Healthcare industry

Article - 14/09/2020

Medicinal cannabis to be grown in Germany

Anyone who thinks hemp is just an inconspicuous plant, whose ingredients can be used, at best, as an intoxicant, can quickly be proven wrong. Besides being used as a valuable raw material for textiles and building materials, the plant has great potential as a medicinal drug. The CANNABIS-NET network, coordinated by the University of Hohenheim, has been set up to establish the basis for producing medicinal hemp in Germany.

Bioinspired technologies - 03/04/2020

Diagnostics with molecular scissors – is this also possible for on-site COVID-19 tests?

The CRISPR-Cas gene-editing technology is one of the most important developments in molecular biology in recent years. It utilises molecular scissors with which nucleic acids can be cut and edited almost arbitrarily. Researchers in Freiburg, Germany have now successfully used the technology for diagnostic purposes. They are currently working intensively on expanding the system to enable it to detect genome sequences of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Article - 24/01/2019

Scientists to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wastewater

In Germany, around 1,500 tonnes of antibiotics per year are administered to humans and animals. As a result, more and more bacteria are developing resistance to common antibiotics. As part of HyReKA, a cooperative project funded by the BMBF, scientists led by Professor Thomas Schwartz from the KIT are investigating how antibiotic-resistant pathogens spread and how they can be prevented from doing so.

Expert interview - 16/01/2019

Cybersecurity is an important issue for the pharmaceutical industry

In an increasingly interconnected world, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors need to be aware of cybersecurity threats in manufacturing. We talked about these threats with Holger Mettler who is in charge of computer system validation and cybersecurity at Exyte (formerly M + W), a global enterprise that designs, engineers and constructs complex manufacturing facilities and buildings for the life sciences industry.

Article - 10/01/2019

Stocktaking and recommendations for action: the BBAW’s fourth gene technology report

In the new gene technology report, the interdisciplinary working group of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) takes stock of gene technology developments in Germany during the past few decades, and discusses the societal, legal and ethical challenges associated with these technologies in the future. The report is highly topical due to the controversy surrounding the ruling of the European Court of Justice on CRISPR/Cas9 genome…

Anniversary - 12/12/2018

15 years of BIOPRO: Pooling competencies – pushing innovations

This is the leitmotif of BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH, which was founded in 2003. 15 years is a good time to pause for a moment and take a look at BIOPRO’s work and achievements. As a central point of contact and wholly-owned subsidiary of the Baden-Württemberg government whose main objective is to promote networking, BIOPRO knows only too well that progress is not made alone, but in collaboration with others.

Plant breeding - 19/11/2018

Tobacco for health

Plants can be used as biofactories to produce valuable active ingredients such as proteins, antibodies, dyes or vaccines. A project called Newcotiana aims to re-position the existent tobacco industry infrastructure. The project partners, including Prof. Dr. Holger Puchta from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, use modern breeding methods to develop tobacco varieties with new capabilities.

Expert interview - 17/10/2018

Biologicals are becoming increasingly important to Boehringer Ingelheim

Biopharmaceuticals are playing an increasingly important role in Boehringer Ingelheim’s development pipeline. Visible evidence of this is the company’s Biologicals Development Centre (BDC) that is currently being constructed in Boehringer Ingelheim’s Biberach plant and will bring the company’s process development under one roof by early 2020. Walter Pytlik from BIOPRO talked with Dr. Ing. Ralf Schumacher about the new centre.

Two Clusters of Excellence for the University of Freiburg: Biological Signalling Studies and Bioinspired Materials Research. It is a major boost to cutting-edge research in Freiburg: in the current Excellence Strategy competition, scientists at the University of Freiburg have been granted two Clusters of Excellence, CIBSS – Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies, and livMatS – Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials…

Article - 25/04/2018

Resistance, immunity and malaria vaccination

People who have survived a malaria infection often develop immunity to the disease. International malaria research is aimed at exploiting a person's natural immunity in order to treat malaria effectively and avoid resistance to previously effective drugs. These new approaches also raise hopes that one day countries at high risk of malaria may be able to eradicate the devastating disease.

Article - 20/02/2018

New strategies against malaria

Malaria, which is a mosquito-borne disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, is still one of the worst infectious human diseases. The parasites have developed resistance against previously effective drugs and new strategies to combat malaria are urgently needed.

