OncoDNA awarded the prize "Most promising company of the year 2015"

Brussels - 19 October 2015
OncoDNA SA (Gosselies, Belgium)  has won the third edition of "Most promising company of the year" organised by EY (formerly Ernst & Young). The laureate won over formidable opponents as Domo Bios & Acar'Up, MyMicroinvest and Universem. 
OncoDNA, a Cancer Theranostic Company, is a European start-up founded in 2012 which provides a personal protection in cancer through the unique combination of DNA sequencing and molecular pathology. More than 2,000 patients in fifty countries have already appealed to OncoDeep, a tool that provides oncologists support treatment choices based on targeted therapies.  
With yhe platform OncoShare the company wants to ensure better communication between the patient, the oncologist, the community of experts-oncologists and OncoDNA.
 Source : ONCODNA

It has among its Board member, Jean Stephenne, former director of GSK Vaccines.

Steven Keating - fighting cancer through curiosity

MARCH 31, 2015
source: http://stevenkeating.info/main.html


The New York times
 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/technology/the-healing-power-of-your-own-medical-data.html
 

Opening data to patients raises questions. Will worried patients inundate physicians with time-consuming questions? Will sharing patient data add to legal risks? One detail in the yearlong study of OpenNotes underlines doctors’ concerns; 105 primary physicians completed the study, but 143 declined to participate.

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Still, the experience of the doctors in the evaluation seemed reassuring. Only 3 percent said they spent more time answering patient questions outside of visits. Yet knowing that patients could read the notes, one-fifth of the physicians said they changed the way they wrote about certain conditions, like substance abuse and obesity.

Evidence of the benefit to individuals from sharing information rests mainly on a few studies so far. For example, 55 percent of the members of the epilepsy community on PatientsLikeMe, a patient network, reported that sharing information and experiences with others helped them learn about seizures, and 27 percent said it helped them be more adherent to their medications.

Cardio3 BioSciences acquires CorQuest Medical Inc.

5 November 2014- Mont saint Guibert, Belgium
The belgian biotech Cardio3 BioSciences, leader in the discovery and development of regenerative, protective and reconstructive therapies, announces today that it has acquired U.S.-based CorQuest Medical Inc.

CorQuest Medical, based in Miami, but incorporated in Delaware in July 2012, specializes in the development of innovative devices and technologies for cardiac surgery. It was founded by a Belgian,  Dr. Didier De Cannière.

Euronext Brussels and Paris: CARD

Featured company : ILLUMINA, San Diego, California

20 October 2014 - illumina, Inc. based in Sand Diego, California, is an American company incorporated in April 1998 that develops, manufactures and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function (DNA sequencing, Genome sequencing).
NASDAQ:  Illumina

GSK develops Ebola vaccine

19 October 2014- GSK says Ebola vaccine development progressing at 'unprecedented rate'

GlaxoSmithKline is working to develop a vaccine to combat Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa, was moving at a rapid pace.

"Development of the vaccine candidate is progressing at an unprecedented rate, with first phase 1 safety trials with the vaccine candidate underway in the USA, UK and Mali, and further trials due to start in the coming weeks," the firm said in a statement posted on its website.
Source : REUTERS

GSK on London Stock exhange : GSK

Ebola - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg And Wife Priscilla Chan Donate $25 Million To Fight Ebola

14 October 2014 - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced on Tuesday that they are donating $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation (CDC)  to fight Ebola.
Zuckerberg revealed the donation in a post on Facebook. In a status update, Zuckerberg compared the disease to Polio and HIV, noting that 8,400 people have already been infected by Ebola and that it has the potential to spread quickly.
 
Billionaire Bill Gates announced last month that

L'INAMI publie son rapport annuel 2013

Brussels - 13 octobre 2014 

L' INAMI - l'nstitut national d'assurance maladie-invalidité (Belgique) vient de publier son rapport annuel 2013. Le rapport complet est disponible sur le site de l'INAMI (www.inami.fgov.be). Il fournit également un aperçu détaillé des statistiques de l'assurance maladie-invalidité.

Ce rapport trace le portrait de l’assurance soins de santé et indemnités en Belgique. On y apprend notamment que :

• Le Belge a coûté en moyenne 2256,04 euros à l'assurance soins de santé en 2012, soit 3,18% de plus qu'en 2011 et 7,80% de plus qu'en 2010, ressort-il du rapport 2012 de l'Inami publié lundi. Le nombre de personnes invalides a quant à lui continué à augmenter en 2013.

