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BioWin: Providing growth for SMEs in the health sector in Wallonia

An interview with Mrs Sylvie PONCHAUT, Managing Director of the BioWin competitiveness cluster

What are the key figures for the biotech and medtech sectors in Wallonia? With 22,000 hospital beds, the health sector in Wallonia is the European leader in Phase I clinical trials. Its private expenditure on R&D amounts to €1,2 billion. Over the period 2005-2018, 185 SMEs, which are also members of the BioWin cluster, raised €1,8 billion of private capital for this sector.

The health sector in Wallonia is an important source of employment, with 50,000 direct and indirect jobs. It also stands out for its favourable tax environment, financial incentives to support R&D and a unique location for logistics at the heart of Europe.

Could you tell us about the BioWin’s strategy? BioWin’s role is to accelerate innovation to address the public health challenges of the future and to develop knowledge, employment and the competitiveness of everyone involved in the health-sector ecosystem in Wallonia. The mission of BioWin is to make Wallonia a region that is internationally known for its world-class academic, clinical and industrial research environment in the cluster’s areas of technological domains.

BioWin will continue to follow its strategy that was deployed at the outset: supporting the emergence and development of R&D projects; developing talents; integrating companies in international markets; forming and nurturing networks and supporting the growth of companies.

BioWin is focusing on internationalisation and interdisciplinarity in order to achieve its goals for the next 4 years. BioWin will offer its members new opportunities for R&D collaboration with the best ecosystems in the world, near or far and will provide help to set up European projects.

To add to the value chains and nurture the healthsector ecosystem, BioWin in close collaboration with Awex will reinforce its efforts to attract foreign investors. And as part of the smart specialization goal in Europe, BioWin will prioiritising those areas of activity and technology in which Wallonia has a competitive edge internationally.

Our strategy is to build on the excellence in our 6 strategic domains: (bio)pharmacy, cell therapy, radiation applied to health, medical devices and in vitro diagnostics, biomanufacturing and data science. © Tilt

What services does BioWin offer its members? The BioWin cluster includes over 90% of the health- biotechnology- and medical-technology–sectors in Wallonia. The cluster therefore has a clear view of the technology value chains and an in-depth knowledge of the stakeholders in the region. This allows BioWin to offer its members the most appropriate services in terms of R&D, internationalisation, skills development and support for company growth. From early development in R&D to commercialization, BioWin provides support for projects arising from regional and international calls, and one-off assistance to SMEs and start-ups to support their economic development.

Key figures for the BioWin cluster (2018)

- 11 world leaders (Alten, Baxter/Baxalta, GSK, IBA, IBM, IRE, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Kaneka-Eurogentec, UCB, XPE Pharma & Science and Zoetis) and 185 SMEs; - 5 accredited research centres; - 5 universities with 400 research units, 11,000 researchers and 3 university hospitals; - The number of cluster memberships has been growing by 22% since 2015; - €1,842 billion accumulated private capital raised by BioWin SME members in Wallonia; - 15.419 direct jobs for BioWin’s industrial members in Wallonia and 35.000 indirect jobs (2005-2017); - 47 R&D projects that have involved 271 partners, developed 64 products and 31 services for a total budget (public and private) of €144 millions; - Support for the creation of technological and/or collaborative platforms: Prother-Wall (proton therapy platform), biobanks platform project and MedTech in Wallonia.

At the international level, BioWin works with the world’s most innovative regions to help its members to identify the best partners for business and research collaborations. BioWin’s main focus is on networks and partnerships, forging links with key clusters and science parks.

Together with Awex, BioWin helps Walloon companies to increase their international activities by facilitating their visibility at key events in Europe, North America, South-East Asia and China. Together with other clusters in Europe, BioWin helps companies identify relevant gateways to enter key markets.

BioWin works to develop human capital, with a strategic focus on promoting innovation and growth in companies by (a) contributing to the forward management of skills and talents (b) encouraging uniformity in the region’s training initiatives, (c) expanding and enriching the pool of regional skills and talents and (d) helping to create bridges between university courses and industry.

BioWin supports company growth by facilitating SME access to private sources of funding and by creating a favourable environment to attract and identify the best talent and expertise.

© BioWin © BioWin

Could you give us a few examples of R&D projects that have secured funding via BioWin? Six ongoing projects have secured funding from the Walloon Region as part of BioWin’s smart specialization strategy. These projects fall within BioWin’s 6 strategic domains.

Biopharma: The IT-Targets project coordinated by iTeos Therapeutics aims to identify innovative drug candidates and biomarkers for immunotherapies in cancer and auto-immune diseases.

Cell Therapy: the iCone project coordinated by MaSTherCell aims to develop and commercialise new assays for screening compounds in central-nervous-system drug-discovery programmes. The longer-term aim is to demonstrate a proof of concept in the large-scale production of iPSC-derived human cortical neurons in 3D for the treatment patients of neurodegenerative or cerebralcortex lesions.

Medical device: The eLISA project coordinated by Neoma Labs is focusing on the development of a portable medical device to treat patients suffering from respiratory sleep disorders.

Radiation applied to health: The ProsPect project coordinated by Trasis is on the way to develop a set of integrated solutions for the preparation of best-performing imaging radiotracers labelled with Fluorine-18 and Gallium-68 for the diagnostic of prostate cancer.

Biomanufacturing: the BioCloud 4.0 project coordinated by Sapristic is currently applying Industry 4.0 principles to bioproduction processes with an end-to-end integrated solution “from clean room to patient”.

