MilliporeSigma has unveiled the winners of its Advance Biotech Grant program in Europe. The grant is given to small- and mid-size biotechnology companies that need funding and expertise to get their therapies to market. Applicants from emerging biotech companies across Europe were asked to describe their projects, the medical needs they solve, and process development challenges they face to be considered for the grant. Each grant recipient will receive between €50,000 and €100,000 in MilliporeSigma products and services to help solve their challenges.
 
“For decades, MilliporeSigma’s process development and manufacturing experts have worked with drug manufacturers of all sizes to solve their challenges and bring life-enhancing drug therapies to market, faster,” said Udit Batra, chief executive officer, MilliporeSigma. “Through our Advance Biotech Grant Program, we are helping entrepreneurs around the world accelerate the commercialization of their molecules.”
 
The three grant recipients are:
 
• GenoScience Pharma (France), to explore new agents such as GNS561—a never-before-used mechanism-of-action in commercialized cancer treatments / anti-cancer drugs in the pipeline.
 
• GlioCure (France), for developing an anti-tumor and neuroprotective peptide, GC01, to treat the most frequent and aggressive type of brain tumor, glioblastoma.
 
• ResoTher Pharma (Denmark), to develop new medicines for cardiovascular and inflammatory disorders.
 
GlioCure’s first product, GC01, is in the final stage of non-regulatory preclinical development for the treatment of glioblastoma which represents about 15 percent of all primary brain tumors.
 
“We are currently working on two different formulations to address resectable and non-resectable patients,” said Louis-MarieBachelot, chief executive officer and founder, GlioCure. “Thanks to the Advance Biotech Grant Program and MilliporeSigma’s expertise and capacities, GC01’s path towards the clinic will, undoubtedly, be strongly accelerated.”
 
MilliporeSigma selected the winning submissions based on the scientific and societal merit of therapy in development and process challenges and expertise gaps. The program is part of the company’s global biotech commitment to help bring therapies to market, leveraging decades of process development expertise products, and support at any production scale.
 
MilliporeSigma began offering the grant program in 2014. The rotating program runs every six months, in either Europe, the U.S. or China. To date, MilliporeSigma has awarded nearly €1 million in products and services from MilliporeSigma to 17 biotech companies in these regions. Past European grant recipients include Germany-based GeneQuine Biotherapeutics, the UK’s ReNeuron and Magnus Life Science and TILT Biotherapeutics in Finland.
 
In addition to the Advance Biotech Grant, MilliporeSigma recently named Cambridge, MA-based Kytopen as the winner of its biotech start-up program in the U.S. Kytopen won a sponsored residency at LabCentral, a first-of-its-kind shared laboratory space. As a resident, the biotech works to further develop its proprietary Flowfect technology for non-viral delivery of molecules into hard-to-transfect cells. Kytopen’s automated cell engineering platform enables new discoveries in biology that lead to cost-effective cell and gene therapies.