which broadly suppress the immune response.

TxCell’s proposed therapy aims to suppress the inflammation and induce a tolerogenic environment within the inflamed tissues by a regenerative process of the immune balance.

Thus, regulatory Tr1 cells treatment is believed to act directly at the level of the cause of autoimmune disorders, the dysregulated immune regulation.