Jean-Michel Alarcon is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Minakem SAS as of June 1st, 2007

Jean-Michel Alarcon is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Minakem SAS as of June 1st, 2007. He will be as well in charge of the Corporate development of Group Minakem, and will be a member of the Group’s General Management Committee.

Chartered chemical engineer, graduated from IMD (Lausanne-CH) in economics and management, Jean-Michel Alarcon joined Hoechst in 1986. He was first assigned to the process development unit in Lamotte factory, before being promoted R&D Director in 1996. In 2002, he was nominated "Global Business Director Glyoxal Derivatives" for Clariant, and Life Sciences Division Director of the French subsidiary. He had been in charge of "Specialty Intermediates" since 2005, one of the 27 Clariant business units, with responsibility for 3 manufacturing plants, Lamotte (France), Gainesville (USA), and Roha (India). He had been as well President of Clariant Specialty Fine Chemicals (France) since 2006.

The members of the Group’s General Management Committee are Frédéric Gauchet: President, Jean-Michel Alarcon: CEO of Minakem and Director of Corporate development, Jean Pierre Diehl: CEO of Minasolve (Building Blocks) and Project Manager for China, Karsten Fischer: CEO of Chemtec, Philippe Guerret : CFO, Michael Staff : President of Minakem USA and Business Development North-America, and Pierre Dedenys : Project Manager and Committee’s Secretary.


About Minakem Group:

MINAKEM is a "one-stop-shop" group serving the life-science industries, namely, the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The companies focus on the synthesis of the tailor-made molecules, their formulation, their dose-forming and the production of the registration dossiers for approval of the manufacturing processes.

For more information visit www.minakem.com or www.chemtec-leuna.de

Source: Minakem

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BT PHARMA successfully closes €1.3 million bridging round

Bridging funds to move candidate therapeutic vaccine up to phase I / II clinical trials for treatment of patients suffering from high-grade lesions provoked by Human Papillomavirus.

Toulouse, France — Monday, May 28th 2007.BT PHARMA is pleased to announce that it has successfully closed on €1.3 million in new investment from current shareholders and a new private investor. This bridging round will enable the Company to move its candidate therapeutic vaccine through preclinical development and up to phase I/II clinical trials for the treatment of high-grade neoplasia provoked by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV).

Dr. Benedikt Timmerman, Chief Executive comments: "This investment allows BT PHARMA to take lead candidate ProCervix^® through the entire preclinical phase and up to the next key milestone: placebo-controlled clinical trials in women bearing CIN II / CIN III lesions. We have spared no effort to render GMP production and protein purification processes of our bivalent product robust and to pharmaceutical grade. Our placebo-controlled trial is planned for the 1st trimester of 2008. The awareness of the medical need to treat infection, neoplasia and cancer provoked by Human Papillomavirus by other means than surgery has come to age. It coincides well with our clinical timelines and may allow BT PHARMA to be one of few key players in this exciting new market."

ProCervix^® exploits the unique characteristics of the Adenylate Cyclase vector (CyaA) that targets tumour cell-specific antigens to antigen-presenting cells in patients in vivo and induces strong and specific cellular immune responses. This bivalent therapeutic vaccine targets cervical neoplasia and cancer provoked by HPV16 and HPV18. ProCervix^® aims to replace ablative surgery or conisation in millions of women already infected by HPV and at risk for invasive cervical cancer. The CyaA technology was exclusively licensed from the Institut Pasteur, with whom BT PHARMA has a strategic alliance. The CyaA technology, which has unique immune cell-targeting features, has since been industrialized and the patent estate broadened by newly filed proprietary patents, which cover pipeline products such as ProCervix^®.


About BT PHARMA S.A.

BT PHARMA is a privately held biopharmaceutical company incorporated in October 2001 and spun out of the Institut Pasteur in October 2002. The company headquarters and laboratories are currently based in Labège (Toulouse) France. The company strives to improve the well-being of people through the development of therapeutic vaccines for infection, dysplasia and cancer provoked by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV).


Source: BT Pharma

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Polyplus-transfection obtains an AFM grant for the development of its gene/drug delivery tool for clinical applications

Strasbourg, France, May 14, 2007 — Polyplus-transfection, a company specialized in research, development and marketing of innovative reagents for drug delivery, gene therapy and transfection, announces today that it has obtained a EUR 80,000 grant from AFM (Association Française contre les Myopathies), France’s Muscular Dystrophy Association. The grant will finance the cGMP (current good manufacturing practices) compliant production process of its in vivo-jetPEITM reagent, thus enabling its use in gene therapy.

Polyplus-transfection believes this upgrade to the cGMP production process will accelerate the use of in vivo-jetPEI^TM in gene therapy clinical trials in humans. The funding also covers the development of new quality control procedures as well as stability studies.

In vivo-jetPEI^TM is a synthetic molecule, polyethylenimine (PEI). PEI is a cationic linear polymer recognized as being the most effective reagent on the market for in vivo delivery of nucleic acids. With in vivo-jetPEI^TM, Polyplus-transfection offers clinicians an alternative technology for gene therapy to the commonly used viral approach using deactivated viruses. In vivo-jetPEI^TM is easy to use and does not trigger an immune response, a huge advantage compared to viruses which are very immunogenic and do not allow repeated use.

"Today Polyplus-transfection offers the only solution on the market to deliver genetic material using a synthetic molecule instead of a virus," said Joëlle Bloch, CEO of Polyplus-transfection. "With the help of the AFM funding for the development of a cGMP production process, in vivo-jetPEI^TM will be available to customers for use in clinical trials. This new gene/drug delivery tool represents a new hope for patients."

"At Polyplus-transfection we believe that this new process will accelerate our growth as well as demonstrate our expertise in the field of gene delivery, offering a serious alterative to viral approaches and emphasize the strength of our reagents for in vivo assays."


About Polyplus-transfection

Polyplus-transfection researches, develops and markets products for drug delivery, gene therapy and innovative transfection reagents. Transfection consists of introducing a gene or a small interfering RNA into a cell. This technique makes it possible to cross the cellular barriers and deliver such biomolecules into the cell for scientific or therapeutic purposes. Customers for Polyplus-transfection’s products and services include biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies as well as life science research laboratories.

In addition to transfection reagents for research, Polyplus-transfection offers high quality consultancy and personalized scientific support. The company has acquired expertise in regulatory affairs related to the use of its reagents for the delivery of gene candidates in clinical trials.

The Strasbourg-based company has a 20 members of staff, an international distribution network and numerous academic and industrial partnerships. Polyplus-transfection is one of the technology leaders in the transfection market with ISO 9001:2000 certification, three exclusive licenses from the CNRS and six patents filed.

For more information, visit: http://www.polyplus-transfection.com


Source: Polyplus-transfection

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