BioM: Compelling proof of concept for personalized medicine
Personalized medicine takes center stage at BIO-Europe 2010 in a compelling demonstration that the long-awaited promise of this potentially disruptive approach to pharmaceuticals is at last taking its first confident steps toward credibility.
Leaving science to the experts, it will be the viability of targeted therapies as a business model that will dominate the discussion from the opening plenary panel session through individual company presentations.
Four thriving companies from Bavaria are being put forward as the star players in this emerging business segment by BioM , the agency that manages the robust biotechnology cluster centered on Munich.
Horst Domdey, Managing Director of BioM
“The timing of BIO-Europe being held in Munich this year could not come at a better time,” according to the Managing Director of BioM, Horst Domdey. “It is like a beautiful piece of choreography, because at this very moment we can make a very convincing demonstration that the promise of personalized medicine has at last reached its first flowering.”
“Yet success for these emerging companies is not assured,” he added.
“Financing through venture capital has become extremely difficult, especially here in Europe,” he said.
“Partnering has become the natural next step for biotech, and it will be win-win agreements between companies that is going to advance innovative companies,” he predicted.
“BIO-Europe fulfills an essential need for these companies by creating an opportunity for them to either make money by licensing a drug, or find funding from a larger company that wants to see the drug program advance,” said Domdey.
“All the major biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies will be at BIO-Europe, so we are making sure that all the viable companies from Munich and Bavaria will be present at the event,” he said.
The chief executive for Wilex, Olaf G. Wilhelm, will lead the march for Munich taking to the podium during the opening plenary session at BIO-Europe 2010, “Personalized Medicine and Its Implications for Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostic Companies.”
Wilex develops targeted treatment of specific types of cancer linked to diagnostic agents. Based on its pipeline, Wilex expects to be able to finance its research and development programs from its operating cash flow within the next few years.
The other leading players from the Munich Biotech Cluster m4 in the field of personalized medicine include :
* MorphoSys, a leader in the field of therapeutic antibodies currently developing therapeutic antibodies with Bayer Schering, Boehringer Ingelheim, Centocor/Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche.
* Micromet, developing novel antibody-based drugs for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases collaborating on development programs with Bayer Schering Pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim, MedImmune, Merck Serono, Nycomed and sanofi-aventis.
* Corimmun, a clinical drug developing company focused on novel therapeutics and diagnostics for heart and vascular diseases.
Where Wilex, MorphoSys and Micromet today are publicly traded companies, Corimmun is the rising star of the Munich Biotech Cluster , a spin-off from the universities of Wurzburg and of Tubingen following a classic business development with funding from a variety of external investors.
Each of these companies is a member of the initiative m4, or “M to the power of four”, a publicly and privately funded EUR 100 million program to advance personalized medicine and targeted therapies.
“The letter M represents Munich, of course,” said Domdey, “and the four factors raising the power are the biotech-pharma companies, the scientific community, the healthcare community and the cluster management provided by BioM.”
BioM is rooted in the scientific community centered on Munich, Domdey explained.
Over a 15-year period the continual creation of academic spin-off companies gave shape to the region’s first biotech cluster, which progressively attracted pharmaceutical companies that established local offices to tap into the innovative processes and products.
“In the past few years we have been very successful in bringing into the group the last remaining pieces of this puzzle, which are the partners in healthcare—the doctors, the physicians and the hospitals,” he said.
“Now we are complete and can form a center of excellence focused on personalized medicine,” said Domdey, adding that the active participation of hospitals and physicians as partners to the cluster has increased the interest of the pharma industry with the opportunity for contacts with medical centers where clinical studies can be performed.
Domdey notes another encouraging trend for the Munich Biotech Cluster is the increasing interest of international companies in expanding from cooperative agreements to establishing larger operations in Bavaria.
“American companies especially are finding new market opportunities, because the economy in Europe seems to have recovered faster than in the United States,” he said.
“These companies have an interest in locating within strong academic centers, and here we have a significant advantage because where other countries are dramatically cutting their funding for science, some by as much as 20%, Germany will see an increase in research funding of at least 5% each year for the next five years,” he concluded.
Prof Domdey will lead a Welcome Tour including Munich’s historical sights and the campus Martinsried, the heart of Munich’s biotechnology sector, on Sunday, November 14, 2010.
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