Healthcare industry

Article - 07/03/2017

KiTZ: Hopp Children’s Tumour Center at NCT Heidelberg

The Heidelberg University Hospital and the DKFZ have established the "Hopp Children's Tumor Center at NCT Heidelberg" (KiTZ) where doctors, scientists, nursing staff and other specialists work side by side on new diagnostic and therapeutic options to help children with cancer.

CureVac GmbH has entered into a partnership with the Department of Urology University of Florida Gainesville U.S. to jointly advance its lead candidate CV9103 into the clinical development. The alliance covers preclinical studies and a US phase III trial.

Affimed GmbH - 01/07/2020

"Innate cell engagers" to fight cancer

In the fight against tumour cells, d Affimed GmbH from Heidelberg relies entirely on the weapons of the innate immune system. Affimed has developed special innate cell engagers, which are bispecific antibodies that recognise tumour cells and bring them together with natural killer cells and macrophages of the innate immune system, which then kill the tumour cells. Clinical trials using the AFM13 molecule are ongoing.

Press release - 02/11/2011

Using Viruses to Fight Brain Tumors

Parvoviruses can enter and kill cancer cells, but they do not cause disease in humans. Since 1992, scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have been studying these viruses with the aim of developing a viral therapy against dangerous brain tumors that are almost impossible to treat.

Article - 30/08/2010

Bodensee Brustzentrum offers effective breast cancer prevention services

The two Brustzentrum Bodensee (Lake Constance Breast Centre) sites at the Hospital in Constance and the Women’s Hospital in Friedrichshafen have a principal goal: to enable the best possible early detection of all types of breast cancer, to reduce the morbidity and mortality of breast cancer patients and to increase survival rates by offering ultra-modern breast cancer prevention measures.

Article - 21/03/2011

Immunotherapy: the rocky road to clinical application

Hans-Georg Rammensee has one major goal: he wants to contribute to the successful application of immunotherapy in clinical settings and is convinced that this will only be possible once individualised immunotherapies are used. Individualised immunotherapy refers to the induction of a specific immune response against specific tumour-associated antigens. Rammensee has made major progress in this area and is now focused on overcoming the obstacles…

Expert interview - 14/11/2016

The great untapped potential of herbal medicines

Baden-Württemberg is home to a large number of companies that produce herbal medicines, i.e. preparations made from plant extracts rather than pure compounds. In an interview with Dr. Ariane Pott from BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg, Professor Dr. Michael Wink, Director of the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg, explains how these special extracts are placed on the market and how they differ from medicines…

Under the agreement Nycomed will receive the exclusive worldwide rights to develop manufacture and commercialise the subcutaneous formulation of veltuzumab for the treatment of all non-cancer indications.

Article - 18/01/2016

New approaches in the life sciences industry: innovative strategies for courageous companies

For many years, the pharmaceutical industry has been investing increasing amounts of money in the development of new products. Dr. Friedemann Taut, a specialist in anaesthesia, intensive care, emergency medicine and clinical pharmacology as well as founder and managing director of Taut Science & Service Ltd. a consultanca for Medical Device and Drug Development, explains in the following interview why small- and mid-sized companies can stay a…

Company profile - 04/09/2017

Mireca: a new drug for stopping the progression of eye diseases

A team of researchers from several EU countries has developed a new drug that stops the progression of hereditary retinal diseases. The project partners founded a company called Mireca Medicines GmbH in the city of Tübingen to bring the drug to market.

Article - 09/01/2012

Biomarkers to combat lung cancer

A biomarker-driven personalised therapeutic approach to lung cancer is possible – this is the conclusion reached by the BATTLE trial. The preliminary results of the trial were summarised by scientists from the Thoraxklinik at Heidelberg University Hospital in the May 2011 issue of “Clinical Investigation”.

Press release - 07/08/2012

immatics announces publication of IMA901 cancer vaccine data in Nature Medicine

immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer, today announced that key data covering the scientific and clinical development of its lead cancer vaccine, IMA901, have been published in Nature Medicine. The paper highlights that renal cell carcinoma patients experience longer survival times when their immune system produces an immune response to…

Press release - 24/01/2011

Synimmune - Close cooperation cuts new cancer drug development time

A development project from Synimmune GmbH, founded in July 2010, made a big impression on the panel of assessors at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). So much so, that the company was awarded EUR 2.5 million as part of the GO-Bio biotechnology start-up scheme.