• A la fin décembre 2013, 320 823 personnes (salariés et indépendants) percevaient des indemnités d'invalidité en Belgique, soit 4,5% de la population entre 15 et 64 ans. Cela représente une augmentation de 5,37% par rapport à 2012. La première cause d'invalidité reste les troubles mentaux (109 000 personnes fin 2013, ou 38,4% des personnes en invalidité). Le nombre d'invalides pour cette raison a grimpé de près de 58% en dix ans et de 88% depuis 2000, souligne le rapport.

La santé mentale représente

Valby, DK - 05-05-2014 - Lundbeck receives grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for biological markers identification in Parkinson’s disease

A Lundbeck research program aiming to increase the knowledge of how a specific change in a gene (Lrrk2) contributes to an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease was granted DKK 3,5m from The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the world's largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's disease research.

Medical device maker Sequana raises $26m after quitting US

28 April 2014 - Sequana Medical  raises $26m after relocating from California to Zug in Switerland.
Sequana raised the investment in a financing round led by Life Sciences Partners, a European private equity fund (Germany, The Netherlands).
Source :
- Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/afbd51e8-cc79-11e3-bd33-00144feabdc0.html#axzz30DLBh8zz
- Sequana news


About Life Sciences Partners
In April 2011, LSP launched its LSP Life Sciences Fund on Euronext. This fund is open-ended and publicly listed. As such, it allows investors to buy shares of the fund at any time, via their (internet) broker. The fund’s Bloomberg ticker is LSP NA and its ISIN Code is NL0009756394.

Novadip Biosciences

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - January 2014 - Belgian medical researchers have succeeded in repairing bones using stem cells from fatty tissue, with a new technique they believe could become a benchmark for treating a range of bone disorders.
The team at the Saint Luc university clinic hospital in Brussels have treated 11 patients, eight of them children, with fractures or bone defects that their bodies could not repair, and a spin-off is seeking investors to commercialize the discovery.

G8 dementia summit London

London - 13 December 2013 - The UK is hosting a G8 summit on dementia in London on 11 December. The summit aims to develop co-ordinated global action on dementia.
see G8-dementia-summit

Janssen-Deloitte Investing in European Health R&D

Brussels, 7 October 2013: A report published today shows that European research and development (R&D) investments in health have stagnated since 2010, and this is the first time after decades of annual increases. The report was commissioned by Janssen Pharmaceutica NV and the research was conducted by Deloitte Health Economics group.

• The report-“Investing in European Health R&D"
• Presentation slides Jane Griffiths
• Investing in European health R&D – Press Release 7 October 2013
• Backgrounder on Janssen research initiatives and collaboration
• Report Executive Summary - Investing in European health R&D
• Graph: R&D Distribution and intensity by sector in the European Union
• Graph: Total health-related R&D in Europe in 2011
• Graph: Private (2011) and Public (2010) health-related R&D expenditures per country
• Graph: Evolution total health-related R&D 2004-2011 in EU and US

 

Source : Janssen health policy centre

Skolkovo Innovation Center: Russia investing $4 Billion in ‘innovation city’ Skolkovo to insemminate startup culture

9 August 2013 

The Russian government is spending billions of dollars to manufacture startup culture.

Skolkovo is a science park outside of Moscow that aims to be the “Russian Silicon Valley.” It is the country’s largest state-sponsored innovation hub, and it will receive around $4 billion in state funding between now and 2020.

 

Skolkovo Foundation president Viktor Vekselberg said he expects to raise more than $11 billion in private investment by 2020 and that Skolkovo will not need government financing after 2025. He also predicted that this “innovation city” will contribute $6.5 billion to Russia’s economy over that time

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: New partnership to fight poverty-related diseases

10 June 2013 - 
The European Union and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have today pledged to work together to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other poverty-related diseases that together affect more than 1 billion people worldwide. The agreement, signed in Paris today by foundation co-chair Bill Gates and European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, creates a new strategic partnership for research in the area. Between 2007 and 2011, the foundation and the European Commission have contributed around 2.4 billion euro (3.1 billion USD) to research and development focused on poverty-related infectious diseases, supporting the development of more than 20 new and improved products.

The partnership will invest in research and development of life-saving interventions to improve the health and well-being of people living in developing countries. In addition to accelerating the development of much-needed drugs, vaccines and diagnostics, the two organisations will also seek to improve affordable and sustainable pathways to ensure that these products quickly reach those in greatest need.

