2021 Pitchers

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Start-up Slams

The Award for the most Innovative Start-up goes to:
VÉSALE BIOSCIENCE

Vésale Bioscience, a Belgium start-up represented by Philippe Ghem, Chief commercial Officer, is the winner of this year’s edition of the Start-up Slams, from the Infectious category.

“We are very proud to receive this award. It recognizes the great work performed by the Vésale Bioscience team and further motivates us to pursue our research into solutions to multidrug-resistant infections, which constitute a major global public health challenge. We are in the middle of a Series A funding round; this prize serves to validate our development choices and our credibility.”
Philippe Ghem, Chief commercial Officer, Vésale Bioscience

Vésale Bioscience, a biotech company specializing in phage therapy, with a particular focus on research into alternative solutions to antibiotics and the development of treatments for multidrug-resistant infections. The Belgian start-up is developing an effective and reproducible phage therapy approach that offers a personalized solution to the major issue of AntiMicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Discover below the start-up projects that were presented during BioFIT Digital 2021:

Tuesday, December 7^th | 11.30 am – 12.30 pm CET

INFECTIOUS

VÉSALE BIOSCIENCE
Phage therapy | Precision Medicine | AntiMicrobial Resistance (AMR)

MICROPLATE DX
Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (AST) | Diagnostics | AntiMicrobial Resistance (AMR)

AI-BIOPHARMA
Emergent viruses | Oral drugs | Polymerase inhibitors

APTEEUS
Drug repurposing | Covid19 | Orphan disease

3D-CELL CULTURE TOOLS

REAL RESEARCH
3D cell culture | Hydrogel | Drug screening models

BIOMIMX
Organs-on-chip | Mechanobiology | Preclinical model

Wednesday, December 8^th | 2.30 – 3.30 pm CET

THERAPEUTICS

REMEDIUM BIO
Gene therapy | Biotechnology | Rheumatology

GENVADE THERAPEUTICS
Nonsense mutations | Readthrough molecules | Rare diseases & oncology

SEABELIFE BIOTECH
First in class small molecules | Cell death inhibitor | Major peak sales potential

ERACAL
Potent oral appetite suppressor | Obesity | in vivo phenotypic drug discovery technology

INVENIS BIOTHERAPIES
Platelet Lysat | Neurodegenerative diseases | Regenerative medicine

PAR’IMMUNE
Inflammation | Immunotherapy | Ulcerative Colitis

Thursday, December 9^th | 9.00 – 10.30 am CET

CANCEROLOGY / ONCOLOGY

OPSYON
Multi-functional antibody fusions | CD47- SIRPα immune checkpoint | Acute Myeloid Leukemia

B-SIDE PHARMA
Breast-Cancer | TNBC | MOA

VIEWAVES
Human cancer therapy | Enhanced tumor surgery | Near infrared (ou NIR) fluorescence-guided surgery

AI / BIG DATA

SUMONDO
Detection of stress | Real-time stress measurement | Therapeutics for stress relieving

BIOSTRAND
Bio-Informatics | Multi-OMICs | Integration

DIAGNOSTICS

EPIQMAX
Epigenetics | Personalized Health | Digital Health

NADMED
NAD metabolites | Blood test | Drug screening

SOMAPROBES
Diagnostics | Nuclease activity | Oligonucleotide probes

MARX BIOTECHNOLOGY
Health Care | Life Sciences | Diagnostics

Collaborative and licensing opportuny presentations

The Award for the most Promising Technology goes to:
VALANX BIOTECH

VALANX Biotech, represented by Michael Lukesch, CEO, received the “Most Promising Technology” award.

“We are incredibly honoured to receive the BioFIT price. The award is very helpful in communicating to our collaboration partners, customers and investors the quality of the work we do which would not be possible without our gifted and dedicated team.”
Michael Lukesch, CEO, VALANX Biotech

VALANX Biotech develops a site-specific protein conjugation platform with the goal to make the struggle of precise, reproducible protein conjugation a thing of the past, for the benefit of our partners, customers, and patients. Our goal is to be the first company to offer up to 10 freely selectable conjugation sites on any expressible protein in excellent yield to give superior product quality. With our conjugation platform in place we have started to develop VLX101 a novel cytokine conjugate with applications in the treatment of autoimmune disease.

