Biomedical/pharma

Biomedical/pharma

Leuven, Belgium – December 4th, 2024 – miDiagnostics is pleased to announce the completion of a €30 million Series D funding round, led by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science. This investment will accelerate the development of a groundbreaking sterility test for batch release and related quality control tests for the BioPharma Industry, utilizing miDiagnostics’ proprietary qPCR technology.
Ghent, Belgium, 4 December 2024 – European health technology (HealthTech) is at a critical crossroad. Despite groundbreaking research, a thriving startup scene and ambitious talent, the sector struggles to translate innovation into actionable impact. Challenges such as regulatory restrictions, fragmented markets, and funding gaps are slowing progress, while the clock is ticking and other regions of the world are surging ahead.
Investment led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, with the participation of new and existing investors, including Apollo Health Ventures, NRW.Venture, and HTGF. ● New financing will accelerate preclinical development of Refoxy’s lead program in IPF as well as the expansion of its platform to additional age-related indications.
Antwerp, Belgium / Warsaw, Poland – December 4, 2024 – QbD Group and SciencePharma have reached an agreement for QbD Group to acquire SciencePharma. The deal is expected to close by early 2025, pending antitrust clearance.
A world where we can 3D bioprint organs on demand is creeping ever closer to clinical reality, thanks to Belgian efforts to standardize the biomaterials necessary. Achieving this will have profound consequences for organ transplants, disease modeling, tissue engineering, personalized medicine, and drug discovery. But bioprinting success depends on multidisciplinary collaborations between material scientists, hardware manufacturers, clinicians, and other partners. Recently, these collaborations have reached the stratosphere, with a project to study cardiovascular aging with a heart-on-a-chip… in space!
Cervical cancer is largely curable if detected early enough and yet it remains a leading cause of death in women globally. Why? Although researchers recently made the biggest improvement in cervical cancer treatment in more than 20 years, cutting the risk of death by over 40%, effective and inclusive screening remains crucial for early detection and treatment. However, recent research from Belgium suggests that certain populations of vulnerable women or those with a migration background are falling through the cervical cancer screening cracks.
In recent decades, the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors have experienced unprecedented progress, reshaping patient care through the introduction of cutting-edge therapies. A stream of novel drugs has emerged at an increasingly rapid pace, for conditions lacking approved treatments or as improved treatments where existing drugs fell short in terms of efficacy, safety, or convenience. But is the health innovation industry falling victim to its own burgeoning success?
Precision oncology, which tailors cancer treatments to an individual’s specific biological characteristics, has advanced significantly in recent years. Doctors are now using more targeted therapies that focus on specific cues or biomarkers in tissues, making treatments more personalized. Nevertheless, cancer is still a tough disease to fight, and many treatments do not consistently eliminate tumors. This is where the power of multiplex imaging comes in.
Ghent, October 23, 2024 — 4Tissue, a pioneering biotech company revolutionizing regenerative medicine with its cutting-edge, bioresorbable hydrogel tissue mimic has successfully completed a €2M seed funding round including equity investment and non-dilutive grants. Led by three prominent female investors from the life science and business sectors, this funding will enable 4Tissue to accelerate the clinical development of its innovative platform. This investment underscores the transformative potential of 4Tissue in women’s health.
ATMPs (advanced therapy medicinal products) are expected to reach a global value of 80 billion euro in 2032. While it can be tempting to try to go it alone, the fastest and most intelligent way to advance is by advancing together. The event, Advanced Therapies in Belgium, presents such an occasion, offering a space for innovative ideas and featuring speakers from the forefront of the Belgian and international ATMP innovation.
Luxembourg may be one of the smallest nations in the world, at just over 2,500 square kilometers and around 670,000 inhabitants, but it packs a punch in the global life sciences ecosystem. With world-class research institutes, startup accelerators, and the country’s growing digital prowess, Luxembourg is attracting global talent and putting digital healthtech solutions front and center. So, how did the Grand Duchy establish and grow its thriving research and startup landscape, and what is the vision for the future?
In our overfed yet undernourished modern society, we must understand how the things we eat contribute to our gut microbiome and overall health. Analyzing how the friendly and not-so-friendly communities of microbes in our gut respond to our daily intake of food, additives, supplements, and pharmaceuticals will help companies formulate more nutritious products while providing us with crucial insights to help us all be healthier for longer.
Could we ever recreate the complexity of the human brain in the lab? Over ten years ago, researchers aimed to do just that by developing a three-dimensional cell culture method to grow the first ever miniaturized versions of the human brain, so-called ‘brain organoids.’ Innovation in this field continues at a rapid pace, with researchers in Luxembourg and around the world refining methods to grow organoids that resemble specific brain regions. These advances can help us understand the effects of Parkinson’s disease on cells while driving the discovery of novel therapeutics beneficial to those in need.
An ageing population comes with multiple challenges. Diseases affecting older populations are becoming more prevalent shifting the focus of our healthcare systems. One of the most debilitating is Alzheimer’s disease. Although there is currently no cure, groundbreaking research is expanding our knowledge, giving hope to patients.
Anacura, a Ghent-based company offering medical and pharmaceutical analytical services, announces the acquisition of OHMX.bio, a Ghent University spin-off specialized in advanced -omics technology. The acquisition expands the existing anacura group activities at AnaBioTec and Labo Nuytinck towards drug discovery and diagnostics research.