Article - 07/06/2017

Industry 4.0: Pfizer opens continuous manufacturing plant in Freiburg

On 23rd May 2017, Pfizer officially opened a modern continuous manufacturing plant in Freiburg, thus setting a new technological standard for tablet production. A groundbreaking ceremony to inaugurate Pfizer’s new PCMM plant was held at the same time. Pfizer is investing around 50 million euros in the Freiburg facility.

Article - 24/05/2017

Ralf Reski: from moss to humans

Prof. Dr. Ralf Reski conducts basic research at the University of Freiburg. But this is not all the well-known plant biotechnologist does. He also wants his ideas to become concrete products. This is why he established Greenovation Biotech GmbH, a company which produces novel drugs in mosses. The company’s first moss-produced drug candidate – Moss-aGal – a recombinant form of human α-galactosidase, is now being tested in a phase I clinical trial.…

Dossier - 17/01/2017

Phytopharmaceuticals – fighting disease with natural substances

Phytopharmaceuticals are herbal medicines whose efficacy is down to one or several plant substances or active ingredients. They have been used for treating diseases since time immemorial. This traditional knowledge is still the basis for many medicinal products made from plants or parts thereof. Herbal medicines have been produced in Baden-Württemberg for many generations.

Konstanz, Germany, November 29, 2016 and Osaka, Japan, November 30, 2016 – Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company Limited, (“Takeda”) today announced that it will invest more than 100 Million Euros to build a new manufacturing plant for its dengue vaccine candidate in Singen, Germany.

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…

Expert interview - 14/11/2016

Fighting diseases with plant-derived active compounds

Herbal medicines have a long tradition in Germany. In an interview with Dr. Ariane Pott from BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Professor Dr. Michael Wink, Director of the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg, highlighted that plants produce compounds that are effective against microorganisms and that can also be put to good use in the treatment of human diseases.

Article - 08/11/2016

Towards at-home genetic testing

The ability to detect a broad range of conditions and modifications in human, animal, plant and pathogen genes is highly important in the field of medicine for diagnosing diseases and starting therapy as quickly as possible. Chemists at the University of Konstanz have now developed a genetic test that does not need to be carried out in the laboratory and can be evaluated with the naked eye, similar to a pregnancy test. The test would therefore be…

Article - 10/10/2016

Teva plans the large-scale production of monoclonal antibodies in Ulm

Teva is investing heavily in its biotechnological production site in Ulm. On behalf of BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg, Walter Pytlik spoke with Dr. Hermann Allgaier, CEO of Teva Biotech, about the importance of biotechnology for the Group and about Teva in general. The company is headquartered in Israel.

Article - 16/06/2016

Microfluidic biofermenter mimics plant tissue

It is estimated that as many as one million secondary plant metabolites can be used as medical agents. Plants produce these compounds to aid their growth and development as well as to discourage herbivores from eating them. However, it is still very difficult, or even impossible, to produce secondary plant metabolites industrially. Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are now developing a microfluidic bioreactor to make…

Retrospective Meet & Match Pharmaceutical Process Technology - 07/04/2016

Speed dating for Pharmaceutical Process Technology – a business flirt at Bosch

The speed dating format is no longer just a popular and simple dating method for lonely hearts, but has also become a rewarding way for establishing new business contacts and connections quickly and efficiently. BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg chose speed networking, as speed dating is called in the corporate world, for its recent Meet & Match event on pharmaceutical process technology, which took place on 15th March 2016 with the support of Bosch…

Article - 19/01/2016

Innate immune defence: using peptides against fungi and bacteria

Part of the human immune defence relies on antimicrobial peptides. These peptides, so-called defensins, are present in the gastrointestinal tract where they play a role in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease. Prof. Jan Wehkamp and his team of researchers at the University Hospital in Tübingen study how this knowledge can be put to good use for the treatment of Crohn’s and other diseases.

Article - 23/11/2015

Double-secured immune protection against plant attackers

Plants have sophisticated defence mechanisms to help them fight off all kinds of pathogens. A group of researchers led by Dr. Gabriel Schaaf at the University of Tübingen’s ZMBP has now discovered that plants’ immune response is more similar to the innate immune system of humans and animals than previously thought.