Discover below the technologies that were presented during BioFIT Digital 2021

Tuesday, December 7^th | 3.30 – 4.30 pm CET

INFECTIOUS

STRIGO
Antiviral drugs | Herpesviruses | Strigolactones

PAD2
Antiviral drugs | Viral infections | Peptidyl-Arginine Deiminase (PAD)

INFLAMMATION

LIPOSOME
Liposome | Pulmonary Fibrosis | Bronchiolitis Obliterans

NLRP3 INFANT
Small Molecules | Inflammasome | Inflammatory diseases

CNS

APOMORPHINE
Parkinson’s disease | Apomorphine | Drug delivery system

Wednesday, December 8^th | 11.30 am – 12.30 pm CET

RESEARCH TOOLS

FUNDAZIONE IRCCS
Extracellular vescicles | Inflammation | Regenerative medicine

SYNAXYS
3D human in vitro models of the nervous system | Neuronal diseases modeling | Drug discovery

VALANX BIOTECH
Site-specific protein conjugation | Protein conjugates | Autoimmune disease

GENEVER LAB
Extracellular Vesicles | Mesenchymal Stem Cells | Regenerative medicine

FASTEV
Extracellular vesicle | Liquid biopsy | Biomarker discovery

Wednesday, December 8^th | 11.30 am – 12.30 pm CET

RESEARCH TOOLS

METROVISION
Ophthalmology | New therapies | Visual functions monitoring

DELSITECH
Long-acting | Compliance | Life-cycle management

EXADEX-INNOV
Adipose tissue | Microphysiological system | Metabolism R&D

NANOREP
Fertility | Nanoparticles | Oocyte/embryo

Thursday, December 9^th | 11.30 am – 12.30 pm CET

CANCEROLOGY / ONCOLOGY

CHIMERIX COMPLEX
Metastatisation | Aptamer| miRNA

MERAVAX
Cancer vaccine | Immunotherapy | Pet care

MORGANA
Immunotherapy | Monoclonal Antibody | Solid tumors

CATHERINN BV
Liquid biopsy test | Early cancer diagnostics | Small cell lung cancer

EUCODIS BIOSCIENCE GMBH
3^rd generation of ADCs | Diagnostics | Therapeutics

Animal Health Presentations

The Award for the most Innovative Animal Health Project goes to:
ANSES

Anses, a French project represented by Olivier Bourry, Deputy Head of NRL African Swine Fever, is the winner of this year’s edition of the Animal Health Presentations.

“This was our first participation to BioFIT and we are honored that our project was awarded as the most innovative animal health project. BioFIT was a very good opportunity to present our vaccine candidate against African Swine Fever to potential industrial partners. We hope the exchanges initiated during BioFIT will lead to the development of our vaccine and give the pig sector an indispensable tool to fight against this devastating disease that is currently spreading all around the world.”
Olivier Bourry, Deputy Head of NRL African Swine Fever, Anses

ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety) has a network of nine laboratories, located throughout the country, near the related production sectors. The Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort (PPN) laboratory works more specifically on the health and welfare of production animals including pigs. Within the PPN Laboratory, the Swine Virology and Immunology Unit is interested in various viral infections, including African Swine Fever, for which it is National Reference Lab and as such develops reference and research activities, particularly in the field of vaccinology.

Discover below the animal health projects that were presented during BioFIT Digital 2021

Wednesday, December 8^th | 9.00 – 10.30 am CET

VETERINARY

PROVAXS-GHENT UNIVERSITY
Mucosal vaccine | Targeted delivery | Vaccine platform

OUEST VALORISATION
African swine fever | Live attenuated vaccine | Oronasal / Intramuscular delivery

LABORATORIOS ENOSAN
Silver nanoparticles | Bacteria | Antibiotic substitution

INRAE
Avian defensin | AvBD11 | Peptide synthesis

DELSITECH
Long-acting injectable | Compliance | Life-cycle management

ONE HEALTH

VÉSALE BIOSCIENCE
Bacteriophage therapy | AntiMicrobial Resistance (AMR) | Farm management

VETBIOLIX
Pets health | Comparative Medicine | Oncology, Periodontal diseases

Anthony Daccache, Venture Developer, Finovam Gestion
Damien Chopy, Business Development Manager, Roche
Gary Breit, CEO, Breit Ideas LLP
Yannick Campion, Business Development Officer, SATT Nord
Sabeena Kalla, Scientific and Evaluation Director, Eurasanté
Jean-Luc Chagnaud, Healthcare Business Development Manager & IP Manager, Aquitaine Science Transfert
Joachim Vogt, Director, Search and Evaluation, Western Europe, Abbvie
Florence Dal Degan, R&D Innovation Sourcing Director, Novo Nordisk
Jurgen Bauer, Deputy Managing Director, EMBLEM Technology Transfer
Frank Hensel, Principal, High-Tech Gründerfonds
Corinne Szilagyi, Member of the Business Development Committee, France Biotech
Bobby Soni, Chief Business Officer, BioInnovation Institute
Sara Nuñez-Garcia, Co-Founding Partner, Forty51 Ventures
Esther Lange, Industry Liaison Manager, Ascenion
Isabelle Dupin-Roger, Director of External Opportunities, Servier
Joel Yao, Principal, Sofinnova Partners
Catello Somma, Associate, TVM Capital Live Science
Amanda Stenbaek, Healthcare Investment Associate, INKEF Capital
Marie Duranteau, Analyst – Capital Fund, Sofinnova Partners
Jean-Louis Hunault, President, SIMV
Michael Hemprich, Strategy and Business Development Director Asia and Europe, CEVA
Jean-Pascal Marc, Corporate Product Innovation Director, Virbac