Research Pact Research Articles

MRPL inks research pact with IICT

MRPL inks research pact with IICT

European research area: a new stage of development and opportunities for integration of Ukraine in the war and post-war periods

Ukraine’s European integration aspirations, granting our state the status of a candidate for EU membership, as well as the need for financial, technological, managerial, and other assistance from the EU, in particular in the post-war restoration of the field of research and innovation, actualize the task of accelerating its integration into European Research Area (ERA). The article aims to analyze the current stage of development of the European Research Area in the context of the new strategic goals of the EU and, considering this and the war conflict in Ukraine, to identify opportunities for expanding cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in the field of research and innovation, deepening its integration into the ERA as a source of post-war reconstruction, stabilization and advanced innovative development of the national economy. It is shown that the war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine led to the formation of a new normal in international scientific cooperation and served as a trigger for the development of a self-sufficient pan-European innovation ecosystem that would more closely connect science and industry and be able to solve global challenges. The essence of a new European Innovation Agenda is highlighted, in the implementation of which the central place is given to the European Research Area. An idea of the ERA and the main results of its implementation in the EU over twenty years are revealed. The features of the current stage of development of the ERA and its priorities in the context of the new strategic agenda of the EU are defined. An analysis was made of the fundamental documents that should guide the EU member states in the field of research and innovation – a Pact for research and innovation and the ERA policy agenda for the period 2022-2024. The key features of the current program period of the EU development are identified. The article focuses on the main tools and initiatives aimed at bringing the EU closer to its strategic goals: smart specialisation strategies, mission-oriented innovation policy, Partnerships for regional innovations. According to the results of summarizing the initiatives in support of Ukrainian scientists and innovative entrepreneurs, introduced by the European Commission in response to the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, taking into account the new strategic plans and goals of the EU in the context of global geopolitical changes, opportunities were identified and proposals were made to expand cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in research and innovation during the war and post-war periods. Their implementation will make it possible to increase Ukrainian presence in the ERA as a condition for ensuring its post-war innovative growth and prosperity for the long term.

Sanofi pays Atomwise $20 million in AI-enabled research pact

Sanofi pays Atomwise $20 million in AI-enabled research pact

Bridge and Scripps form research pact

Bridge and Scripps form research pact

Bridge Biotherapeutics and Scripps form research pact

Bridge Biotherapeutics and Scripps form research pact

Sanofi to build up mRNA vaccine center

Sanofi says it will invest about $475 million annually in a new messenger RNA (mRNA) Center of Excellence, which will include about 400 employees across R&D and production sites in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Lyon, France. Sanofi entered the mRNA vaccine field in 2018, when it formed a research pact with Translate Bio. The firms began clinical trials of vaccines for COVID-19 and influenza this year. Sanofi says it expects the center to yield six clinical candidates by 2025.

Evonik, Stanford sign mRNA delivery pact

Evonik Industries and Stanford University have signed a 3-year sponsored research pact aimed at commercializing a degradable-polymer-based system for delivering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics. Known as charge-altering releasable transporters, the polymers were developed by three Stanford professors. Today’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines are delivered with lipid nanoparticles. The new technology is aimed at organ-selective delivery of mRNA gene therapies, Evonik says.

FMC and Zymergen form research pact

FMC will collaborate with the biotech firm Zymergen on discovery of natural products for crop protection. Zymergen will bring expertise in synthetic biology as well as its molecular library, which ...

Bayer is acquiring KaNDy Therapeutics

Bayer is paying $425 million for KaNDy Therapeutics, a UK firm developing a small-molecule treatment to reduce hot flashes from menopause. Bayer touts the investment as its latest move in women’s health, after signing a license for Daré Bioscience’s experimental monthly contraceptive and forming a gynecological disease research pact with Dewpoint Therapeutics. KaNDy’s lead compound, NT-814, inhibits neurokinin-1 and neurokinin-3 receptors, which are involved in regulating body heat. KaNDy could earn up to $450 million in milestone payments from Bayer.

Sarepta, Codiak eye exosome therapies

Sarepta Therapeutics, a rare-disease company known for its Duchenne muscular dystrophy therapies, has formed a research pact with Codiak BioSciences, a start-up that is engineering lipid vesicles called exosomes as delivery vessels for genetic therapies. The pair will use Codiak’s exosomes in gene replacement, gene editing, and RNA therapies for up to five neuromuscular disease targets. Codiak could receive as much as $72.5 million in up-front and near-term payments in the 2-year pact.

How do public investments in gender equality initiatives and publication patterns interrelate? The case of Germany

This article examines whether two of the major German flagship programmes to increase the participation of female researchers in the German science system, the "Women Professorship Programme" and the "Pact for Research and Innovation", have actually increased the number of women, especially in leadership positions. In a second step, we analyse whether such an assumed increase influences the publication patterns of authors with German affiliation. This article is based on literature and desk research as well as bibliometric analysis using Scopus. The most important result is that the number of women in research has indeed increased significantly in recent years and that, accordingly, more women are the (co)authors of scientific publications. In particular, it can be seen that quality indicators such as citations and excellence rates are high for female authors. This enables us to show that more women in the science system not only bring about a "gain in justice", but also a concrete scientific benefit.

