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pharma industry news

Monday, 19 October 2015 - no. 1

Ethypharm expands by buying DB Ashbourne

Covance to close Porcheville in the spring

2

Ethypharm could be sold

by Astorg Partners 2

3

Sanofi to increase its competitiveness in France 3

4

Fareva to invest €69 million in its French plants 5

Lilly confirms €170 million of industrial investment 4

Cenexi, planned takeover of the BMS plant in Meymac 5

Lilly to produce Lantus biosimilar in Fegersheim

EFS enhances its leading position in advanced therapies Etablissement Français du Sang [EFS - the French National Blood Service] recently launched a new platform for the production of clinical batches of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) at St-Ismier, near Grenoble. This expansion is part of a €10 million industrial project that will also benefit EFS units in Créteil, Toulouse and Besançon.

EFS, which is better known in France for its blood transfusion monopoly and its research activities, is also a major player in the field of cell therapy.

“We already cover 60% of the tissue and cell-engineering capabilities in France”, Anne Fialaire-Legendre, the head pharmacist at EFS, told us. In I N D E X Abivax Actelion Affilogic Affimed Therapeutics Alcon Kaysersberg Amatsigroup AR2i Argos Soditic Astorg Atlantic Bio GMP Axyntis Bioaster Biomunex Pharmaceuticals Biosantech BioWinTech Bioxodes Boehringer Ingelheim Boiron Cell for Cure Cenexi

around a dozen staff in the area of stem cell production, which will be used to supply two major clinical programmes”, said Dr Annick Moisan, who is responsible for a platform that will produce, among other items, dendritic cells that specifically activate lymphocytes to increase their ability to eradicate certain tumours. They will be used in a Phase I clinical trial conducted by Grenoble University Hospital for the treatment of melanoma.

The unit will also manufacture batches of mesenchymal stem cells for a new Phase II study for the treatment of cardiovascular strokes. After this, it will be the turn of the other regional EFS productions platforms, in particular those in Toulouse, Besançon and Créteil (in the Paris region), to start

order to develop new capabilities and comply with the European directive establishing the status of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP), which was transposed into French law in 2012, the EFS has launched an industrial investment project of around €10 million at its regional production platforms. “We needed to upgrade them to meet the new industrial, regulatory and capacity requirements”, Anne Fialaire-Legendre added.

On Friday 25 September, the management inaugurated the ATMP production platform at St-Ismier, near Grenoble, in the southeast of France. “The module comprises 72 m2 of laboratory space dedicated to ATMPs, and equates to an investment of around €1.5 million. Starting this month, it will employ

O F

C O M P A N I E S

5 2 5 8 6 4 7 3 2 2 3 5 8 7 8 6 4 5 2 5

Cerus 2 Chromalys 7 Covance 3 Crossject 3 DB Ashbourne 2 DBV 2 Eli Lilly 4 Enterome 6 Erytech 6 Etablissement Français du Sang 1, 2 Ethypharm 2 Excelvision 5 Fareva 5 Fenwal 2 Fuji Silysia Chemical 3 Fujifilm 5 Genzyme 4 Glycotope 3 GSK 4, 5 Halozyme Therapeutics 6

L I S T E D

I N

Horizon Discovery Institut Curie Institut Gustave Roussy Ipsen J&J Janssen Laphal LFB ManRos Therapeutics Medesis Pharma Medicen MSD Nodea Medical Novadip Novartis Novasep Octapharma Oncodesign Onxeo Parexel

T H I S 4 8 6, 7 7 8 8 4 2 5 7 8 4, 5 7 6 5 6 3 7 7 3

I S S U E

Pasquier Pharmaleads Pierre Fabre PPD Recipharm Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Roche Salem Sandoz Sanofi Servier Therachon Theravectys Thrombogenics Transgene UCB Valdepharm Voluntis Zai Lab ZS Pharma

4 3 4 5 6 2 7, 8 5 5 2, 3 4 7 6 6 6 3 5 8 3 2

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production according to their own clinical timetables.

The commissioning of these platforms will extend “up to the second quarter of 2016”, Anne Fialaire-Legendre explained and emphasised that the structure of these sites, exclusively dedicated to clinical batches, means that they are not easily able to accommodate commercial production.

