Healthcare industry

Dossier - 04/11/2013

Biotechnology – driver of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry

The biotech industry is the innovative driver for a pharmaceutical industry that, due to the shift from blockbluster products to personalised medicine, now depends on new concepts. The production of new drugs using genetic engineering relies on knowledge gained from genomics, proteomics and systems biology and creates new treatment strategies that combine therapy and diagnostics (i.e. companion diagnostics) to provide a specific individualised…

Press release - 21/01/2010

Open access drug discovery database launches with half a million compounds

ChEMBLdb a vast online database of information on the properties and activities of drugs and drug-like small molecules and their targets was launched on January 18 2010 with information on over half a million compounds. The data lie at the heart of translating information from the human genome into successful new drugs in the clinic.

Article - 25/06/2012

Cannabidiol for the treatment of schizophrenic psychoses

A hemp compound has been shown to increase the effect of the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide in the human brain, thus reducing the delusions associated with psychotic diseases. Studies carried out by Prof. Markus Leweke from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim involving patients with acute schizophrenic attacks show that the plant compound is better tolerated than currently approved antipsychotic drugs.

CureVac AG, a leading clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of pioneering mRNA therapeutics, and Arcturus Therapeutics Ltd. (NASDAQ:ARCT), an RNA medicines company, today announced they have entered into a broad strategic collaboration to jointly discover, develop and commercialize novel messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics.

Organisers and more than 300 participants were very enthusiastic about the European BioFine life sciences congress recently held in Freiburg. Four different life sciences conferences were organised . Freiburg will also host BioFine 2009.

Dr. Pitter Huesgen Dr. Michael Strerath and Dr. Carl Kübler have been awarded this years Nycomed Award. The Award which is worth a total of 15000 distinguishes outstanding doctoral theses in the fields of biology chemistry and physics.

Press release - 25/06/2010

Vetter to invest further millions in the construction of a modern centre for visual inspection and logistics in Ravensburg

Ravensburg-based Vetter is expanding further. Last Friday, Vetter, a specialist in aseptically pre-filled drug-delivery systems, held a ceremony to break the ground for the construction of a new centre for visual inspection and logistics. Together with representatives from politics and industry, the company’s executives broke the ground for the new facility, which is estimated to cost more than 30 million euros. The construction of the new centre…

The Early Discovery department of the research-based pharmaceutical company Nycomed GmbH deals with early drug research from the identification of targets to the generation of lead structures. This process involves high-throughput drug screening. On behalf of www.bio-pro.de Michael Statnik talked with Dr. Stefanie Polej about the process of the automated analysis of molecule activities in the Constance-based company.

Rentschler Biopharma SE, a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biopharmaceuticals, today announced an agreement to serve as CDMO partner for BioNTech. As an initial project, Rentschler Biopharma will be responsible for key aspects of cGMP (current good manufacturing practice) drug substance manufacturing of BNT162b2, the mRNA-based vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 that is being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

Article - 11/02/2013

Quality management: burden or opportunity?

Companies are facing increasing demands. Globalisation and an increasingly quality-conscious market increase competition and pricing pressure. To remain globally competitive companies need a product and service quality that will satisfy the customer in the long term. Alexander Cansier managing director of OrgaConnect GmbH has specialised in the support of small and medium-sized companies in the life sciences pharmaceutical and medical technology…

Germans like natural solutions and show a marked preference for medicines made from St. John’s wort, valerian, devil’s claw or Marian Thistle. However, when taking herbal medicines people are well advised to be cautious: "herbal" does not automatically mean safe, warns Thomas Simmet, pharmacologist from the University Hospital of Ulm.

Press release - 29/06/2009

Research Prize for Clinical Pharmacology in Ulm

Julia Kirchheiner, a professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the Institute of Natural Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Ulm, in Germany, was awarded the Utrecht Award for Excellence in Pharmaceutical Research, 2009. The international prize is awarded once every two years to non-University of Utrecht scientists who have a proven record over years of excellent research vision and leadership of improving drug therapy or safety.

