Graftys BCP : FDA Approval

08/31/03 - Graftys® BCP, synthetic bone void filler, has been FDA approved for its indications in orthopaedics.
The Graftys® BCP has had EC accreditation since January 2007.
About Graftys
Graftys is a Young Innovative Company specializing in bone tissue engineering. Graftys has strong expertise in biomaterials synthesis and works in several original directions with a view to have eventually one of the widest product offers on the market... Graftys' Press Release - Communiqué de Presse de Graftys -

Cytheris : Publication of IL-7 Oncology Data in The Journal of Experimental Medicine

Paris – June 26, 2008 – Cytheris SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development of new therapies for immune modulation, announced the publication of data from a phase 1 dose escalation study evaluating the effects of IL-7 therapy on human lymphocytes in subjects with non-hematologic, nonlymphoid cancer refractory to standard therapy. The results of this study, performed in collaboration with U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigators lead by Claude Sportès, Crystal Mackall and Ronald Gress, support the potential of the IL-7 investigational product as an immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with impaired immunity due to physiologic (age), iatrogenic (chemotherapy or
transplantation) or pathologic (HIV) lymphodepletion...
... About Cytheris –
Cytheris SA is a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development of new therapies for immune modulation. These drugs aim at reconstituting and enhancing the immune system of patients suffering from cancer, chronic viral or bacterial infections such as HCV and HIV, or lympho-depleting treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).
The company operates from its headquarters and laboratories in Issy-les-Moulineaux, a suburb of Paris, and its U.S. subsidiary in Rockville, Maryland... [PDF] Cytheris' Press Release - PDF du Communiqué de Presse de Cytheris -

MEDIT first release of a pipeline pilot component collection

05/28/2008 - MEDIT first release of a pipeline pilot component collection - MEDIT has joined others software editors in the Accelrys Independent Software Vendors (ISV) partner program.
This first release consists of three modules: MED-SuMo server, MED-Hybridise Lead discovery and MED-Hybridise Lead optimization. The modules facilitate our target based ligand generation protocol: populating a binding site with 3D fragments and generating/optimizing leads... MEDIT's Press Release -

Genewave : Launch of the First Real-Time Microarray Platform: HybLive

PALAISEAU, France, May 5, 2008 -- Genewave S.A.S. announced that it will introduce HybLive™, its fully automated microarray platform, at AMT Conference in Barcelona on May the 7th and 8th. HybLive™ combines hybridization, washing, melting and real-time fluorescence imaging in a compact benchtop package.

HybLive™ is the first open microarray platform allowing real-time measurement of the on-slide hybridization and melting of target molecules to thousands of probes simultaneously. It enables a variety of applications such as rapid verification and validation of probe design, environmental sample monitoring, multiplex on-chip melting curves determination, on-chip DNA and protein interaction studies... With its high sensitivity and excellent discriminative power, HybLive™ also enables reliable genotyping studies and even SNP discrimination using unamplified genomic DNA... Genewave's Press Release -

Ariana : new KEM multi-objective data analysis and decision support software with enhanced chemical structure analysis and predictive capabilities

Paris, France. March 12th, 2008 – Paris based Ariana Pharma announced that it has released a new version of its multi-objective dat analysis and decision support software KEM®, bringing enhanced 2D visualization capabilities for identifying relations that link chemical structural features with multiple end points. In addition, the learning and prediction processes have been streamlined into a dedicated KEM Predict module for accurate prediction of end points. KEM is now also available through a command line interface, readily allowing the integration with a large variety of platforms.
The new release of KEM® fully supports visualization of SMILES descriptors. Enhanced filtering capacities include substructure searches. Complex relations identified by KEM can be easily exported to a variety of formats including PDF. Improved molecular table include new tools for easy selection of molecules...
... About Ariana Pharma
Ariana™ Pharma delivers pioneering multi objectives decision support tools to dramatically accelerate and improve the discovery, development and safety of pharmaceutical products. Its KEM® knowledge extraction and management platform comprehensively mines data, including data other systems neglect, and helps scientists take simultaneous decisions involving multiple criteria and objectives. The Company has established a rapidly growing software business through collaboration and licensing agreements with some of the largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Ariana was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Paris, France... [PDF] Ariana Pharma's Press Release -

Biocortech Issued Key US Patent for a Small-Molecule Antidepressant

Paris, March 10, 2008 - Biocortech announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has approved the issuance of a patent for a family of compounds, including BC-22, under development for the treatment of depression. The patent (Application No 11/581,950) was filed on Oct 13, 2006, and is titled, "Derivatives of 14,15-dihydro 20,21-dinoreburnamenin-14-ol, and applications thereof".

Clinical depression affects more than 20 million American adults each year. Although available antidepressant medications are effective for a large segment of the population with depression, symptoms may continue despite multiple treatment strategies in 10 to 30 percent of those patients. In addition, current treatment strategies also face other issues, such as delayed onset, dose-limiting side effects, and tolerance/dependence. Thus, there is a clear need for novel depression treatments...
...About Biocortech
Biocortech is a biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery and development of novel biomarkers and treatments for psychiatric disorders. Biocortech has proprietary assays and technologies to identify biomarkers and develop compounds that can safely and effectively identify and treat diseases such as depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia and cognitive deficits. Biocortech has a strong clinical advisory group and drug development capabilities, enabling us to move diagnostic platforms and drugs into humans quickly and efficiently. Biocortech is based in Paris, France... Biocortech's Press Release -

Cellectis : publication of a paper entitled "Computer design of obligate heterodimer meganucleases allows efficient cutting of custom DNA sequences"..

April 22nd 2008 - Cellectis SA, the rational genome engineering company specializing in the production of meganuclease recombination systems and in meganuclease engineering, announced the publication of a new paper in the high-profile Nucleic Acids Research journal (Fajardo-Sanchez et al., Computer design of obligat heterodimer meganucleases allows efficient cutting of custom DNA sequences, Nucleic Acids Res. 2008, Feb. 14th [Epub ahead of print])...
... In this study, researcher from CRG modified two engineered meganucleases from Cellectis’ collection, in order to improve their specificity. Most engineered meganucleases so far are heterodimers derived from the dimeric I-CreI protein. Heterodimer formation is obtained by coexpression of two monomers in the targeted cell, and is actually associated with the formation of two homodimers recognizing different targets. This results in a loss of specificity, which can be solved only by the suppression of homodimer formation. To address this problem, CRG researchers have modified the protein-protein interface of the two proteins in order to abolish homodimerisation. This design could in principle be applied to every and any heterodimer produced by Cellectis... [PDF] Cellectis' Press Release - PDF du Communiqué de Presse de Cellectis -