“Moreover, they are no longer able to support Phase III studies, with the exception of St-Herblain near Nantes (Atlantic Bio GMP), one of the main European units for the production of viral vectors which also has the capacity to produce stem cells”, she added.

If successful at the end of phases II or III, production will be transferred to the Cell for Cure site in Les Ulis, near Paris, a cell therapy unit recently acquired by LFB (a pharmaceutical group

specialising in biological medicinal products), a long-standing partner of the EFS. “We already have two clinical programmes – the first based on hematopoietic cells, the second relating to mesenchymal stem cells – currently being transferred. Our aim is not to start producing ATMPs on a commercial basis”, the head pharmacist told us.

However, there is one exception, since the management of the EFS has jealously retained its industrial and commercial exclusivity over the red blood cells grown from stem cells by the team of Professor Luc Douay, in Créteil, a few kilometres to the south of Paris. This is part of a universal blood project eagerly awaited by blood transfusion specialists, and a hidden treasure of the EFS. Jean-Christophe Savattier

Business & Strategy

Ethypharm expands by buying DB Ashbourne

Astorg could sell Ethypharm

Ethypharm (€167 million turnover in 2014 and 900 employees) has announced its acquisition of the British firm DB Ashbourne. This deal will allow Ethypharm – a company producing complex generic drugs – to access a range of drugs indicated for CNS conditions. The laboratory already partly covers this therapeutic field through its range of painkiller and anti-addiction products (46% of sales), with its portfolio of products also covering two gastroenterology and cardiovascular ranges.

Thanks to this deal and recent commercial developments in France and Germany, the laboratory in St-Cloud (Paris region), which operates two industrial sites in Châteauneuf-enThymerais, to the west of Paris, and in Grand-Quevilly, in western France, plans to rapidly grow its turnover to €240 million.

According to Bloomberg, the private equity firm Astorg Partners, which owns a majority stake in Ethypharm, is contemplating the sale of the pharmaceutical company (with its valuation ranging from €700 to €800 million).

And the sale process could be started in first quarter of 2016. It is worth noting that Ethypharm makes 56 % of its turnover outside of the French market.

The Swiss firm Actelion is contemplating the acquisition of ZS Pharma The Swiss Actelion has recently begun preliminary discussions with ZS Pharma, with no commitment from either side, regarding the purchase of ZS Pharma as part of a deal that could be worth $2.5 billion. The management at ZS Pharma also confirmed that “they were in preliminary talks aimed at a strategic deal”.

LFB increases its capital by €230 million LFB has announced plans to increase its capital by €230 million following a transaction 100% underwritten by the French State, the sole shareholder of LFB SA. This aid will help finance the construction of a new plant for PDMPs (plasma-derived medicinal products) to be located in northern France.

Fenwal finalises its contract with Cerus Fenwal, a subsidiary of Fresenius Kabi, has finalised its agreement with the American laboratory Cerus to start producing Intercept blood safety kits at its Lacs site (central France). Fresenius and Cerus intend to invest in the site to upgrade the production facilities.

Praluent is authorised in Europe for hypercholesterolaemia The European commission has just authorised Praluent, a treatment developed by Sanofi with the American Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and indicated for the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia. According to the WHO, Europe has the highest per capita rate of this condition, even higher than America.

DBV starts Phase II of Viaskin Milk The French biopharmaceutical company DBV, which specialises in the treatment of food allergies, has just begun to recruit patients allergic to cowmilk proteins for a Phase II study of its Viaskin Milk patch.

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Sources close to Actelion indicated that its board was simultaneously examining several takeovers to make up for the impending loss of their exclusivity over Tracleer (bosentan), which accounted for three-quarters of its turnover in 2014.

However, ZS Pharma will not allow Actelion to immediately make up for this drop in its revenue. ZS Pharma, which is not currently generating any revenue, is placing its hopes on ZS-9, a treatment for hyperkalemia whose marketing authorisation is being considered by the FDA. A decision is due in May 2016.

