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Bioversys AG is a privately held Swiss biopharmaceutical company located in Basel that focuses on research and development of new drugs and compounds, which switch-off drug resistance within bacterial pathogens and restore the efficacy of approved antibiotics. Spun out of the ETH-Zurich in 2008, we have profound technological expertise that is based on solid IP.

Edinburgh BioQuarter is the commercialisation arm of the University of Edinburgh Medical School and Veterinary College. We have recently spun out several companies in the devices, informatics and CRO space. Current companies in incubation include:

• FibromEd, which is developing improved hepatocyte products for drug toxicity testing
• Asclepius, an orphan drug company focused on rare renal disease
• Edinburgh Molecular Imaging, a new imaging technology focused on rapid diagnosis of lung pathology including fibrosis
• Therapivo, a new approach to the treatment of metastatic cancer based on phenotypic drug development
• Vaccine company which is utilising novel adjuvant technology
• Anti-infective company with broad spectrum anti-viral technolgy focused on respiratory infections  

Immune Design is a privately held biotechnology company based in Seattle, Washington and formed in 2008 to bring together some of the world’s leaders in the field of immunology, and their technologies, to develop therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of infectious and malignant disease. The company’s scientific founders are Dr. David Baltimore (Past President of Caltech, Rockefeller University, and the Whitehead Institute and the Co-Recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), Dr. Steven Reed (Past Co-founder and CSO of Corixa and Founder/CEO of the Infectious Diseases Research Institute), and Dr. Larry Corey (President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Professor of Medicine and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington). To date Immune Design has raised approximately $52 million from The Column Group, Alta Partners, Versant Ventures, and Proquest.  
Immune Design leverages its unique vaccine technologies to precisely control the activation and context of antigen presentation by dendritic cells in order to shape the desired adaptive immune response.  The first technology is a novel adjuvant for recombinant protein antigen (rP)-based vaccines comprising Glucopyranosyl Lipid A (GLA), a synthetic TLR4 agonist, formulated in a stable 2% oil-in-water emulsion (SE). Adjuvants can play an important role in vaccine therapies by stimulating the immune system's response to the target antigen. GLA is the first ‘designer adjuvant’ and was developed by Immune Design co-founder Dr. Steve Reed.  To date GLA-SE has been safely administered in over 300 human subjects.   

Our second vaccine platform is a novel lentivirus-based vector, ID-LV (Immune Design-Lentiviral Vector). The prototype of ID-LV was developed by Immune Design co-founder, Dr. David Baltimore. ID-LV is unique in that it can stimulate the body’s own dendritic cells (DCs), the “sentinels” of the immune system, to produce any, and importantly, multiple antigens of interest in the same product configuration, effectively orchestrating the human immune system to respond to targeted diseases.  Immune Design’s ID-LV and GLA-SE vaccine technologies are immunologically synergistic, as documented in animal models, and thus, have the potential to be used both alone and in combination to create the next generation of vaccines for diseases with unmet medical need.

Immunovaccine is a biotechnology company focused on the application of its novel vaccine delivery platform to the development of vaccines for cancer therapy and infectious diseases. The Company’s DepoVax™ platform is a patented lipid delivery system that presents antigens plus adjuvant to the immune system for a prolonged period and has the potential to enhance immune responses. Immunovaccine has advanced its platform technology and proprietary cancer vaccine into Phase I clinical trials and has demonstrated both safety and immunogenicity potential. Immunovaccine is also capitalizing on the broad potential of its delivery platform by creating new DepoVax-based vaccines through multiple development collaborations. In addition to the Company’s human health vaccine strategy, it continues to capture value from animal health vaccine applications. Immunovaccine has several key partnerships in the animal health sector including an agreement with Pfizer Animal Health, which has licensed the Company’s delivery technology platform to develop vaccines for livestock.

PSites Pharma is developing the next generation of protein kinase inhibitors. Based on our discovery of a new non-ATP competitive, regulatory  binding site we had build up during the last 12 years a whole proprietary development platform, consisting of a focused library, a special screening and a crystallography platform. This allows us to develop clinical candidates for kinase inhibitors with specificities unknown for small coumpounds for any given ACG kinase target within 3 years.

Psites´s own lead compounds for oncology indications (lung and prostate cancer) had been successfully tested in mice and show a very good safety profile.

Our next financing round which is supported by a EUR 3 M. grant by the German governement will enable us to bring 2 compounds into the clinic and we are looking for partners who will share part of the development costs.

