Connecting Life Sciences Highlights 01/2015€¦ · LISAvienna – Connecting Life Sciences LISAvienna is the joint life science platform operated by austria wirtschaftsservice and

Connecting Life Sciences

page 3

page 7

Life Science City Vienna:Broad Expertise in Cancer Research

Future Hospital Trend:Fully Automated Blood Analyses

ORIGIMM Biotechnology GmbH offers a better way to select highly protective antigens for vaccine production. Its protection-based vaccine discovery platform is available for part-nering and applied for the development of the world wide first therapeutic vaccine against acne vulgaris.

Investin Vienna

CVTec Cerebrovascular Technologies GmbH develops software for neurosurgery and neuroradiology to improve life-saving operations like the filling of cerebral aneu-rysms to avoid ruptures. The first product, CoilControl3D, an occlusion rate measure-ment system, will be available soon.

EMTensor GmbH develops compact-size devices, information processing systems and services, which will lead to a breakthrough in early stroke recognition. The proactive and preventive approach uses the properties of how electromagnetic waves spread in tissues for medical imaging.

EveliQure Biotechnologies GmbH deve-lops vaccines to combat diarrheal diseases. The company’s technology platform is based on a live attenuated Shigella vaccine strain able to induce broad protection against shigellosis. It is suitable for expression of diarrheal antigens from other pathogens.

INOXIA Lifesciences GmbH focuses on peroxidase inhibitor development for the treat-

ment of autoenzyme-induced diseases such as bronchial asthma and Ulcerative colitis. Computer-aided drug design led to the dis-covery of a substance group with block buster potential.

MITI Biosystems GmbH is specialized in the production of polycyclic peptide libraries for the discovery of peptide drugs and mimo-topes. Randomization techniques are applied to natural product peptide scaffolds in order to achieve enormously broad chemical diversity.

mySugr Inc. specializes in diabetes education and management. FDA approved, CE marked mobile applications, video based trainings and remote coachings for children appreciated by over 200.000 people worldwide prove that everyday needs of people with diabetes can be combined with style, innovation and even fun.

Vienna is a great place to live, but is also great for revolution-izing technologies and innovative services as well as promising products for the future. Interested in investing in Vienna? Keep an eye on the inspiring opportunities we present below! LISAvienna is happy to introduce you to the people in charge.

www.cvtec.atwww.emtensor.comwww.eveliqure.comwww.inoxia.atwww.mitibio.comwww.mysugr.comwww.origimm.com

© LISAvienna / Markus Schieder

Continue on page 3

Highlights 01/2015

2

Dear readers!Highlights – this is what we chose as the new title for our printed news update. It shall point out that we summarize top stories for you and that we put a spotlight on selected life sciences topics in Vienna that you should be familiar with. It of course also acts as a reminder that we do not intend to provide a comprehensive review.

This time, we draw your attention to inspiring business opportunities from biotechnology and medical device companies. We also discuss Vienna’s broad expertise in cancer research both in academia and as regards promis-ing new drug candidates. You are also invited to find out more about how mi-croparticles developed at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology in Vienna help to bring protein production at Boehringer Inhgelheim’s BioXcel-lence to the next level. Innovations linked to fully automated blood analyses in Vienna’s hospitals also take center stage in one of the articles in the spring edition of our biannual publication.

At our initiative, European investors in biotechnology convene at “BioEquity Europe” in Vienna for the first time. Managing to also attract “EuroMedtech Europe” makes us even more proud. These first-class events confirm that the life sciences companies in Vienna have some extraordinarily promising business concepts.

The success stories of the past few months covered on pages 4 and 5 pro-vide wonderful examples. New funding decisions, new deals and the an-nouncement of the construction of a new building for the IMP at the Vienna BioCenter prove that Vienna is succeeding in stabilizing the upward trend in life sciences.

But for now, enjoy reading and remember: Starting-up in the heart of Europe and expanding to Vienna pays off!

Peter Halwachs and Johannes SarxLISAvienna Executive Board

NEW: LISAvienna e-NewsletterStay updated on hottest news from the life science city Vienna!Subscribe via e-mail to [email protected]!