Axyntis restructures its capital Axyntis, the fine chemicals group, headed

by David Simonnet (€83.1 million turnover in 2014 and 420 employees) and which was 92% controlled by the Argos

Soditic investment firm, will now be 50% owned by the Japanese manufacturer Fuji Silysia Chemical. The other half will be almost exclusively owned by David Simonnet who will become the sole owner of 49% of the shares, with the management holding the rest.

Fuji Silysia is an old acquaintance of Axyntis since the two groups have already developed several industrial partnerships and created a Joint Venture (Kyrapharm) with headquarters located in Pithiviers, a town to the south of Paris and the site of the Orgapharm plant.

The operation, which resulted in a €9.5 million increase in capital, has enabled the group to fully discharge its debt and increase its available cash by €4 million.

It will be jointly governed by a supervisory board chaired by Seiji Takahashi, CEO of Fuji Silysia, with David Simonnet acting as the joint chair.

Manufacturing

Covance to close Sanofi to increase Porcheville in the spring its competitiveness EXCLUSIVE The 130 employees at in France

the Covance preclinical research site in Porcheville in the Paris area have been warned that the first redundancy letters will go out on 11 January next year. In April, the last employees will leave the site which will then be closed by the American group, a little less than six years after the takeover agreement signed with Sanofi, accompanied by a five-year subcontracting contract.

The severance scheme put into action a few days ago leaves no glimmer of hope, unless a last-minute buyer is found. However, this appears unlikely as visits by three potential buyers during the summer did not result in any offers being placed on the table.

In the UK, the Alnwick site, which was sold by Sanofi, could soon suffer a similar fate when the subcontracting contract signed with the French pharmaceutical giant comes to an end. Covance has not received any proposals to take over the site, which also employs 130 people.

The management at Sanofi recently informed staff representatives that it intends to enter into negotiations aimed at increasing the productivity of its French sites from 20 % to 25 % by 2018.

According to the unions, this drive would call into question the organisation and agreements relating to the working hours of production operators. The management compared several French sites, including the sites at Ambarès, near Bordeaux, Tours and Amilly in central France, and found that production costs per box came out at 38 cents, far higher than those in Poland, Hungary or Spain, for example, where the costs per box exiting Sanofi plants ranged from 15 to 20 cents.

Nearly a third of the industrial capacities of the laboratory are located in France where the Group has invested €1.5 billion over five years, mainly in its bio-manufacturing facilities.

Pharmaleads conducting a study in France Pharmaleads has just opened its first clinical sites in France for Phase IIa of the PL37 oral treatment for pain in diabetic neuropathy. After the UK and France, it will open a site in Bulgaria.

Crossject entrusts Parexel with the bioequivalence study for Zeneo L15 Crossject, a biopharm from Dijon in eastern France, and the designer of the Zeneo needle-free injection device, has selected the CRO Parexel to conduct the bioequivalence study of its L15 product, used in emergency situations, and which could receive the status of an orphan drug in Europe by the end of 2015.

UCB signs a licensing agreement with Zai Lab The Belgian UCB has signed a collaborative and licensing agreement with the Chinese Zai Lab to develop and market firstin class monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Their first candidate will undergo Phase I testing in 2016.

Octapharma acquires Glycotope recombinant technology Switzerland's Octapharma, which develops human proteins, purchased for €80 million the exclusive global licence for recombinant technology from Glycotope, a German firm specialising in glycobiology, becoming one its minority stakeholders. Therapeutic areas targeted: haematology and immunotherapy.

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Lilly to produce Lantus biosimilar in Fegersheim The American company Lilly has announced that it intends to produce the first biosimilar of a prolonged-duration analogue of insulin glargine, Abasaglar, in Fegersheim near Strasbourg.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly have developed this product as part of an alliance focused on diabetes that aims to offer the widest possible range of products. This prolonged-duration analogue will be a direct competitor of Lantus – which is produced by Sanofi – and will be based on the drug whose patent has now entered into the public domain.

Now available in around 20 countries, Abasaglar is set to be authorised in France in the first half 2016 and at the end of the year in the United States.

