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• APEIRON Biologics AG, based in Vienna, Austria, is a biotech company with a focus on biological and immunological approaches to treat cancer and related conditions. The company was founded by Professor Josef Penninger and became operational in 2006. Apeiron currently employs around 25 people and is led by a management team with strong background in drug development, especially in cancer immune therapy.
• Apeiron has a portfolio of innovative projects, five of which are in clinical development. Its lead project APN311 is in an ongoing phase III trial in neuroblastoma, with more than half of the patients already recruited.

CEVEC commercializes an innovative platform technology for the production of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals in human cell lines.  

CEVEC’s CAP cells hold high promise for a best-in-class production system for viral vaccines, such as hCMV, Influenza and others, as shown by a recent case study. Compared to leading other cellular production systems (like MDCK) CAP demonstrated outstanding results in view of virus yield, extreme short production cycles and minimal media consumption. CEVEC’s CAP system is suspension based and serum free offering the best starting point for new vaccine production approaches with excellent upscaling possibilities. Being the only remaining independent supplier for human production cell lines, the company sets out to repeat the growth story of Crucell B.V., recently acquired by Johnson & Johnson for 2.4 Bn US$. 

Feasibility studies further demonstrated CAP being a versatile virus production platform with a broad susceptibility for various human-pathogenic human viruses. Commercially significant targets include hCMV, RSV, Influenza, Polio, Measles, AAV, Adenoviruses, Lentiviruses and others. Several lead projects have been identified and planned, including the first human platform for hCMV, together with its partner Vaccine Project Manager, Hannover, Germany.

CEVEC is underway to close another 7-10 Mio. EUR venture round. This investment will be used to push the vaccine lead projects, such as hCMV within 3 years to clinical phase I/IIa results and manage a broad roll-out of its vaccine production technology in order to maximize its company exit value by 2015. Venture investors are still invited to participate in an exciting low-risk and high return growth story. For further information, please click here: www.cevec.com

Ennar Pharma was founded in July 2010 to develop a better and safer topical treatment for mild-to-moderate psoriasis. Patents, protecting the technology, have been granted in Europe and the USA. The company is financially supported by an investment by EVA- a Basel based venture capital company- and uses a network of strategic partners to develop the production of EGF and develop a suitable cream-based pharmaceutical product. Producers for the cGMP production of high-quality EGF(epidermal growth factor) and for a stable cream formulation of the active ingredient have been contracted and a Proof-of-Concept trial is running at the Dermatology Clinic of the University of Zurich. The trial, which is carried out with mild-to-moderate psoriasis patients, aims to establish the validity of the mode-of-action proposed for the EGF-based topical formulation and test an optimised formulation for clinical efficacy and safety. Results of the trial are expected in Q1 2013.

Helsinn is a privately owned pharmaceutical group with headquarters in Lugano, Switzerland, and operating subsidiaries in Ireland and the United States. Helsinn’s business model is focused on the licensing of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and nutritional supplement products in therapeutic niche areas. Helsinn Group in-licenses early-to-late stage new chemical entities, completes their development through the performance of pre-clinical /clinical studies and Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC) development, and files and attains their market approvals worldwide. Helsinn’s products are out-licensed to its network of local marketing and commercial partners, selected for their deep in-market knowledge and know-how whom Helsinn assists and supports by providing a full range of product and scientific management services, including commercial, regulatory financial, legal, and medical marketing advice. The active pharmaceutical ingredients and the finished products are manufactured according to the highest quality, safety, and environmental standards at Helsinn’s GMP facilities in Switzerland and Ireland and supplied worldwide to its customers. Further information on Helsinn Group is available at www.helsinn.com.

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, NovImmune is a life science enterprise with a proprietary next-generation antibody drug discovery platform and expertise in advancing drug candidates from bench to bedside. The Company is applying its capabilities to realize a vision of generating drugs that provide more robust benefit to patients by attacking the cause rather than symptoms of disease. NovImmune has established a balanced pipeline of first- and best-in-class pre-clinical and clinical drug candidates with a mix of both clinically validated and novel targets.

§  CHF 182M raised from high net worth individuals, private and corporate venture funds

§  In 2009, received the European Biotechnica Award

§  In 2010, established Genentech/Roche partnership for NI-1401, anti-IL-17 drug candidate

§  In 2011, received Orphan Drug designation in Europe and the USA for, and EUR 6 million FP7 grant from the European Commission for development of NI-0501 for HLH

§  In 2012, filing to initiate important clinical studies including the first Phase II study for NI-0501 in HLH, and first-in-man study for leading anti-TLR4 drug candidate, NI-0101

§  Pursuing additional partnerships for its next-generation antibody platform as well as development and commercialization of selected drug candidates

§  Potential to independently bring selected drugs to the market for focused applications

Numab is a Swiss biotech company focusing on the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies. Numab is a young company lead by a Management with proven track record in the biotech industry.

Numab applies a high-throughput selection system that increases the antibody discovery success rates by magnitudes and allows to efficiently identify best-in-class and/or first in class antibodies. The discovery engine is particularly well suited to detect antibodies against unconventional targets such as multi-spanning transmembrane proteins (e.g. GPCRs or ion channels).

Numab is pursuing proprietary antibody programs in autoimmune diseases and pain, however, also applies its breakthrough technology to discover highly potent antibodies on behalf of its partners in the pharmaceutical industry.

Opsona is a leading immunology drug development company, focused on novel therapeutic approaches to key targets of the innate immune system associated with a wide range of major human diseases, including autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, transplant rejection, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and atherosclerosis.

The company was founded in 2004 by three world-renowned immunologists at Trinity College in Dublin one of Ireland’s leading academic institution with a core focus on immunology research. Opsona's lead product, a fully human monoclonal IgG4 antibody (OPN-305) targeting Toll-like-receptor-2 (TLR2) has demonstrated activity in a number of animal models & recently was tested successfully in a phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers. The Company plans to conduct a two-part multi-centered, double blinded and placebo controlled clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of OPN 305 in renal transplant patients at high risk of Delayed Graft Function(DGF) as the first clinical target indication for the development of OPN-305 to be initiated in 2012.

The Company is supported by an international venture consortium including Novartis Venture Fund, Roche Venture Fund, Seroba-Kernel Life Sciences, Fountain Healthcare Partners, Inventages Venture Capital and Enterprise Ireland. Further information is available at http://www.opsona.com/.

ORCA Therapeutics B.V. (ORCA) is developing a pipeline of innovative anticancer therapies based on the highly promising approach of oncolytic viruses. ORCA’s value proposition is based on using its proprietary technologies in the field of Oncolytic Replication Competent Agents. ORCA’s lead product ORCA-010 is a new oncolytic adenovirus based on the Company’s proprietary T1 technology. ORCA-010 has up to ten thousand fold higher oncolytic potency as compared to current state of the art oncolytic adenoviruses in a variety of cancer cell lines and ORCA is currently developing ORCA-010 for its first study in man.