Alternatively we are also offering development collaborations for industrial partners who are interested in getting allosteric compounds for their specific target.

Selcia Ltd., headquartered in Ongar, Essex, UK and with a branch in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is a leading worldwide provider of contract research services. Selcia operates two divisions, Selcia Discovery and Selcia Radiochemistry. Whilst Radiochemistry specializes in 14C GMP radiolabelling, Selcia Discovery provides integrated small molecule drug discovery to pharmaceutical and biotech clients. Besides general medicinal chemistry and biology capabilities applicable across all target classes, Selcia Discovery has a particular strength in three unique and highly synergistic technologies: (1) medicinal chemistry on complex natural products, (2) capillary electrophoresis-based fragment and natural product screening, (3) peptidyl-prolyl isomerase targets (cyclophilins, FKBPs, Pin1, together called PPIases). Whilst relatively neglected by pharmaceutical companies in the past, understanding of the involvement of PPIases in many diseases is currently emerging. All PPIase inhibitors presently in clinical use or in development are natural products, natural product derivatives or have structures inspired by natural products.

The combination of these technologies has enabled Selcia to deliver several clinical PPIase inhibitors to clients, but has also generated IP for Selcia, which was recently demerged into a new company, Mitopharm Ltd. Mitopharm is in advanced license negotiations for a breakthrough drug in the field of acute and chronic neurodegenerative diseases. Other applications in the fields of chronic inflammatory diseases, oncology, COPD, and virus infections will be developed by Mitopharm either via investment or via joint R&D programs with pharmaceutical companies. 

SuppreMol, a privately held biopharmaceutical Company, is developing novel proteins to treat autoimmune diseases. SuppreMol has developed a novel therapeutic concept for the treatment of autoimmune diseases that relies on naturally produced Fc gamma receptors (FcγRs). The Company was founded in 2002 as a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry.

The Company is developing SM101 for the treatment of Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in Phase II clinical trials. SM101 is designed to be a specific, early onset, long lasting and well tolerated treatment for autoimmune diseases such as ITP, SLE, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

Further building its platform of selective immunoregulators, SuppreMol is working on antibody programs targeting Fc receptors and other immunomodulatory molecules for alternative treatment strategies in autoimmune conditions.

Virometix is a privately held young innovative Swiss Biotech company developing a new class of vaccines, which should overcome limitations of current biological vaccines in terms of safety, efficacy, speed, stability and manufacturing cost. Virometix Synthetic Virus-Like Nanoparticle (SVLP) technology platform offers the following value propositions:

Safety. Virometix SVLP-based vaccines avoid the use of life pathogens and the safety concerns associated with the biological manufacturing processes used for conventional vaccines.

Quality. SVLPs are based on a proprietary lipopeptide self-assembly process that leads to atomically defined nanoparticles with a constant size and number of lipopeptide monomers per particle, which increases the specificity and quality of the elicited immune response and assures lot-to-lot consistency.

Efficacy. SVLPs efficiently deliver antigens to antigen presenting cells for optimal B- and T-cell responses and induce antibodies that bind with very high affinity to the native target antigen.

Convenience. SVLPs do not require sonication, refolding, extrusion or similar processes. SVLPs can be prepared by simply dissolving freeze-dried lipopeptide monomers in a buffer suitable for injection shortly before use.

The protective potential of Virometix nanoparticles has been demonstrated for various targets in in vitro and in vivo. Virometix currently develops vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer and offers collaborative research and licensing partnerships for selected vaccines in these areas, and licensing opportunities for selected areas outside Virometix core focus.

Xiber is a biopharmaceutical start–up company. Xiber develops new peptide drugs to improve outcome of critical care & transplant patients. Xiber’s peptide drugs preserve organ function & prevent organ failure. Xiber will enter market by two niche indications: Acute Lung Injury & Primary Graft Dysfunction after Lung Transplantation – with a total market volume of 630 Mio. USD.
In 2015 Xiber will complete the preclinical development for both indications. A phase I clinical trial will start in the beginning of 2016.
Xiber is a spin-off of the Medical University of Vienna. The majority of the shares is owned by the founders. The University holds a non-controlling interest and rewards its shares by providing cooperation, infrastructure, facility services and management support.
To drive its developmental program till the completion of a phase I trial Xiber needs ~ 4 Mio €. This is largely covered by Austrian funds and loans. For the remaining  Xiber seeks 2 Mio € equity from VC partner. Xiber has already signed a LOI with an established VC company.