Lilly confirms an investment of €170 million in Alsace The management of Lilly also confirmed an investment of €170 million in Fegersheim (1,500 employees),

where the US laboratory operates its largest factory in the world dedicated to filling sterile products; the investments are due to be rolled out from 2014 to 2016.

This major investment will soon see the installation of a high-speed cartridge filling line (up to 200 million units per year), as well as the deployment of a second assembly line (Apollo 6, operating at a rate of 200 strokes/minute) for single-use insulin pens; and will double the annual capacity for manufacturing pens, increasing it to 120 million.

New data on Aubagio for Genzyme Genzyme announced that data collected via magnetic resonance imaging in a Phase III study has shown that Aubagio significantly slows down the volume of brain loss in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, compared to a placebo.

Servier signs a licensing agreement with Horizon Discovery Horizon Discovery UK has signed a licensing agreement for Servier’s novel kinase inhibitors, and Servier has a first option to license back the assets. If Servier takes up this option, Horizon would receive up to £50 million in milestone payments.

French research sacrificed by GSK The big British pharmaceutical firm GSK announced to staff representatives its proposal to end its research platform at Les Ulis near Paris. This discovery site employing 70 people and launched in 1987 is dedicated to research into lipid and cardiovascular conditions. The management announced that it had until February 2016 to find a buyer. If unsuccessful, it will be forced to close the facility.

The decision comes following an audit that resulted in GSK deciding to centralise all of its R&D activities in two

Focus MSD wants to sell its R&D centre in Riom MSD-Chibret wants to sell its research and development centre in Riom in central France; the US laboratory has started discussions with a CRO that could be finalised by the end of the year, the management indicated. This toxicology platform, which has seen its business dwindle for several years, employs 110 employees and is located in the heart of the MSD Mirabel plant

(470 employees). The management also confirmed the buyer’s commitment to maintaining staff numbers on a long-term basis.

Marseilles firm Laphal buys Pasquier The French third-party manufacturer Laphal (€24 million turnover), which operates two industrial sites in Allauch and Rousset, near Marseilles, recently took over the Pasquier laboratory (€12 million turnover). Founded

in 1998 and based in Domazan (also located near Marseilles), it specialises in filling liquid forms in single-dose and multi-dose formats for pharmaceutical and food-supplement markets. Laphal produces liquid and paste forms, as well as dry forms.

Pierre Fabre sells a site to Amatsigroup The CDMO Amatsigroup from Toulouse (€26 million turnover in 2014) has just acquired the

Pierre Fabre pharmaceutical development centre (analytics and galenics), in St-Augustine in central France. This site, which employs a dozen employees, will allow Amatsigroup to develop the analytical component of its business. The sale is part of Pierre Fabre’s restructuring programme.

The two laboratories will also continue to work on joint projects; and certain activities will be carried out at the St-Augustin site.

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units: one in the United States and the other in Stevenage in the United Kingdom. The unions naturally opposed the decision, stating that the “management had constantly referred to the performance of French researchers in extremely glowing terms.”

During the same meeting to provide information to employees, the management confirmed their willingness to entrust further clinical trials to external partners including the CRO PPD. This decision, however, should not impact the GSK clinical unit at Marly-le-Roi in the Paris region, which employs around 40 staff.

Fareva invests €69 million in France The French manufacturer Fareva (€1.375 billion turnover) has committed to an investment programme at several of its pharmaceutical production units in France. It has earmarked €25 million for the Excelvision site (400 employees) in Annonay in the south of France where Fareva manufactures eye drops, with the planned development of two new BFS (Blow Fill Seal) lines. A €19 million investment, which is coming to an end, recently benefited Valdepharm in Valde-Reuil in western France; the plant mainly produces freeze-dried products and performs distribution activities (bottles).

Finally, the group, which on 1 September officially took over the Merck Sharp & Dome (MSD) La Vallée plant in St-Germain-Laprade in central France, specialising in the production of APIs, confirmed the €22 million investment it had announced in April 2015 when disclosing the planned takeover.

A large part of the package has been set aside for the construction of a unit for manufacturing highly-potent products on a wide scale. These facilities will become operational in mid-2017.