Life Sciences in Vienna at a Glance • 181 biotech/pharma companies with 13,300 employees• 197 medtech companies with 7,731 employees• 9,089 Million Euros revenues in total in 2012• 25 research organzations employ 14,289 people in the life sciences• 38,290 students in the life sciences, thereof 3,608 graduates• 5,733 publications in international journals

Statistics on the smart life science city Vienna! Download the Vienna Life Science Report at www.LISAvienna.at and be invited to order your free print copy at [email protected].

Our Services

Meet LISAvienna• HIMSS15 Chicago, April 12-16, 2015

• conhIT – Connecting Healthcare IT Berlin, April 14-16, 2015

• LISAvienna goes Asia WKO Austrian Showcase Life Sciences Singapore and Shanghai, May 10-18, 2015

• CMEF Spring 2015 Shanghai, May 15-18, 2015

• BioEquity Europe 2015 Vienna, May 19-20, 2015

• IN3 EuroMedtech 2015 Vienna, June 10-11, 2015

• BIO International Convention 2015 Philadelphia, June 15-18, 2015

• WKO Austrian Showcase Biotech/Pharma Israel Tel Aviv, September 6-9, 2015

• BIO-Europe 2015 Munich, November 2-4, 2015

• Medica 2015 Düsseldorf, November 16-19, 2015

In cooperation with:

LISAvienna – Connecting Life Sciences LISAvienna is the joint life science platform operated by austria wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency. On behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy and the city of Vienna, it contributes to the advancement of life sciences in Vi-enna.

LISAvienna supports innovative biotech, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies in Vienna that develop and market new prod-ucts, services and processes. The platform links these companies with development partners and key customers. As a central knowledge car-rier, LISAvienna provides input for decisions to advance the life sciences in Vienna and contributes to positioning the city of Vienna as one of the leading European innovation centers.

Please visit our website www.LISAvienna.at to learn more about Vienna as a top location for life sciences!

•

•

•

•

Information & Consulting: Tips and contacts relating to sponsorship, pri-vate financing options, infrastructure in Vienna, development partners, leading customers and internationalization

Networking & Matching: Contacts for an improved exchange of experiences and knowledge transfer as well as contact with development partners, leading customers and investors worldwide

Expertise: Analyses, background information, reports and studies relating to life sciences in Vienna

Marketing: Electronic and printed news items from the field of life sciences in Vienna

3Highlights 01/2015

Walter Krugluger, head of the Department for Laboratory Medicine, Donauspital SMZ-Ost and coodinator of the Scientific Forum at the Vienna Hospital Association

Beside the treatment of over 400,000 hospital-ized patients and over 5 million outpatients, the KAV performs investigator-driven as well as industry-driven research programs. The large cohorts of well-defined patients with widespread chron-ic diseases enable the KAV to perform high quality research in many fields and oper-ate as a strong partner in industry-driven clinical research. This led to over 150 publica-tions in peer reviewed journals in 2013.”

“Why Vienna?

The quicker the laboratory provides results from blood samples, the better patients are treated. Fully automated “highways” for blood analyses in the background save patients’ blood and time and accel-erate diagnosis and treatment in Vienna’s hospitals. They save lives and money.

Future Hospital Trend:Fully Automated Blood Analyses

One hour from the sample transfer to the submis-sion of laboratory-analyzed findings – this is the ambitious goal that has been set and met with the help of new automated systems for blood analy-ses. At Vienna’s SMZ Ost, one of the large hos-pitals run by the Wiener Krankenanstaltenverbund (Vienna Hospital Association), such a system has been installed together with Siemens. Numer-ous technological and organizational innovations paved the way to successful implementation. 220,000 samples and some 5 million analyses

are handled by the blood analyses system at SMZ Ost each year. The system already in place allows routine blood analyses, but due to a joint innova-tion with Siemens, some special analyses can also be conducted in a fully automated way. Further-more, a cooled archive has been developed for the storage of blood samples, which even allows for the automated re-analyses of samples several days after drawing blood. To ensure the system works as expected, a day a check is carried out multiple times a day using reference materials

and each analysis result is checked by the expe-rienced team. For safety, the machines along the “analyses highway” are available in pairs and are in a constantly active mode. To make sure that the 1-hour-limit is actually met a large monitor lists all samples. A color code based on the time left for analyses and checks as well as for the approval of results makes it easy for all lab members to check whether everything is on track.

www.wienkav.at

Panoptes Pharma GmbH focuses on novel therapies for the treatment of severe eye diseases. Panoptes’ clinical candidate is a selective immune-modulating inhibitor for severe and chronic uveitis. This compound also reduces abnormal blood ves-sel growth in the back of the eye.

