Healthcare industry

Atriva Therapeutics - 21/10/2020

COVID-19 pioneer drug in Phase II clinical trial – with double the power

The effective treatment of people with severe COVID-19 is a major goal during the corona pandemic. ATR-002, an oral small molecule that targets RNA viruses such as influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2, has a dual effect: it impairs viral propagation and also has an immunomodulatory effect. And what’s more, due to its unique cellular mechanism of action, the efficacy of Atrivia Therapeutics’ drug candidate is not reduced by virus mutations and…

Press release - 02/02/2012

Colorectal cancer: Phase II results with cancer vaccine IMA910 are positive

immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer, announced positive results from its Phase II clinical trial with IMA910 in patients with advanced colorectal cell carcinoma (CRC) which were presented at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in San Francisco. IMA910 comprises 13 tumor-associated…

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 - 28/05/2009

CureVac Begins Clinical Study with mRNA Vaccine

CureVac GmbH announced that the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, the German regulatory authority for medicinal products, has approved the Clinical Trial Application (CTA) to begin a Phase I clinical study with RNActive® derived mRNA vaccine CV9201. The vaccine will be tested in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who have been pre-treated with different therapies.

Press release - 09/01/2012

Apogenix Raises 7.5 Million Euros to Further Advance APG101 to Treat Glioblastoma and other Tumors

The biopharmaceutical company Apogenix GmbH today announced the successful completion of a € 7.5 million financing round led by dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG (dievini). Other investors include the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the founders and the executive management team of Apogenix. These funds will enable Apogenix to further advance the phase II clinical trial of APG101 to treat Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) and other…

Protein kinases are a major focus of modern cancer research. Since it has become known that these enzymes play a role in the development of tumours, researchers around the world are concentrating on finding drugs to inhibit overactive protein kinases and prevent cancer cells from growing. One of these active substances is currently being tested at the Tumour Biology Centre in Freiburg as part of a worldwide phase III clinical trial.

Tumor vaccines can help the body fight cancer. Mutations in the tumor genome often lead to protein changes that are typical of cancer. A vaccine can alert the patients' immune system to these mutated proteins. For the first time, physicians and cancer researchers from Heidelberg and Mannheim have now carried out a clinical trial to test a mutation-specific vaccine against malignant brain tumors.

A Phase I clinical trial using a self-developed vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 was initiated today at the University Hospital of Tübingen. In contrast to the currently evaluated vaccine candidates against COVID-19, the vaccine CoVAC1, developed by the Department of Immunology (Director Prof. Hans-Georg Rammensee) at the University of Tübingen, aims specifically at the induction of a T-cell-mediated immune response against SARS-COV-2.

Dossier - 10/11/2014

Cell and gene therapies: from bench to bedside

While cell therapy has become standard treatment for a number of blood cancers, most cell and gene therapy approaches for the treatment of hereditary and metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer are still in the experimental phases or early clinical trials. However, recent successes give rise to the hope that cell and gene therapies will in future make important contributions to previously incurable diseases.

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.

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 - 05/04/2018

Crossing the valley of death with translational cancer research

It can take many decades before promising research results become therapies that have a positive effect on cancer patients. Most research projects go adrift somewhere between the laboratory and the bedside in the so-called "valley of death". Projects carried out at the DKFZ show that translational cancer research actually works.

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.

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.

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”.

The German Childhood Cancer Foundation is providing EUR 2.2m to fund the phase III clinical trial to investigate the treatment options for certain types of childhood brain cancer with a chronic course. Initiated by the Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg, the trial will compare two standard chemotherapy treatments and a targeted therapy to establish which is the most effective and well tolerated as a standard therapy for young patients.

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…

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 - 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.

Article - 22/10/2012

syneed imaging: precise visualisation of functional tissue properties

Functional medical imaging modalities are of great significance in modern medical diagnostics. Existing ways of diagnosing diseases are now being expanded with the arrival of the innovative parameter imaging method. syneed imaging uses proprietary highly sensitive software for the analysis of dynamic image data. This software complements standard methods such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging and increases the significance of…

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…

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.

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…