EXCLUSIVE

Cenexi, planned takeover of the BMS plant in Meymac Drama in Meymac, a small town located in President François Hollande’s home department of Corrèze! A providential buyer of the former Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) plant has just laid a firm offer on the table of the liquidator to take over the 13,000 m² site which specialises in the manufacture of dry forms and sachets.

We have been exclusively informed that the buyer is the manufacturer Cenexi.

The previous owner, the Algerian laboratory Salem, was forced to call in the receivers on April 21, and was then forced into liquidation on 22 September. Since then, the last 37 employees, together with the local elected officials, have doubled their efforts to find a buyer in the very short time required by the liquidation proceedings.

Cenexi’s management has declined to comment on this news. According to Khaled Salem, the head of the eponymous laboratory, the failure of the takeover bid was due to “harassment from the French tax authorities”.

EXCLUSIVE

Boiron acquires capacity in the Lyon region The homoeopathic manufacturer Boiron, world leader in its market, is pooling all of its logistics activities in a 280,000 m2 plot located to the east of Tarare, a commune in the Greater Lyon area. Fifty employees will be employed at the new premises to be built by the end of 2017.

Also in the Lyon region, in January 2016 the manufacturer will start building a tube and dose manufacturing platform in the commune of Messimy, where it already has a plant. This 15,000 m2 extension will be used for the activities currently performed at the nearby site in Ste-Foy-lès-Lyon. By the end of 2017, it will take its place alongside the two other buildings used for the production of sugar-coated pills.

Affilogic committed to the European Divine project Affilogic, a French start-up specialising in affinity chromatography, has been selected to participate in the Divine European project and received €5.8 million funding under the research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, which aims to reduce the cost of manufacturing vaccines.

Bioaster joins forces with Fujifilm to combat Ebola The Technology Research Institute Bioaster (microbiology) will collaborate with the Japanese Fujifilm on the development of a rapid diagnostic system (3-15 min) for the Ebola virus. It will combine the highly sensitive detection technology of Fujifilm developed for the flu virus, with antibodies for the Ebola virus produced by Bioaster.

ManRos Therapeutics raises €200,000 The French biotech ManRos Therapeutics (10 employees) has raised € 200,000 in investment funds from Crédit Agricole Finistère (Brittany) to finance the initial clinical phase of one of its candidates for cystic fibrosis.

New Medical Director at Abivax The French Abivax strengthened its management team by appointing Dr Jean-Marc Steens as its medical director.

He began his career at Sandoz in Belgium ; then worked for around twenty years at GSK, followed by a consultancy role at Novartis.

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This represents an overall investment of €43 million. The additional capacity will serve to prop up the group’s growth (+5%) and its globalisation projects, particularly on the Asian and Indian markets.

Alcon Kaysersberg due to be sold to the Swedish Recipharm An agreement in principle has been signed between the Alcon Group (Novartis) and Recipharm relating to

the sale to the latter of the Kaysersberg plant in eastern France, which employs 267 people manufacturing ophthalmic products in sterile single doses (370 million units produced in 2014).

Alcon’s management announced to staff representatives their decision to pull out of the deal in late July. This was accompanied by a five-year subcontracting agreement and a commitment to retain jobs for a period of three years. The project is set to be formalised in mid-November, after a period of consultation with the company’s works council.

Biopharms

Novadip from Wallonia raises €28 million Located in Louvain-La-Neuve in Belgium, Novadip Biosciences, a spinoff of the Catholic University of Louvain, has just raised €28 million from a Series A round led by American investment fund New Science Ventures, alongside the Belgian investors VIVES II, NivelInvest, Fund +, Integrale, SRIW, SFPI-FPIM and Epimède and some private investors. The capital raised, combined with a €2 million advance from the Walloon regional authorities, will help fund the clinical development and industrialisation process of Creost, the flagship product of Novadip, a company specialising in tissue regeneration.

Creost, comprising natural threedimensional and support-free tissue, is used to correct small and large bone defects without the assistance of any other biomaterials.