Press release - 21/10/2009

Meyenburg Award 2009 for the First Targeted Anti-Cancer Drug

The 2009 Meyenburg Award for Cancer Research with an award sum of 50,000 euros goes to American blood cancer expert, Brian Druker. The Meyenburg Foundation honors Druker as a pioneer of molecularly targeted cancer therapies for developing the leukemia drug Imatinib (Gleevec). Druker’s work has turned chronic myeloid leukemia from a deathly threat into a treatable disease for many patients today. The Meyenburg-Award has been presented on…

CureVac AG, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on optimized mRNA, today announced that the German Health Authority Paul-Ehrlich-Institute (PEI) and the Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) have approved the Phase 1 clinical trial for its vaccine program to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. The trial will be conducted in Germany and Belgium.

Press release - 24/07/2012

Tailor-made viruses for enhanced cancer therapy

Parvoviruses specifically kill cancer cells and are already in the clinical trial stage for treating malignant brain tumors. However, as they can also infect normal cells - without doing any harm to them - a large portion of viruses is lost during therapy. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have now modified parvoviruses in such a way that they initially lose their ability to infect cells. In…

Press release - 10/01/2012

Apogenix receives additional 2.3 million Euros BMBF grant as partner of the biotech cluster Rhine-Neckar

The biopharmaceutical company Apogenix GmbH today announced that it has received an additional € 2.3 million BMBF grant (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) for the further advancement of its lead substance APG101. Apogenix will use the proceeds to develop APG101 for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). More specifically, the grant will be used for the production of clinical material and for the development of a…

Affimed Therapeutics AG announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to the human recombinant antibody AFM13 for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma. The designation entitles Affimed to seven-year market exclusivity in the US upon approval of this drug candidate. AFM13 is a novel, bispecific antibody based on Affimed's proprietary TandAb technology.

Article - 16/01/2012

Manfred Jung: drug discovery and the epigenetic code

Prof. Dr. Manfred Jungs team at the University of Freiburg are chemical epigeneticists whose research involves the development of methods that enable them to identify and optimise new therapeutic drugs which are able to alter the epigenetic code of cancer and other cell types. The team use a perfidious worm for their research.

Article - 22/11/2010

LEUKONET provides evidence for new therapies for CNS diseases

The concept of evidence-based medicine stipulates that the efficacy of any therapy must be shown in large clinical studies before being used for treating patients. However this is a requirement that cannot be realistically fulfilled for rare diseases due to the small number of people affected. To redress this situation in the case of leukodystrophies rare metabolic disorders of the nervous system that affect only a small number of people in…

Article - 24/07/2017

Cancer medicine development as a science and industry partnership

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Bayer AG are collaborating on a strategic partnership focusing on the development of innovative cancer therapies. The two partners have developed an active substance which selectively blocks a mutation of a metabolic enzyme that occurs in certain types of cancer. The substance has been successfully tested in preclinical studies and is now also being tested in a clinical trial on patients with brain…

Article - 18/05/2015

Parvoviruses can destroy brain tumours

Parvoviruses such as H-1PV have been shown to selectively attack and destroy human cancer cells. However, they are unable to replicate in healthy human cells. A preliminary clinical trial is currently being carried out to assess the suitability of parvoviruses for treating malignant brain cancer. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now discovered the cause of the selective effect of H-1PV. The finding helps identify…

Article - 10/01/2014

HybridKnife – an instrument for future endoscopy

Endoscopic and minimally invasive keyhole surgery is increasingly replacing open surgery. For many years now, patients have reaped the benefits of such treatment techniques, which are less stressful than open surgery and usually leave no scarring. People can leave hospital just a few days after treatment, which also contributes to cost savings in healthcare. Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a new technique that enables the endoscopic…

Article - 12/09/2011

TransLimm brings new immunotherapies to patients more rapidly

With the establishment of the Center for Translational Immunology TransLimm the University of Tübingen has initiated a network whose objective is to quickly and effectively transfer innovative therapies into clinical application. Patients suffering from acute leukaemia might soon benefit from therapies involving antibodies optimized by recombinant antibody technology.

After a successful start of the 2009 business year, Boehringer Ingelheim is expecting their sales growth to outpace the world pharmaceutical market; for the tenth time in succession. As announced by this second-largest German pharmaceuticals producer, the company posted growth in local currency (+ 8.3 per cent) over the previous year in the first six months of 2009. Net sales amounted to 6,388 million euro.