Memorandum Of Understanding Strengthens European Arm of Global Biosciences Gateway

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C./OSLO, NORWAY, Februry 18th 2010– The Hamner Institutes at Research Triangle Park has signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding with the Oslo Cancer Cluster in Oslo, Norway, one of the leading cancer clusters in Europe. The goal of the collaboration is to strengthen The Hamner’s Global BioScience Gateway for Translational Research and Business Development, which began with partnerships in China. 

Through its partnership with the Oslo Cancer Cluster, the expanded Global Biosciences Gateway will now enable companies and comprehensive cancer centers to speed development of new cancer therapies.  The collaboration will create an infrastructure in North Carolina and Oslo for efficient drug discovery, high quality oncology clinical trials, and access to drug safety and regulatory experts that can address FDA, EMEA and eventually the Chinese SFDA.

Today – on The World Cancer Day – the Oslo Cancer Cluster member company PCI Biotech made the front page of the largest Norwegian Newspaper VG.

“Norwegian Medical Sensation: Removes cancer with light – The tumours almost felt off” is the front page VG uses on describing PCI Biotechs result from their ongoing phase-I study at the University College of London (UCL).

“Very strange”
Colin Hopper, surgeon and head of the phase-I study at UCL says to VG that he was very surprised with the effects of the PCI technology: “The cancer tumours became almost black and fell of in front of our eyes."

Member of Oslo Cancer Cluster Biomolex AS, went all the way to the top of the Eurostar program for technology companies.

“This shows again that Oslo Cancer Cluster member companies develops and delivers R&D projects that are among the best in Europe. Last year two other member companies, PCI Biotech and Sirnasense, made third best in Eurostar. The Biomolex project is a joint venture between two private companies and an academic institution; this type of collaboration is the core strength of Oslo Cancer Cluster. We congratulate Biomolex", says Jonas Einarsson, head of the board of Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Dagens Medisin, 29. januar 2010: - Kreft er så komplisert at det må være samarbeid mellom offentlig og privat virksomhet, sier Bjarte Reve, administrerende direktør i Oslo Cancer Cluster til Dagens Medisin. Han vil ha flere på banen, også politikerne, i kampen mot kreft.

Les hele saken her

Cancer Crosslinks 2010 attracted more than 180 participants from all over Norway to the New Research Building at Radium Hospital.

Building on the success of the first event in 2009 Cancer Crosslinks is now established as annual meeting place for Norwegian researchers and clinicians to present and discuss latest oncology research and its clinical implications. This year’s program had two core sessions focusing on Resistance and Immunotherapy that featured excellent presentations sharing recent research, clinical results and actively addressed the interface between oncologists and hematologists.

The interdisciplinary audience enjoyed stimulating discussions and lively mingling opportunities and the compact one day meeting was rounded off with a vibrant Networking evening allowing participants to intensify existing and build new relationships. The meeting also attracted many representatives from Oslo Cancer Cluster’s member companies contributing to stimulating exchange between the academic, clinical and commercial side.

Cancer Crosslinks was organized in partnership between Oslo Cancer Cluster, Bristol-Myers-Squibb and Clavis Pharma and will be continued with Cancer Crosslinks 2011 in January next year!

One of the member companies in the Oslo Cancer Cluster, PCI Biotech, announced today their first results from the completion of second dose group in the phase I/II Amphinex® trial. The trial shows strong anti-tumour response in all patients. 

(19th of January 2010): PCI Biotech reported today that it has completed the treatment of the second dose group in the phase I/II study of its proprietary photosensitiser Amphinex® used in combination with the cytotoxic agent bleomycin in cancer patients.

All Tumours Vanished
Seven patients have been given a single photochemical internalisation (PCI) treatment of Amphinex® with all the treated tumours in all patients disappearing within a few weeks of treatment. Furthermore, no drug-related serious adverse events have been recorded.  "We are very excited by the positive results that have been reported from University College Hospital (UCH) in London.  The strong antitumor response seen in all patients treated with Amphinex® is far better than expected at the first dose levels and indicates that the positive pre-clinical results obtained with our PCI technology are transferrable to treatment in humans", says PCI Biotech CEO Per Walday.