Data Science: the BIDMED project coordinated by IBA is working on the applicability and use of big-data technologies to increase the quality and attractiveness of proton-therapy systems.

Could you tell us more about the biomanufacturing sector? Biopharmaceutical manufacturing is engaged in a profound revolution: cell therapy, new biomolecules and precision medicine are all examples of innovative concepts, where improvement and transformation of bioprocesses are crucial.

In Wallonia, more than 40 companies have unique expertise in the biomanufacturing field and are part of this revolution. Among them, contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs) are specialised in the development of cell and gene therapy products or in the production of bio-therapeutic molecules (recombinant proteins or antibodies). Specialised service providers have also developed strong expertise in this field and can support the development and optimisation of processes and plants. BioWin catalyses interactions between these companies and stimulates their collaboration with small biotech companies, academia, and large pharmaceutical companies that have manufacturing facilities in Wallonia.

What do you think is the BioWin cluster’s greatest success story? The entire cell-therapy sector, which is led by 5 very rapidly growing companies: Celyad, Bone Therapeutics, Promethera Biosciences, Novadip Biosciences and MaSTherCell. This concentration of world-class players is supported by a dedicated technology platform; it’s very exceptional and bodes well for Wallonia’s increasing attractiveness in a promising sector for the regional economy.

What partnerships have you developed in Europe and abroad? Over recent years, BioWin has developed several collaborations and concrete matchmaking activities with European clusters (Medicen Paris Region, Lyonbiopole, Bio-M, Biocat, Atlanpole Biotherapies, etc.) and maintains close links with the South Korean and Israeli R&D ecosystems. BioWin’s integration into several European networks (e.g. CEBR Board, EDCA, etc.) reinforces its

Imcyse reports successful first-in-human phase 1B study in type 1 diabetes with IMCY-0098

Imcyse, a developer of active specific immunotherapies for the treatment and prevention of severe chronic diseases, announced in June 2018 that it raised €35M ($39.5M) in a Series-B financing round and through other channels. These proceeds will be used to advance phase 2 clinical development of Imcyse’s Imotopes™ technology in type-1 diabetes, to initiate clinical trials in multiple sclerosis and other auto-immune diseases and to expand the technology to further indications. © Imcyse Pierre Vandepapelière, CMO of Imcyse

One thing has led to another: Imcyse reported in August 2019 a successful first-in-human Phase 1B study in type-1 diabetes patients with the insulin-based IMCY-0098. The company’s IMCY-0098 shows excellent safety profile and promising clinical trends and elicits immune responses supporting the proposed mode of action.

“We are thrilled by the positive results of our first clinical trial in patients with early type-1 diabetes,” said Pierre Vandepapelière, CMO of Imcyse. “The in-depth analysis performed in collaboration with Ariana Pharma strongly supports our unique technology platform. These results pave the way for further clinical development of IMCY-0098 in type-1 diabetes and other Imotopes™ for diseases with high unmet clinical need.”

visibility strategy (including BioWin members’ technologies), and more importantly its smart specialisation strategy (cell therapy, radiopharma, vaccines, etc.).

iSTAR Medical announces EUR 40m Series C Financing

Michel Vanbrabant CEO iSTAR

© BioWin

iSTAR Medical SA, a private medical device company developing novel ophthalmic implants for the treatment of glaucoma, announced the completion of a €40m Series C financing. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of adult blindness globally affecting more than 92 million people.

Micro-invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) is the most promising and fastest-growing therapeutic option in the treatment of glaucoma.

Michel Vanbrabant, CEO of iSTAR Medical, commented: “iSTAR Medical is setting new frontiers in MIGS treatment of glaucoma. The positive results achieved after 18-month of follow-up in our first-in-human trial validates the potential of MINIject in the supraciliary space as the next therapeutic option for glaucoma patients. The financing of this project is a significant milestone for the company and will support the development and commercial launch of MINIject.”

BioWin has been working on 2 interregional and interclustering European COSME projects to foster SME international competitiveness in the medtech sector. These projects are MAGIA and S 3 martMed.

MAGIA, the European medtech alliance dedicated to supporting the internationalisation of SMEs, brings together four clusters of excellence, with the main objective of promoting the internationalisation of their SMEs, firstly, through cooperation and sharing resources, and secondly by making the innovative European medtech industry more visible.

And as one European project leads to another, BioWin has moved into a higher gear and is now taking part in the S 3 martMed project. The S 3 martMed project is extending the road map created by the MAGIA project, and brings together 5 regional clusters: Lyonbiopole (Coordinator), BioWin, BioPmed, MedSilesia and BioRegioStern. The aim of this project is to map the skills of each region, and identify their requirements, whether financial, business-related or regulatory, to provide greater security for SMEs in the health sector over the long term.

What do you think are the great challenges to come for the Walloon biotech and medtech sector? I see three. The first challenge is undoubtedly to guarantee the training of qualified personnel for our companies. BioWin must anticipate the needs of its members. It must also be proactive with the government so that strategies can be put in place to secure a sufficient supply of skilled labour. The second challenge is essential and a crucial issue in Europe, and is to support and fund high-quality early development and fundamental research, because that is from where future therapeutic applications will come. The third challenge, for Wallonia and the European Union, is to create a context that favours the growth of SMEs. Wallonia’s SMEs currently employ an average of 30 to 50 people; this total could rise to between 200 and 400 employees if the government were to introduce the right tax incentives and financial instruments.