SCARLETRED Biomedicals GmbH links bio-medical engineering and ICT. Its SCARLETRED® Vision system is the first e-medical device enabling real time monitoring and objective analysis of cu-taneous drug effects and skin diseases in pre-/clinical trials. It enables to significantly speed up biopharmaceutical drug development.

SIMCharacters GmbH breaks new ground in the development of small training simulators and combines know-how in the medical area, lifelike anatomy and high-class animation technology. The aim of SIMCharacters is to improve the quality of care of critically ill children, especially term and preterm infants.

TAmiRNA GmbH is a biopharmaceutical R&D company founded to drive the discovery and de-

velopment of microRNAs (miRNAs) as tools for diagnosis and treatment of age-associated disor-ders such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease.

Themis Bioscience GmbH recently announced successful phase 1 results for its vaccine candi-date to combat Chikungunya. The vaccine was developed in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur and is based upon a measles vaccine vector tech-nology. Tolerability, safety and neutralizing antibod-ies have been demonstrated.

TUBE Pharmaceuticals GmbH focuses on developing small molecules derived from natural products into safe and efficient drugs. The com-pany combines its toxin platforms with different conjugation-based targeting principles to create products addressing major disease areas with un-met medical needs.

VASEMA GmbH provides the world’s first non-in-vasive skin analyzer for measuring transepidermal water loss, which is certified as medical product class IIa. DermaMeter allows for quick and objec-

Continuation

Invest in Vienna

www.panoptes-pharma.comwww.scarletred.atwww.simcharacters.comwww.tamirna.com www.themisbio.comwww.tubepharma.dewww.vasema.com

tive application, e.g. for the prevention and diag-nosis of skin diseases and for monitoring wound healing.

4

Horizon Discovery Group plc acquires Haplogen Genomics GmbH for 7.7 mil-lion Euros in cash and additional assetsThe business will be renamed Horizon Genomics GmbH and will function as a wholly owned subsidiary of Horizon Discovery Group plc, expanding its laboratory and office space in Vienna.

BulletinBoard

Vienna Business Agency to fund 10 new R&D

projects within its Life Sciences Call 2014

In total, more than 2.6 million Euros have been granted to Akron

Molecules AG, Blue Sky Vaccines KG, Dr. Grossegger & Drbal GmbH,

Labdia Labordiagnostik GmbH, Marinomed Biotechnologie GmbH,

OncoQR ML OG, Platomics GmbH, and Valneva Austria GmbH.

www.viennabusinessagency.at

Roche to acquire Dutalys to augment development

of bi-specific antibodies

Dutalys specializes in the discovery and development of fully human, bi-specific

antibodies. Roche will make an upfront cash payment of 133.75 million USD

and up to 355 million USD milestone payments.

Miracor Medical Systems receives additional

funding to accelerate clinical validation and

commercialization of its PICSO® Impulse

SystemThe new investors BioMedInvest and aws Gründerfonds and the

existing investors - Earlybird Venture Capital, Delta Partners and

SHS – provided the additional investment of 4.5 million Euros.

Miracor is currently conducting several single- and multi-center

clinical trials, to further demonstrate effectiveness of the PICSO

Impulse System in improving myocardial perfusion in complement

with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in acute myocardial

infarction patients.

UCL Cancer Institute favors TissueGnostics“We have been using the TissueGnostics microscope platform and hardware, and the TissueFax and HistoQuest and TissueQuest software applications for 3 years now. I have worked in the field of academic and routine pathology and image analysis for almost forty years and there is no doubt in my mind that the TissueGnostics system provides the best option for critical examination of dye-stained sections, immunohistochemistry and immunofluores-cence at all levels.”

