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Abbott Biotech Ventures, Inc. (ABVI) is a subsidiary of Abbott dedicated to making venture capital investments in emerging biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Unlike traditional venture capital firms, ABVI characterizes an investment’s success by its potential to significantly increase Abbott’s strategic growth, and not solely by its financial return. ABVI Investment Focus ABVI’s area of focus is on emerging biotech and pharmaceutical companies that have the potential to provide long-term strategic growth options for Abbott. Companies with programs ranging from pre-clinical (18 months prior to first-in-human) to early proof-of-concept are of highest interest for potential investment by ABVI. Given the early stage nature of these investments, ABVI will often syndicate with other venture capital investors or participate as a follow-on investor in a syndicated venture. ABVI Investment Criteria ABVI is interested in promising opportunities with large markets, differentiated competitive advantages, strong intellectual property protection, and viable clinical and reimbursement pathways. ABVI invests in areas that are strategic to Abbott such as neuroscience, immunology, cardiology, virology, and oncology, as well as emerging or more opportunistic areas of innovation that have the potential to complement Abbott’s existing portfolio or to expand Abbott’s future business reach. ABVI uses a rigorous, systematic process to identify, screen, and select opportunities. The team uses both internal and external experts to help assess technical and commercial opportunities for potential investments. In addition, ABVI looks for companies with a managerial team that has a strong track record in identifying and developing successful commercial opportunities.

• 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

DCPrime is a Dutch biotech company which has developed a novel approach to cancer vaccines. The company’s unique platform technology consists of sustainable dendritic progenitor cells (DCOne™) and a proprietary method to expand these and to create functional mature dendritic cells (DC).

These cells, in some indications loaded with cancer antigens for targeted treatment, are used as standardized, off-the-shelf, therapeutic products that can stimulate the patient’s immune system in a specific manner. The platform combines the power of DC-based vaccines with the advantages of allogeneic stimulation of the immune system, and the simple logistics of off-the-shelf products.

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/.

The PROTAGEN GROUP is a leading provider of solutions for the

Pharmaceutical and Biotech industries, supporting drug development towards

personalized medicines and GMP compliant protein characterization services

of outstanding quality.

The PROTAGEN GROUP consists of PROTAGEN AG with a clear focus on

diagnostics, and PROTAGEN Protein Services GmbH (PPS) providing GMP

compliant protein analysis.

PROTAGEN AG has developed the proprietary UNIarray® platform to support

patient stratification and the development of Companion Diagnostics (CDx)

using the diagnostic power of autoantibody signatures in blood. We combine

our outstanding know-how in biostatistics and expertise in Protein arrays and

Luminex technology for the development of novel diagnostic assays. Our R&D

focus is on chronic diseases, e.g. neurodegenerative disorders, endometriosis,

autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic Lupus

Erythematosus and Multiple Sclerosis as well as selected cancer indications,

e.g. Prostate-, Breast-, Ovarian-, Colon- and Pancreatic Cancer.

PROTAGEN Protein Services GmbH (PPS)

is a reliable partner for GMP compliant characterization of biotherapeutics

(NBEs) and biosimilar comparability, including stability and release testing.

PPS combines unique expertise in bioinformatics for protein mass spectrometry

with a long track record in protein chemistry and protein analytics in order to

provide the best quality available. In addition, we provide customer support for

all relevant regulatory issues to match with current regulatory requirements

(FDA, EMA, KFDA) for protein drugs.

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.