Strasbourg, France based NovAliX SAS today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in Graffinity Pharmaceuticals GmbH of Heidelberg, Germany, a leading fragment based drug discovery services company. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Press release - 04/05/2011

Vetter’s Chicago Facility Now Accepting Projects

Vetter, a leading provider of aseptic prefilled drug-delivery systems, announced that its Chicago facility is accepting client projects. Located at the Illinois Science + Technology Park in Skokie, Illinois, the site supports preclinical through phase II products.

Press release - 19/01/2010

Affimed Therapeutics AG Completes Move Into Drug Development

Affimed Therapeutics AG, the therapeutic antibody company from Heidelberg, announced today that it is now concentrating all activities on the exclusive development of its in-house drug candidates derived from the company's proprietary TandAb technology platform. In line with this, the Company has spun-out its antibody discovery activities into a new company: AbCheck s.r.o, (Plzen, Czech Republic).

Article - 15/03/2010

Campaign to eradicate malaria

After many decades, efforts to develop an effective vaccine against malaria have finally brought researchers closer to their goal. However, the goal of eradicating malaria completely can only be reached through a complex strategy, to which researchers from Heidelberg are making intensive contributions.

Heidelberg neurobiologists decode central mechanism of degenerative processes in the brains of mouse models and develop new principle for therapeutic agents.

Press release - 08/08/2012

Apogenix: APG101 Exceeds Expectations with Controlled Phase II Clinical Trial

The biopharmaceutical company Apogenix GmbH announced today that the phase II clinical proof of concept trial with APG101 as treatment of recurrent glioblastoma has met and exceeded expectations in the final analysis of the data. In this randomized controlled clinical study the patients were treated either with a combination of APG101 plus radiotherapy (APG101+RT group) or radiotherapy alone (RT group). The primary objective of the trial was to…

Article - 19/11/2009

Cellzome - kinase inhibitors for therapy

Cellzome is a privately-owned biotechnology company which develops new drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases at its two company sites in Heidelberg (Germany) and Cambridge (UK).

Article - 22/03/2010

IBR Inc.: Dual strategy for safe and effective drugs

IBR Inc. a science-based provider of preclinical and clinical services specialises in inflammatory diseases. The analyses it carries out for the pharmaceutical and biotech sector help exclude potential side effects of specific drug candidates early in the development process.

Article - 17/10/2011

Papillomaviruses as cancer-causing agents and how they can be fought off

Studies presented at the recent International Papillomavirus Conference in Berlin demonstrate that vaccination can prevent infection with the types of HPV that cause the majority of cervical cancers. New improved vaccines to prevent HPV infections as well as therapeutic vaccines that are effective in people that are already infected are currently being developed. In addition, research has shown that other cancers can also be caused by infective…

Article - 15/03/2010

The first active immunisations against cancer

The first anti-cancer vaccines were developed to prevent women from becoming infected with papillomaviruses and to protect them against cervical cancer. The development of vaccines can be traced back to the work of Nobel Laureate Harald zur Hausen and his colleagues at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. But more development is required in the field of anti-cancer vaccines and this is why researchers worldwide are working on vaccines…

Vaccine development - 25/05/2021

Vaccines – a beacon of hope in the fight against pandemics

Having long been considered less lucrative for the big pharmaceutical companies, vaccine development is taking off in an unforeseen way in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial support is flooding in and all kinds of vaccine development strategies are being deployed. Among the winners in the competition for effective coronavirus vaccines are vaccines based on RNA technology. The development of much-needed vaccines against many other…

Article - 07/01/2014

BioMed X GmbH - An innovation centre in Heidelberg at the interface between academia and industry

BioMed X GmbH, founded in Heidelberg in March 2013, and Merck KGaA from Darmstadt have established a new way of fostering innovation at the interface of academic biomedical research and pharmaceutical industry-based research. Teams of top young and talented scientists from leading academic institutions worldwide carry out product-oriented research and development projects that are funded by the industry and for which they receive guidance from…

Article - 13/02/2012

Emcid Biotech GmbH: mosses as gold mines

Mosses are a great source of molecules that offer protection against microorganisms dehydration and other stress factors but it is a potential that has yet to be fully exploited. Freiburg-based Emcid Biotech GmbH is developing a platform for the identification development and industrial production of natural substances and enzymes of lower plants in particular those of mosses.