Geoffrey Boxer, Department of Oncology, UCL – Cancer Institute, London, UK www.TissueGnostics.com

© TissueGnostics

WWTF grants for 3 outstanding young researchers and 8 new imaging projectsChris Campbell, Martin Leeb and Jillian Peterson will join the University of Vienna and the Max F. Perutz Laboratories operated by the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna. Each position is funded with up to 1.6 million Euros. The Vienna Science and Technology Fund also strengthens the application of novel imaging technologies in biological and biomedical research projects in Vienna. In total, 4.4 million Euros have been granted to 8 research projects in 2014.

www.wwtf.at

5Highlights 01/2015

Your news placed hereVienna-based organizations are invited to e-mail news and press releases to [email protected] to contribute to LISAvienna’s digital and print media.

More newsFor more news please visit our website www.LISAvienna.at

Biomay AG reports positive phase IIB data with the innova-tive 3rd generation grass pollen allergy vaccine BM32Biomay, a global leader in allergy immunotherapy,

announced that a landmark Phase IIb study has been successfully completed with its 3rd generation grass pollen allergy vaccine BM32. The study was designed to show sustained alleviation of allergy symptoms over two consecutive grass pollen seasons.

I Vienna

IMBA: Brain model highlighted in the “10 Breakthrough Technologies List”The technology to grow three dimensional brain structures from human stem cells, has been named a top ten technology of the „MIT technology review“. Each year their list identifies the ten mile-stones from the past year that solve difficult problems or create powerful new ways of using technology.

Renée Gallo-Daniel as new Business

Lead Vaccines at Pfizer Austria

Following the completion of the takeover of the market ap-

proved vaccines from Baxter, Renée Gallo-Daniel has been

hired to head Pfizer’s Business Unit Vaccines.

Ophthalmology company Panoptes

Pharma and Mediolanum announce

license agreementPanoptes Pharma Ges.m.b.H and Mediolanum Laboratoires

Leurquin S.A. agreed on the transfer of the marketing rights to

PP-001 over two main European countries to Mediolanum. This

small molecule is in preclinical development for inflammatory eye

diseases including non-infectious uveitis.

Wellcome Trust grants Pathfinder

Award to Apeptico

Apeptico is a privately-held biotechnology company developing syn-

thetic protein structures. The Wellcome Trust grant makes it possible

to further explore the role of Apeptico’s compound ‘Enaritide’ for the

treatment of pseudohypoaldosteronism type 1b (PHA type 1b).

Valneva launches capital increase and enters sale and purchase agree-ment with Crucell Holland B.V.The capital increase for a gross amount of approximately 45 million Euros follows the acquisition of Crucell Sweden AB, Dukoral (ETEC vaccine) and a Nordics vaccine distribution business.

© Pfizer

6

Business Location Vienna.The ideal location provides the best foundation. The Vienna Business Agency therefore supports relocating and expanding companies.

Apply now for your funding at viennabusinessagency.at

Vienna supports economy.

On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Science, Re-search and Economy (BMWFW) we help you to profit from Intellectual Property Rights. Contact our consultants and explore support schemes such as the ones introduced here.

aws IP.Financing: Support for the internation-alization of patents with a non-repayable grant of max. 50% of the application costs resp. the nationalization of a patent in emerging countries and non-European growth markets such as Chi-na, USA, Mexico, India, Japan, Brazil and oth-ers. Maximum grant per invention/patent family: EUR 18,000, costs are capped for the individual countries.

austria wirschaftsservice: consistently promoting innovation

aws License.IP: Small and medium enterprises are encouraged to profit from intellectual property developed by others, especially by public research organizations. aws offers support in the analysis of technology needs, identification of technologi-cal solutions, support in licensing negotiations and funding for the costs of in-licensing or purchase of patents and know-how. Up to 50% of licensing costs can be covered by a non-repayable grant (max EUR 200,000).

aws Markt.Chancen.Check (aws Market Re-search): Market-, technology- or company data and high quality information are the key to identi-fying new marketing opportunities and new sales

www.awsg.at

Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) is the Austrian government promotional bank. aws offers Austrian companies financial assis-tance in the form of loans, guarantees, grants and/or equity as well as consultancy services from the start-up to the expansion phase.

markets, locating patenting strategies or planning new business. This service is free of charge to SMEs. Costs for aws market research are gener-ally between EUR 180 and EUR 2,500.