How do public investments in gender equality initiatives and publication patterns interrelate? The case of Germany

This article examines whether two of the major German flagship programmes to increase the participation of female researchers in the German science system, the "Women Professorship Programme" and the "Pact for Research and Innovation", have actually increased the number of women, especially in leadership positions. In a second step, we analyse whether such an assumed increase influences the publication patterns of authors with German affiliation. This article is based on literature and desk research as well as bibliometric analysis using Scopus. The most important result is that the number of women in research has indeed increased significantly in recent years and that, accordingly, more women are the (co)authors of scientific publications. In particular, it can be seen that quality indicators such as citations and excellence rates are high for female authors. This enables us to show that more women in the science system not only bring about a "gain in justice", but also a concrete scientific benefit.

Astellas, Pandion pursue bispecifics

Astellas Pharma has signed a research pact with Pandion Therapeutics, a start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developing bispecific antibodies for pancreatic autoimmune diseases, particularly type 1 diabetes. Pandion is developing drugs that target specific tissues and simultaneously turn down aberrant immune cell responses that cause autoimmune disease. Astellas will pay Pandion up to $45 million up front and potentially more than $750 million in milestone payments.

Wacker invests again in battery materials firm

The silicon maker Wacker Chemie is taking a 25% stake in Nexeon, a British company that is developing a silicon-based replacement for graphite as the anode of lithium-ion batteries. Wacker already has a research pact with Nexeon and bought a stake of undisclosed size in the firm in 2013. A Nexeon competitor, Sila Nanotechnologies, raised $70 million from investors last year.

Amicus and Penn to develop gene therapies

Amicus Therapeutics is striking a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania to develop gene therapies for four rare metabolic conditions, including Pompe disease and Fabry disease. In the collaboration, Amicus will provide funds to Penn gene-therapy scientist James Wilson to develop and test preclinical adeno-associated virus therapies for the diseases. In return, Amicus may license therapies and technologies developed under the agreement. Precision BioSciences, a gene-editing company, made a similar research pact with Wilson’s lab earlier this year.

Genomatica raises another $90 million

The biobased chemical developer Genomatica has raised $90 million in its latest round of fundraising. Among the firm’s investors is Ginkgo Bioworks, a synthetic biology company that is expanding its research pact with Genomatica. Genomatica takes credit for two commercial processes: The Italian firm Novamont uses its technology in a 1,4-butanediol plant that opened in 2016, and Genomatica markets its own product, 1,3-butanediol, to the cosmetics industry.

Biogen and Ionis join in $1 billion neuroscience pact

Biogen is making a huge bet that antisense technology can become a cornerstone treatment for neurological disorders. The big biotech firm is paying Ionis Pharmaceuticals $1 billion in cash to significantly broaden their joint efforts to develop drugs for rare neurodegenerative disorders, as well as diseases like Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Biogen will pay Ionis $375 million up front and buy $625 million worth of Ionis stock. In return, Biogen can license therapies that emerge from the 10-year research pact. Ionis has long been a leader in the field of antisense therapeutics, which use short, single-stranded RNA to intercept messenger RNA, thereby preventing bad-behaving proteins from being built. Biogen already has several partnerships with Ionis, including one that yielded a marketed drug, Spinraza, the first treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare and often deadly muscle-wasting disease. The drug is life saving but breathtakingly expensive: $750,000 for the first

Nestlé takes stake in Aimmune

Nestlé Health Science is making a $145 million investment in Aimmune Therapeutics, a biotech firm developing treatments for food allergies. Aimmune is working on “characterized oral desensitization technology,” or CODIT, a way of desensitizing a patient to a food allergen by gradually increasing exposure over a period of months. The biotech’s lead product, AR101, is in Phase III studies for people with peanut allergies. The companies also signed a two-year research pact to develop other oral immunotherapies.

Straight talk with...Jamie Heywood.

Last month, Genentech launched an unusual five-year research pact. The San Francisco subsidiary of the drug giant Roche partnered with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based PatientsLikeMe to mine the online patient network's database of real-world experiences. In exchange for an undisclosed fee, Genentech now has access to nearly all of the information collected by PatientsLikeMe, which currently includes more than 250,000 members with 2,000 different conditions. The hope is that studying the network will help Genentech learn how to stratify patient populations more precisely and measure drug effectiveness better, among other things.At the helm of PatientsLikeMe is Jamie Heywood, a mechanical engineer by training who devised the idea for the platform ten years ago when he noticed some striking similarities between the information asked of online dating websites and clinical trial portals. With his brother Benjamin and friend Jeff Cole, Heywood founded PatientsLikeMe later that same year. Nicholette Zeliadt spoke to Heywood about where the crowdsourcing site stands a decade on from its inception and what this new partnership with Genentech will mean for open-participation research.

Gilead Sciences and Yale School of Medicine in Potential US$100 M Cancer Research Pact

Gilead Sciences and Yale School of Medicine in Potential US$100 M Cancer Research Pact