Bioxodes well supported The Belgian biotech Bioxodes recently raised €2.9 million from well-known investors such as the former chairman of GSK Biologicals, Jean Stéphenne, and Désiré Collen, the founder of Thrombogenics. This funding will be

used to finance the preclinical development and preparation of clinical batches of its new anticoagulant candidate Ir-CPI, developed from tick saliva. The benefit of this molecule is that it prevents the formation of thrombosis in patients without increasing the risk of bleeding.

Erytech requests a European marketing authorisation for Graspa This is an important moment for the Lyon-based biopharmaceutical firm Erytech Pharma. The laboratory, which develops “tumour starvation” treatments specifically indicated in cases of acute leukaemia and other types of cancer, announced that it had filed an application for a marketing authorisation for Graspa with the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Graspa, one of Erytech’s lead products, which contains asparaginase encapsulated in red blood cells, is indicated in the treatment of patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).

The filing of the application comes on the back of positive results from the pivotal phase II/III Graspall 2009-06 study conducted on children and adults with refractory ALL.

Georges Gemayel becomes non-executive chairman of Enterome Georges Gemayel has joined the board of directors of the Paris Enterome drug delivery firm, which specialises in the microbiome, as non-executive chairman. He replaces Bernard Gilly, who becomes a non-executive director.

Appointments to the scientific committee of Novasep Novasep, a leading life sciences specialist, appointed Alois Fürstner (director of the Mark Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung) and Alois Jungbauer (professor at the Austrian industrial biotechnology centre at the University of Vienna) to its scientific committee.

Theravectys appoints Jean-Pierre Bizzari to its board of directors Theravectys, a biotech specialising in therapeutic vaccines and immunotherapy, has appointed Jean-Pierre Bizzari to its board of directors, to replace John Pieters.

Mr Bizzari is also on the management boards of Transgene and Halozyme Therapeutics.

Alexander Eggermont reappointed as head of the Institut Gustave Roussy Alexander Eggermont, who has been in the role since 2010, was reappointed by the Minister for Health Marisol Touraine to head the Institut Gustave Roussy for a period of 5 years and oversee the rollout of the Cancer Campus near Paris and creation of the PRECAN research platform.

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Therachon raises €31.2 million Therachon, which develops therapies for achondroplasia (a major cause of dwarfism in humans) recently completed a Series A round for €31.2 million led by the health investment fund OrbiMed and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), supplemented by Inserm Transfer Initiative and Versant Ventures.

The biopharmaceutical firm located in Biot, near Nice, will use the funds to develop a soluble form of human fibroblast growth factor receptor 3. Achondroplasia affects 200,000 people worldwide.

Nodea Medical raises €2 million Nodea Medical, a start-up specialising in real-time cancer diagnostics, has just completed a €2-million capital increase. Co-founded in 2011 by Florian Châtellier and Prof. René Farcy, a research professor at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), Nodea Medical is developing minimally invasive technology as part of a collaborative project between Institut Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Sud and the CNRS. This support will allow the fast tracking of Probea clinical devices. Marketing is scheduled for 2017.

AR2i benefits from the support of Audacia Located in Le Plessis-Robinson in the Paris region, the biopharmaceutical firm AR2i has just raised €1 million from Audacia, a venture capital firm created in 2007 by Charles Beigbeder, Alexis Dyèvre and Pierre-Guillaume Véron.

AR2i (€2 million turnover in 2014), a service provider (analytical development, stability and regulatory studies) for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and cosmetic industries, will strengthen its regulatory advisory capacity and develop the resources required to launch new cosmetic products.

Medesis Pharma intends to finance its projects by crowdfunding Medesis Pharma, a biopharmaceutical firm based in Baillargues in the south of France, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Happy Capital platform and has already managed to raise more than €800,000 on behalf of Biosantech for its therapeutic vaccine for HIV. Medesis Pharma develops decontamination products for populations exposed following nuclear accidents. The Aonys nano-emulsion technology from Medesis consists of a simple oral spray that delivers active ingredients to all the body’s cells. The market for this type of product is estimated at €1 billion. With this funding, the biopharmaceutical company is hoping to market its treatment in 2018 and continue two clinical trials into Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.