7

Cancer is an undefeated threat. There is a great demand for im-proved diagnostics and better therapeutic approaches worldwide. Vienna is Austria’s hot spot for cancer research and product devel-opment. Excellency in research is combined with innovative compa-nies offering promising pipelines.

Life Science City Vienna:Broad Expertise in Cancer Research

Cancer research represents one of five research clusters set-up by the Medical University of Vienna. MedUni Vienna is not only the largest medical organization in Austria, it is also one of the most important top-level research institutions in Europe and provides Europe’s largest hospital, the AKH in Vienna, with all of its medical staff. A strong bundling of skills from different disciplines is needed to benefit cancer patients. To achieve this, MedUni Vienna runs a Comprehensive Can-cer Center.

Brimming pipeline

In Vienna, Boehringer Ingelheim employs some 250 scientists at its fully integrated drug discovery center, which is solely focused on cancer. Novel targets, biomarkers, drug candidates and treat-ment modalities are investigated and both small molecule and biotherapeutic discovery schemes are available. A whole range of novel targeted ther-apies is in development in the areas of angiogen-esis inhibition, signal transduction and cell-cycle inhibition. Within each of these three areas, the company has a substantial pipeline of molecules that are investigated in a number of solid tumors and hematological cancers. These include a signal transduction inhibitor that has been developed in Vienna and which is approved in the EU, the US and in other countries for the treatment of certain types of non-small-cell lung cancer. Additional compounds are currently in stage III trials.

Small but powerful

Apeiron Biologics AG is a biotech company with a focus on immunological approaches to treat cancer. The company’s product portfolio includes antibody-based therapies and novel checkpoint blockade approaches: APN311 is a monoclonal chimeric antibody targeting GD2, produced in CHO cells and has shown efficacy against paedi-atric neuroblastoma. The project is close to sub-mission for marketing authorization in EU and US. APN301 is a recombinant fusion protein of a hu-

manized anti-GD2 antibody and interleukin-2 and in phase II clinical development in neuroblastoma and melanoma. A broad program is pursued to develop therapies to selectively boost the immune system via checkpoint blockade to fight cancer: APN401 is a unique individual cellular therapy based on the cbl-b target, clinical phase I recently has started in the US. APN411 aims at develop-ment of low molecular weight compounds to boost immune cells via novel checkpoint blockade mechanisms, and is performed in collaboration with Evotec.

Immunotherapy, targeted toxins & vaccines

Personalized cancer immunotherapy is being de-veloped at Activartis Biotech GmbH. A rand-omized phase II study is ongoing that is investigat-ing the treatment of glioblastoma with interleukin 12 producing dendritic cells charged with tumor antigens as an add-on to standard therapy. This therapy is tailored to individual patients and might be applied for other types of cancerous diseases.At TUBE Pharmaceuticals GmbH, a variety of conjugation-based approaches is being combined with in-house toxin platforms to create targeted therapies for cancer and other major diseases. In the process, small molecules derived from natural products including tubulysins and their synthetic analogs as well as next generation epothilones

are being developed into safe and efficient drugs. These highly cytotoxic substances are linked to a polymer to form a nanoparticle or for example to antibodies, peptides or small molecules and only become active within or near the tumor. At Bio-medical International R+D GmbH, tumor vac-cines are being developed. The aim is to actively stimulate the patients’ immune system to build up own protective antibodies. In a joint project with MediGene, a vaccine has been developed that is targeted against the HER-2 molecule, which is overexpressed in case of breast cancer, but also on many other human and animal tumors. The new vaccine is based on HER-2 mimotopes dis-played by Adeno-associated virus particles.

www.activartis.com www.apeiron-biologics.com www.boehringer-ingelheim.atwww.biomed.cc www.meduniwien.ac.atwww.tubepharma.de

Christoph Zielinski, Maria Sibilia and Michael Gnant Management Team, Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) of the Medical University of Vienna and the Vienna General Hospital

The core tasks of the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) Vienna include clinical and translational research as well as basic sci-ence and interdisci-plinary patient care. The close interaction between scientists and clinicians allows a fast translation of new findings from bench to bedside and back. As a result, the CCC pres-ently runs 261 trials and keeps developing new research projects. In addition, about 8.000 patients with cancer are discussed yearly in interdisciplinary tumor boards.”