The Amphinex® Study
When activated by light, Amphinex® promotes effective local delivery of a variety of therapeutic molecules, e.g. bleomycin, through triggered endosomal release. The primary objective of the UCH study is to assess the maximum tolerated dose of Amphinex®, in PCI treatment with bleomycin.

Interpellasjon fra Trine Skei Grande (V) til kunnskapsminister Kristin Halvorsen
Interpellasjon nr. 13 (2009-2010)
Om å legge til rette for et moderne skoletilbud med et tett samarbeid mellom bedrifter, skolen og forskningen, med eksempel i at Ullern videregående skole skal bli en del av en innovasjonspark.

Spørsmål fra Trine Skei Grande (V): Det er bred enighet om at man fra politisk hold skal etterstrebe et moderne skoletilbud. I Oslo foreligger det nå nyskapende planer knyttet til den fremtidige Ullern videregående skole. Dagens skole skal bli en del av en innovasjonspark som bl.a. forener kreftforskning, bioteknologibedrifter og en videregående skole som spesialiserer seg på realfag, entreprenørskap og helse- og sosialfag. På denne måten etablerer man et tett samarbeid mellom bedrifter, skolen og forskningen, og målet er at disse skal dra betydelige veksler på hverandre. I sum betegnes dette som en helt ny måte å etablere skole på, og er etter undertegnedes mening svært spennende også som modell for utvikling av skoler med ulike profiler over hele landet. På hvilken måte vil statsråden legge til rette for, og bidra til, at prosjekter av denne art realiseres?

LES HELE DEBATTEN HER

NHO profilerte Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovasjonspark på sin Årskonferanse i Den Norske Opera.

Se vedlagte videoklipp:http://video.nho.no/2010/01/sammen-pa-rett-spor/

Bakgrunn for Innovasjonsparken:
Oslo Næringseiendom AS og den Uavhengige foreningen Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC) har dannet selskapet Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovasjonspark AS (OCCI), med sikte på å etablere en innovasjonspark som kombinerer næring, utdanning og forskning i fysisk integrasjon med Ullern videregående skole, og i umiddelbar nærhet til Kreftklinikken Radiumhospitalet og Institutt for Kreftforskning. Innovasjonsparken skal åpne fra august 2013.

Biotekbedriftene i Innovasjonsparken vil gjennom tett samarbeid med Oslo Universitetssykehus HF utvikle ny kreftbehandling.  

For leietakerhenvendelser vennligst kontakt Ansgar Gabrielsen: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it  

(Pressrelease, December 14th, 2009): The Norwegian pharmaceutical company Lytix Biopharma AS today announced approvals from the Norwegian Medicines Agency and the Swedish Medical Products Agency to commence Phase I clinical trials of OncoporeTM (LTX-315) for the treatment of cancer.

According to Lytix Biopharma CEO Gunnar Sælid, “We are delighted to announce the regulatory approval by the Norwegian and Swedish Authorities to test our very interesting experimental drug OncoporeTM (LTX-315) in the clinic.  I am extremely pleased with the efforts put in by our Drug Development teams this year, with all projects progressing well according to our plans. For the Company this is an important study, validating the attractiveness of our platform in oncology. We will now have two programs in clinical trials; on the one hand our topical antimicrobial drug, and now our novel treatment for cancer”.

Buliding on the success of Cancer Crosslinks 2009, Oslo Cancer Cluster in cooperation with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Clavis Pharma, invites researchers and clinicians to Cancer Crosslinks 2010!

Date and time: Thursday 14th of January, kl 9:00-20:30
Venue: The New Research Building at The Norwegian Radium Hospital.

Cancer Crosslinks is an annual event designed to establish a platform for Norwegian clinicians and researchers to meet and discuss biological pathways, trends in drug development and emerging therapeutic approaches within oncology and hematology.