MVA newsletter no 10, November 2005

: NEWS INDEX

> MVA news
> Medicon Valley news
> Business highlights from www.mediconvalley.com
> Jobs in Medicon Valley
> Funding opportunities
> Future life science events
> New MVA members


: MVA NEWS

MVA meeting: Approaches to Project Management
1 December 2005 / Ørestad / Copenhagen / Denmark
This Medicon Valley Academy meeting introduces presentations by: Scantox A/S, CNE Procesteknik, BioInvent International AB, AstraZeneca AB, Medicon A/S and CMC Biopharmaceuticals A/S, which will be basis for a general discussion on the most important skills and tools in project management.

MVA seminar: Quality control at hospitals in Medicon Valley (in Danish)
8 December 2005 / Ørestad / Copenhagen / Denmark
Danish Quality Assurance Group (DKG), Swedish Association of Research Quality Assurance (SARQA) and Medicon Valley Academy invites to an afternoon seminar. NB! No registration fee for DKG, SARQA and MVA members.

Seminar: Structured phospholipids for food and pharma
25 January 2006 / Ørestad / Copenhagen / Denmark
This Øresund Food Network seminar aims at exchanging the existing knowledge within applications of phospholipids and phospholipid modifications, communicating related interests between industries and academic research institutes, and identifying potential research topics to develop the area of “Improved fats for nutrition and health”. The seminar is relevant for many companies such as food and pharmaceutical industries as well as researchers from universities and research institutes. NB! Registration fee is DKK 500 for Medicon Valley Academy members and DKK 1,200 for non-members.


: MEDICON VALLEY NEWS


Attractive rented lab & office facilities in Scion-DTU Research Park – available now
The facility includes a 'state of the art' purpose built laboratory and administrative facilities located in Scion-DTU Research Park in Hørsholm, centrally in the Medicon Valley region. The 700m2 rented facilities contain approximately 400m2 laboratory facilities and 300m2 office and administration facilities. The laboratory area is designed for approximately 20-25 people.

BioInvent and Lund University present data on significant plaque reduction in blood vessels
The results from animal tests on BioInvent International AB’s drug candidate, BI-204, for the treatment of atherosclerosis were recently presented at the American Heart Association’s annual medical conference in Dallas. The results show that the drug candidate significantly impedes plaque formation and greatly reduces the size of plaques that already exist. The research was carried out at the University Hospital MAS in Malmö, part of Lund University and conducted in cooperation with BioInvent.

Genmab named finalist for 2005 Scrip Awards
Genmab A/S has announced that it has been named a finalist in the Best Overall Pipeline category for the 2005 Scrip Awards.  The awards were developed by the editorial team at Scrip and industry leaders to recognize excellence in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries globally.

Alligator Bioscience AB enters into drug development collaboration with major European pharmaceutical company
Alligator Bioscience announces the signing of a collaboration agreement with a major European drug company for the optimization of a protein, using Alligator's proprietary ssDNA recombination technology, FIND (TM). According to the agreement Alligator Bioscience will receive milestone payments for the development as well as milestone payments during the clinical development of the final product.

Medicon Valley based Probi's probiotics strengthen immune system
Probi's bacteria can affect several functions in the human immune system according to a new study. Among other effects, the discovery can be important in reducing the incidence of widespread diseases such as type I diabetes. The discovery is patent pending.

New SwedenBIO report: The Financial Temperature of Swedish Life Science 2005
SwedenBIO has assessed the financial climate facing Swedish biotech and medtech companies and their investors through a questionnaire-based survey. Compared to last years, the responses indicate a positive trend towards an easier funding situation. Seed and early stage financing is still a bottleneck, however, and the companies call for measures to lower the risk of investing in high-risk ventures, such as tax incentives for R&D and public seed and matching funds.


: BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS FROM WWW.MEDICONVALLEY.COM

> Santaris Pharma; FDA approves IND for SPC2996 in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia
> Nordic Biotech raises Second Biotech Venture Fund
> DOR BioPharma Executes Letter of Intent for Acquisition of Gastrotech Pharma
> TopoTarget and CuraGen initiate Phase Ib Clinical Trial
> TeknoSeed secures USD 6,25 million in New Early Stage VC fund
> MediCult to conduct Proof-of-Concept Study for Novo Nordisk
> ProstaLund; Treatment with Microwaves still Going Strong after 5 Years
> Gambro and Nephrogen enter into new Partnership
> NatImmune and Enzon enter into a License Agreement

More business news at www.mediconvalley.com


: JOBS IN MEDICON VALLEY

Visit Medicon Valley Academy's job site
View the latest job descriptions in the region from ALK-Abelló, Coloplast, H. Lundbeck, Hartmanns, Hvidovre Hospital, Interverbum, Kelly Scientific Resources, Novo Nordisk, Novozymes, Nycomed, Rigshospitalet, Santaris Pharma, Statens Serum Institut, Symphogen and Temp-Team.

> Four PhD/Postdoc positions available within immunology and systems biology/bioinformatics at Center for Biological Sequence Analysis (CBS) BioCentrum-DTU, Technical University of Denmark.


: FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

> The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation offers supporting grants for SMEs preparing EU 6th Framework Programme applications (in Danish) - deadline: 30 November 2005
> Call for proposals: European Young Investigator Awards - deadline: 30 November 2005
> Swedish Research Council grant for research schools (in Swedish) - deadline: 1 December 2005
> Industrial PhD initiative for Danish and Swedish students - deadline: 16 February 2006


: FUTURE LIFE SCIENCE EVENTS - see all events

> Conference: Biomedical Optics 2005 (in Danish) 24 November 2005 / Roskilde / Denmark
> Meeting on Early Clinical Drug Development at PhaseOneTrials 24 November 2005 / Hvidovre / Denmark
> Neurodag 2005 - conference for national and international neuroscientists 25 November 2005 / Copenhagen / Denmark
> 2nd European Congress on the Reconstruction of the Periodontally Diseased Patient 25-27 November 2005 / Copenhagen / Denmark
> Genesis V: UK's largest biotechnology networking conference 30 November - 1 December 2005 / London / UK
> The London Biotech Investment Forum 12 December 2005 / London / UK
> The fourth Knud Lind Larsen Symposium: Organic Chemistry at the Interface to Biology 27-28 January 2006 / Copenhagen / Denmark
> LMC International Food Congress 2006: Nutrigenomics and Health – from Vision to Food 15-16 March 2006 / Copenhagen / Denmark
> 1st European Conference on Scientific Publishing in Biomedicine and Medicine 21-22 April 2006 / Lund / Sweden
> 39th Nordic Coagulation Meeting 2006 4-6 May 2006 / Malmö / Sweden
> Danish Conference on Molecular Biology and Biotechnology: Systems Biology – Signal Transduction and Bioprocesses in the Postgenomic Era 1-2 June 2006 / Vejle / Denmark
> International Food & Health Innovation Conference 2006 25-27 October 2006 / Malmö / Sweden


: NEW MVA MEMBERS - see complete membership list

IPC-Services A/S is an independent Contract Research Organisation with more than 12 years experience that offers services within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for clinical phase I-IV studies (CRO) and distribution of pharmaceutical products for clinical studies (CDD). IPC-Services are specialised within Clinical Drug Distribution (CDD) and have an authorisation from the Danish Medicines Agency to handle investigational medicinal products. All work done according to GMP, GDP and GCP. IPC's CRAs are trained to work according to ICH-GCP standards, EU legislation and Danish law. www.ipc.nu

MIP Technologies AB is an innovative biotechnology company working at the boundary of chemistry and materials science. It develops novel solutions in the Separations field using Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs). The company's pipeline of solid phase extraction (SPE) phases provides clever solutions to difficult analytical separations problems, while for large scale extractions MIP Technologies is the 'selective separations' company of choice. www.miptechnologies.se