“

www.ccc.ac.at

Why Vienna?

The Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnol-ogy (acib) is one of the company’s most important R&D partners. To improve the purification process of biopharmaceuticals, special microparticles have been developed that are able to bind up to 150 milligrams of protein per gram of particle material. The entire binding process is completed within 30 seconds. Traditional chromatographic purification procedures take several hours. To further acceler-ate biopharmaceutical purification on an industrial scale, a continuous system for routine microparti-cle application has been established as well.

Five in one step

Georg Klima, Head of Biopharmaceutical Process Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Regional Center Vienna GmbH & Co. KG : “The economic relevance of this new procedure is linked to its convenience and speed. We have been able to combine five procedural steps into a single one. In addition, we expect an even better quality, because the microparticles directly absorb the protein product out of the cells with high specific-ity. We therefore obtain a much purer product as compared to conventional methods.” A key issue was the transfer of technology from research into corporate labs, which was completed within a few

LISAvienna Life Science Austria Vienna Walcherstrasse 11A1020 Vienna, Austria

PHONE + 43 (0) 1 50175 358FAX + 43 (0) 1 50175 900E-MAIL [email protected] www.LISAvienna.at

crevo

.net

www.acib.at www.boehringer-ingelheim.atwww.bioXcellence.com

LISAvienna is the joint life science platform operated by austria wirtschaftsservice and the Vienna Business Agency. On behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy and the city of Vienna, LISAvienna contributes to the advancement of life sciences in Vienna.

Boehringer Ingelheim

Regional Center Vienna

• 1,400 employees

• Responsibility for pharmaceutical business

and clinical research in more than 30 countries

• Center for cancer research

• Center of Excellence for biopharmaceuticals

from microbial systems

• Continuous extension of facilities

Innovation in Vienna:ACIB Micoparticles catch Proteins atBoehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer Ingelheim, a leading biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer offers tailor-made services covering the entire production chain from DNA to fill and finish under one roof. In Vienna, Boehringer Ingelheim manufac-tures therapeutically active recombinant proteins and pDNA from microor-ganisms and yeast.

weeks. Georg Klima: “That is one of the reasons why the cooperation with acib is going so well.”

Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna

Boehringer Ingelheim operates a first-class biopharmaceutical manufactur-ing facility in Vienna. Several independ-ent fermentation plants are available - for E. coli and other bacteria as well as for yeast technologies, and with a flexible scale of up to 6,000 L. Both batch and fed-batch fermentations are performed. On site expertise includes the development and manufacture of non-glycosylated pro-teins, antibody fragments protein scaffolds, and plasmid DNA (pDNA) according to GMP guidelines. Fill and finish of lyophilized and liquid drug product in vials for clinical supply is offered as well.

New funding period

In January 2015, acib started its second funding period with an overall budget of 65 million Euros. More than 120 industrial and scientific partners join forces at this international research center to replace conventional industrial processes with new biotechnology-based processes. The center works towards better products and processes that are environmentally friendly and commer-cially attractive. The city of Vienna acknowledges these attempts and supports acib with up to 4.2 million Euros via the Vienna Business Agency. St-yria-based SFG contributes an equal amount and Lower Austria and the Tyrol also support acib fi-nancially. The Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy provides some 20.8 mil-lion Euros via its COMET program administered by FFG.

Farbe/colour:�PANTONE 288 CV

© B

oehr

inger

Inge

lheim

Laboratory staff at the biopharmaceutical production plant in Vienna, Austria

© a

cib

Mathias Drexler, CEO acib GmbH

With an experi-ence of 30+ years, acib research-ers improve the entire production chain in industrial biotechnology. As a one-stop-shop for the industry, acib tranfers the economic and ecological methods of nature into in-dustrial production. Environmentally friendly and profit-able processes or products are re-sulted in. These are valuable assets to business, research and society.”

Why Austria?