More information: 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-517_en.htm

Google Ventures is funding 8 healthcare and life sciences companies

April 2013 - 
Google Ventures has been backing startups through its venture capital fund since 2009 and offers a pretty diverse range of services to entrepreneurs. It has eight healthcare and life science businesses among its portfolio companies spanning innovative areas such as DNA analysis, accelerated drug development, and oncology analytics.

Actavis Watson Pharmaceuticals acquiert la société liégeoise Uteron Pharma pour 305 millions de dollars

 

 January 2013

Actavis, New Jersey, (anciennement Watson Pharmaceuticals) a racheté Uteron Pharma, société biopharmaceutique liégeoise, pour un montant de USD 150 million cash et USD 155 millions par versements d’étapes (potential future milestone payments).


Uteron Pharma, dont le personnel s’élève à 60 personnes, est une spin-off spécialisée dans la contraception et la fertilité, la ménopause et l’ostéoporose, les infections vaginales et les cancers féminins.

Par ailleurs, cette collaboration devrait permettre de poursuivre des projets de recherche ainsi que le lancement sur le marché de produits demandant des investissements importants, estime le CEO d’Uteron Pharma, Stijn Van Rompay, qui souligne que le personnel ne sera pas affecté par ce rachat.

Source: RTL.be, Express.be, Actavis, Uteron

Uteron Pharma SA, Rue Saint Georges 5, B- 4000 Liège

TiGenix to Raise Capital via a Private Placement of New Ordinary Shares

19 December 2012 - Leuven, Belgium – TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) today announced that it will launch a private placement of up to 8,629,385 new ordinary shares.


TiGenix will use the funds mainly for the commercial roll out of ChondroCelect in selected European markets and for progressing with the clinical development of Cx601 in complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's patients.

The new shares will be placed through an accelerated bookbuilding procedure. The placing will start on 19 December 2012. The Company has asked the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) to suspend its shares from trading on NYSE Euronext Brussels. Trading in the share will resume shortly following the publication of the results of the placing.

The Company will announce the results of the placing as soon as possible after closing of the bookbuilding.

Source : tigenix.com

Une app smartphone mesure votre état de santé en temps réel

17 Décembre 2012 - Une apps smartphone révolutionne le monde médical.

Une révélation pour tous les hypocondriaques ou autres soucieux de leur santé qui grâce à cette nouvelle application pourront contrôler à la fois leur fréquence cardiaque, poids, pression artérielle, ou encore de surveiller taux de cholestérol et de glycémie.

Examiner sa santé au quotidien ne sera plus l'affaire des généralistes ou des médecins spécialisés, mais l'opportunité de tout un chacun. Cette application a été accueillie comme la médecine préventive du futur.

Source : siliconwadi.fr
http://siliconwadi.fr/5890/une-application-smartphone-mesure-votre-etat-de-sante-en-temps-reelle

TiGenix Reacts to Rumors

Leuven, Belgium – 14 December 2012 

TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) announces that, apparently as a result of unauthorized access to certain non-public sections of TiGenix’s website, draft announcements regarding a potential capital increase by way of a private placement have surfaced today on certain internet forums.

As is common in the biotech sector, the company regularly examines and prepares for opportunities to secure additional financing, including the possibility of a capital increase.

However, TiGenix has not taken a decision to engage in such a transaction at this point in time. If and when such a transaction were to be decided, the company will inform the market in due course.
More info : Tigenix.com 

Euroscreen raises €10 million in Equity Investments led by Vesalius BioCapital

Brussels, Belgium, November 30, 2012 –

Euroscreen, a drug development company focused on the development of novel GPCR drug concepts including next generation sex hormone control in woman’s health announced today that it has completed a €10 million Series A preferred stock financing led by Vesalius Biocapital II Partners and SRIW (Société Régionale d’Investissement de Wallonie SA).

The proceeds of the round will mainly be used to develop its main advanced product ESN364 for the treatment of endometriosis, a disease that affects 6-10% of women in childbearing age.

"We have been delighted to work with Vesalius and SRIW, and other new shareholders as LSRP (Life Sciences Research Partners VZW); SPDG (Société de Participation et de Gestion SA) and Hunza Ventures, in addition to our existing shareholders, to maximize Euroscreen’s potential to advance our lead program, ESN364 into clinical development.

Jean Combalbert, Euroscreen's CEO said "We thank those existing shareholders participating in this new financing round which included Fortis Private Equity, Compagnie du Bois Sauvage SA, Ackermans & Van Haaren NV, our university-based shareholders and some of our individual faithful shareholders”.