Chromalys has launched crowdfunding campaign Chromalys, a start-up with around a dozen employees, specialising in biological medical imaging, has launched a crowdfunding campaign via My Pharma Company, for the development of its ‘Tumor Track’, an injectable marker for mobile tumours for radiotherapy guidance. This campaign aims to raise €600,000 by the end of the year.

Oncodesign improves its results Oncodesign, a biopharmaceutical company in Dijon (eastern France) specialising in the identification and development of kinase inhibitors potentially indicated in oncology, announced a €6 million turnover for the first half of 2015, a 93% increase compared with the same period in 2014.

This performance was mainly due to growth in the services sector, which stood at €4.57 million (+77%).

Changes at the top of Ipsen Stéphane Bessette took up the position of executive vice president in charge of human resources of the Ipsen Group. He also became a member of the executive committee. Stéphane Bessette has been head of human resources of the pharmaceutical group Sorin since 2007.

Stéphane Ortu becomes the general representative of Aspec After acting as the vicechairman in 2011 and 2012, Stéphane Ortu becomes the general representative of Aspec, the French association for the prevention and study of contamination. Stéphane Ortu was Director in France for the sale of air treatment solutions at Areva.

Padraic Ward becomes chairman of Roche SAS The Irishman Padraic Ward has become the chairman of Roche SAS, the pharmaceutical subsidiary of Roche in France. He has worked for over 20 years in the pharmaceutical sector, particularly in oncology, and started at the Roche Group in 2004.

Onxeo changes its chairman Onxeo (formerly BioAlliance Pharma), specialising in the development of drugs for orphan diseases in oncology, has appointed Joseph Zakrzewski as a non-executive chairman and member of its board of directors. He is taking over from Patrick Langlois. Joseph Zakrzewski has over 25 years’ experience in the health sector.

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Drug Research

J&J to set up an incubator in Val-de-Reuil The J&J Group, which operates an R&D platform employing 170 staff at the Janssen site in Val-de-Reuil in western France, is set to announce the onsite creation of an incubator for biotechnology firms, with these firms being offered the opportunity to collaborate on joint development projects.

Originally reserved for cosmetic products, the incubator could also start collaborating with biotechnology firms.

They will be able to enter into partnerships with the Janssen research centre which specialises in infectious disease and oncology/haematology, and has recently gained plaudits after developing bedaquiline, the molecule of Sirturo, indicated in the treatment of multidrug-resistant TB.

EXCLUSIVE

Medicen approves seven projects The Paris Medicen competitiveness cluster has approved seven programmes under the 2015 call for proposals from the French National Research Agency (ANR). Such projects included the Imoca project, spearheaded by Institut

Curie on the study of new cancer therapies based on immunomodulation, which received €1.5 million. Overseen by the BioWinTech start-up (Paris region), Mimatic has received around €0.6 million for the development of a new class of biomaterials for implantable medical devices, particularly in ophthalmology. Finally, driven by the U1193 and U1157 units of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), in partnership with UMR_S 938, the BaTiLire project also received €0.6 million for the study of biliary homeostasis in liver repair mechanisms. This project could open up new therapeutic fields in the management of liver diseases.

Roche agrees a partnership with Voluntis The Swiss Roche company has entered into a partnership with the French firm Voluntis, which publishes companion software to design solutions for patients with breast cancer. It will combine medical software and a remote medicine service so patients can adjust their treatments and better manage their symptoms. Information will be entered manually or collected directly through objects, connected to a mobile application.

S u b s c r i p t i o n

New Chief Scientific Officer at Biomunex The Parisian biopharmaceutical company Biomunex Pharmaceuticals, which specialises in the discovery of cancer products, has announced the appointment of Dr Eugène Zhukovsky as its Chief Scientific Officer.

He previously worked as head of research at Affimed Therapeutics.

Professor Félix Rey, winner of the 2015 PasteurWeizmann/Servier Prize The Pasteur- Weizmann/ Servier Prize for 2015 has just been awarded to Professor Félix Rey, director of the Structural Virology Unit at Institut Pasteur for his work in the field of emerging pathogenic viruses. The Pasteur-Weizmann/Servier Prize is awarded every three years, and with a €150,000 grant, is one of the most popular scientific awards.

f o r m

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