Four National Growth Fund-supported initiatives are joining forces to drive development of cell-based therapeutic products and approaches – and invite others to join them.
Utrecht (The Netherlands), September 17th, 2024. At a joint event at the Innovation Center for Advanced Therapies (ICAT) on the Utrecht Science Park Zeist, representatives from four pioneering consortia supported by the Dutch National Growth Fund—NXTGEN Hightech, RegMed XB, Biotech Booster, and Oncode Accelerator— met to share their accomplishments to date and future plans. They also identified key areas for collaboration, and the productive day resulted in the drafting of a joint statement as well as a call for new partners.
All four consortia include a focus on innovating cell-based therapeutic products and approaches, such as those employed in regenerative medicine and immunotherapy, in order to provide novel treatments for a spectrum of diseases ranging from cancer to autoimmune diseases.
With the ultimate goal of bringing new therapeutics to patients, NXTGEN Hightech, RegMed XB, and Oncode Accelerator are also building, innovating, and scaling the technology and infrastructure necessary for production of these advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) in the Netherlands. Biotech Booster, a National Growth Fund program established to support the commercialization of biotechnology findings in The Netherlands, will be a key collaborator to bring innovative medicines developed within the consortia to market as quickly as possible.
“The faster we can help bring biotech findings such as innovative medicines to the market, the faster they have a tangible impact on society, which we believe should be the ultimate goal of any researcher”,
says Nettie Buitelaar, CEO at Biotech Booster.
Jürgen Kuball, Professor in Hematology at UMC Utrecht and Cell and Gene Therapy Workstream lead within the Oncode Accelerator program, kicked off the event on September 17th by explaining how the four initiatives can work together to overcome the bottlenecks in bringing ATMPs to first-in-human clinical trials.
“Mimicking GMP manufacturing environments early in research and development, mixing and matching different technologies, and combining expertise ranging from gene editing and viral vectors to quality control and regulatory affairs will help us to shorten the development cycle of novel ATMPs. This will create the opportunity to improve early access to future cellular therapies for our patients.”
Bernard Mulder, CEO of RegMed XB, added,
“This collaboration is crucial for the future of cell therapies and for regenerative medicine. By joining forces with partners specialized in ATMPs, we can speed up the development of new treatments. Our goal is to move from care to cure, providing patients with chronic diseases faster access to innovative therapies. Together, we are dedicated to making this vision a reality.”
“There are clear complementarities across these four national growth fund initiatives,” added Ingrid Relou, Program Manager Biomedical Production Technologies at NXTGEN Hightech.
“NXTGEN Hightech strives for a healthier future by developing scalable next-generation production equipment in five market segments. In cell and gene therapy we strive to push the boundaries in cell cultivation by developing next generation bioreactor technology for scalable production with a high degree of automation and real-time biosensing. By joining forces and tapping into each other's complementary expertise and innovative approaches, we can scale up the Dutch innovation potential in cell and gene therapy and truly accelerate breakthroughs."
Karlijn Wilschut, Project Manager Pharma at Oncode Accelerator, closed the event by highlighting the Oncode Accelerator’s approach to innovation of oncology R&D, as well as a call for applications for Demonstrator Projects: preclinical oncology discovery and development projects that receive support from Oncode Accelerator. Through Demonstrator projects, oncology researchers can gain access to Oncode Accelerator’s Innovation Platforms – well-defined patient cohorts, organoids, and AI – as well as project co-funding. Friso Smit, COO of Oncode Accelerator, added,
“We believe that sharing knowledge across NGF-funded initiatives is essential. By combining our expertise, which together spans the development cycle for bringing ATMPs from research labs to the clinic, we will better be able to outsmart cancer and impact lives. As all these programs are now starting up, this is the time to act together.”
Interested parties can download the joint statement in full. In addition, NXTGEN Hightech, RegMed XB, and Oncode Accelerator are actively seeking new collaborations. Investors, industry leaders, and skilled professionals are invited to reach out, and join in the
effort to accelerate development of these life-saving therapies.
Main Contact:
Dr. Emma Martinez Sanchez
Program Manager Cell and Gene Therapy Department Hematology
University Medical Centre Utrecht
e.martinezsanchez-5@umcutrecht.nl
About NXTGEN Hightech
NXTGEN Hightech officially launched in May 2023. The goal of the program is to boost economic growth in the Netherlands and make the Dutch high-tech sector the leading cluster in Europe. To achieve this, the NXTGEN Hightech program will invest approximately €1 billion euros by 2030 and will involve 330 partners. The National Growth Fund supports this program with €450 million euros. NXTGEN Hightech Biomed05 consortium partners include: Scinus; Demcon; Helia Biomonitoring; Batavia Biosciences; Ncardia; Lionix International; ChiralVision; Bronkhorst; TNCBio; TU Eindhoven; University Twente; UMC Utrecht.
Website: https://nxtgenhightech.nl
About RegMedXB
RegMed XB stands for Regenerative Medicine Crossing Borders. RegMed XB is a public-private partnership dedicated to bringing regenerative medicine solutions to patients and creating a new industrial sector in the participating regions. RegMed XB brings together leading scientists at Dutch and Belgian universities and institutes and a range of companies in so-called “Moonshots”: long-term visions of breakthroughs for patients, translated into research roadmaps with specific short-term milestones. Each is championed by a Health Foundation and their related patient organizations, putting patient impact at the heart of RegMed XB.
Website: https://regmedxb.com
About the Innovation Centre for Advanced Therapies (ICAT)
In 2021, a National Growth Fund application (total €56 million) was awarded to RegMedXB, with Utrecht receiving €12.7 million. This fund will help overcome the challenge of regenerative medicine, as it will be used to make a pilot plant concerning regenerative medicine therapies. In Utrecht and Zeist, we will establish one part of that: the Innovation Center for Advanced Therapies (ICAT). The ICAT aims to improve and accelerate the translation of research into healthcare solutions by bringing together all relevant expertise and infrastructure for the development of regenerative treatments, Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) including Tissue Engineered Products, Cell & Gene Therapies, and disease models.
Website: https://icat-utrecht.nl/en
About Biotech Booster
Biotech Booster is a national program funded by the Dutch National Growth Fund that supports the commercialization of biotechnology findings in The Netherlands. Biotech Booster offers financial support, mentorship and networking opportunities to guide scientists and entrepreneurs from the idea stage to an investable or commercial proposition. The goal is to make sure that the benefits of biotechnology will have more and faster impact on society. Moreover, Biotech Booster facilitates close collaborations between public and private partners in the biotechnology sector and established five Thematic Clusters following biotechnological focus areas: White: Industrial Biotechnology & Production (TC 1); Green: AgroFood biotechnology (TC 2); Red: human health, diagnostics, therapeutics (TC 3, 4 & 5).
Website: https://biotechbooster.nl
About Oncode Accelerator
Oncode Accelerator is a public-private partnership funded by the Dutch National Growth Fund that brings together six key coordinating partners: Leiden University, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Princess Máxima Center, UMC Utrecht, and the Oncode Accelerator Foundation. Oncode Accelerator partners believe that preclinical drug discovery and therapy development can be significantly accelerated and de-risked by leveraging an innovative combination of well-defined patient cohorts, organoid models, and artificial intelligence platforms. Oncode Accelerator preclinical drug discovery pipelines, known as workstreams, focus on the four most prominent types of cancer therapies: small molecules; biologics; cell and gene therapy; and therapeutic vaccines.
Website: https://www.oncodeaccelerator.nl