Heidelberg, 25.01.2019
Within its new strategy, BioRN led special attention on the improvement of the academic translational potential and in leveraging the unique combination of global pharma and leading innovators in the network. BioRN executive and strategic boards created a working group with a specific focus on accelerating academic research to the clinic.
Within this scope, Richard Butt was invited to give a talk on their successful model. Apollo Therapeutics is a collaborative venture between three world-leading UK universities (Imperial College London, University College London and the University of Cambridge) and three global pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson Innovation). It is a unique model to provide quick, independent access to the resources to grow innovations and to champion the best of British academic research to industry. Apollo’s experienced team funds, designs and runs drug discovery projects in collaboration with the involved universities, industry partners and external service providers.
This unique opportunity to discover Apollo’s secret sauce, attracted a large audience, including representatives from all global healthcare companies, most of Technology Transfer offices and research institutions in our network.
The participants agreed on the undisputed benefits both for academia and industry and showed commitment to make it happened also in our network. We strongly believe that HeiDelberg Discovery (HDDiscovery) might be the right model to create the therapies of the future by connecting more intensively leading academic research to pharma industry to have a real impact on patient treatments and outcomes.
About BioRN
BioRN is a life science research and industry cluster dedicated to the development of cell-specific, molecular and personalised innovative treatments. The BioRN Cluster stands for the development, networking, representation and promotion of the life science region into one of the leading life science clusters in Europe.
The cluster-members include renowned academic research institutions such as the Universities of Heidelberg, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and big pharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Roche, und Sanofi-Aventis, and about 80 small and medium-sized biotech enterprises. Beyond the members registered in the cluster, BioRN gives access to a wider network via partnerships and collaborations.
In terms of the use of clusters for the internationalization of companies, BioRN has founded, together with Leuven (Belgium), Maastricht (Netherlands) and Copenhagen (Denmark), an alliance for the enforcement of biomedical innovation in Europe, called the Health Axis Europe.
About Apollo Therapeutics
Apollo Therapeutics is a collaborative venture between three world-leading UK universities (Imperial College London, University College London and the University of Cambridge) and three global pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson Innovation). It provides committed translational funding and drug discovery expertise for novel therapeutics, sourced from the best of British academic research, accelerating them towards the clinic.
Apollo’s unique model provides quick, independent access to the resources to grow innovations and to champion the best of British academic research to industry. Apollo’s experienced team of industry scientists have a proven track record of therapeutic delivery and work in partnership with academics and industry partners, crafting each bespoke project to optimise the chances of long-term success. Apollo Therapeutics aims to create the therapies of the future by partnering with the UK’s globally leading academic science base and UK based Pharma industry to have a real impact on patient treatments and outcomes. >>