Context

(sources: LEEM 2002, EUCOMED 2003, EDMA 2003)

The world market in human healthcare was valued at $639bn in 2003, broken down as follows:

• Drugs: 67% ($430bn)
  - Human vaccines: $7bn (2% of pharmaceuticals market), increasing by 12% a year – regional player: Sanofi Pasteur, world leader with 23% of the world market
  - Monoclonal antibodies: $5.1bn with an increase of 30% in 5 years – regional players: Genzyme, Opi, Protein'eXpert, Transgène, etc.
• Medical devices: 29% ($184bn), increasing by 6.5% a year – regional player: BioMérieux, ranked 8th
• In-vitro diagnostics: 4% ($25bn) – regional player: BD ($5bn revenue)
• Nanobiotechnology: $650bn, rising by 28% a year in the nanotechnology sector, with applications mainly in life science.
• Veterinary pharmaceuticals: $12bn, of which 45% in vaccines – regional player: Merial, world leader with 13% of the world market.

Players, governance

Certified as a global competitivity centre in July 2005, LyonbioPole’s board consists of six companies and four centres of (scientific and academic) expertise.

• Industry members: Sanofi Pasteur, BioMérieux, Merial, OPi, Protein’eXpert and Becton Dickinson.
• Centres of expertise: CEA, Fondation Mérieux, Inserm and CNRS.

Three local authorities are "permanent guests": Greater Lyon Urban Council, Rhône-Alpes Regional Council and Grenoble Urban Area Council.

President: Philippe Archinard (also CEO of Transgene and President of France Biotech).

Vocation

• Promoting closer links between companies (large groups, SMEs and start-ups), research centres, the academic world and hospitals.
• Boosting innovation that can generate added value for companies and Rhône-Alpes in vaccines, diagnostics and new therapies, essentially in relation to infectious diseases.
• Enhancing the international reputation of Lyon, Grenoble and Rhône-Alpes as a whole in the above-mentioned fields.

Missions

• Nurturing and setting up multi-partner R&D projects.
• Channelling human and financial resources into projects promoted by the centre by optimizing their quality and providing national and European authorities with an understanding of the centre's technological stakes.
• Promoting closer links between industry and centres of expertise to enhance competitivity, and help adjust public-funded research, education and training to the real needs of industry.
• Promoting Lyon BioPole and its partners with regional, national and international decision-makers.

Objectives

•  To develop a "health shield" against human and animal infectious diseases and viral-induced cancers as a way of combating pandemics, epizootic diseases and bio-terrorism risks.

• To propose innovative diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic approaches and associated systems for administering these approaches (preventive or therapeutic vaccination, monoclonal antibodies, medical devices, etc.) to improve management of pathologies in the wider context of more responsive, individualised medicine.

Programme

The centre is organized around three programmes:

• Diagnostics and Vaccines
• New Therapies
• Surveillance.

By bringing together Lyon's know-how in diagnostics and vaccines, and Grenoble's internationally reputed skills in microtechnology, nanotechnology and structural biology, LyonBiopole can develop original technology building bricks to streamline and secure the marketing of new biological products.

The aim of the epidemiological surveillance programme is to develop surveillance, identify new emerging pathogens and create databases and a strain collection.

Applications

Infectious diseases, virology, bacteriology, parasitology, immunology, vaccinology, cancer, cardiovascular and auto-immune neurodegenerative diseases.

Technology bricks: interactome, micro and nanotechnology, protein expression, system-molecule optimization, vectorology, vaccinomics or ex-vivo screening, cellular biology and culture media, structural biology.

Results

Projects with a total value of €37m in three years, with about €13m in the form of subsidies.

• Three projects approved in the 2005 budget: €30m spread over three years, with €8.4m funding from the Ministry of Finance.

• Pravic: new molecules for rare infectious pathologies – Players involved: Opi, Protein eXpert, HCL, CLB, Vaccineo, Clara.
• Biotherapies: treatment for hepatitis C – Players involved: Transgene, Epixis, HCL, CHU-Grenoble, Inserm, CNRS.
• Gap: protection against bird flu and a flu pandemic – Players involved: Merial, Sanofi-Pasteur, bioMérieux, Laboratoire P4, CNR des virus influenza (HCL) and Interactome laboratory (Inserm U503/IFR Biosciences).
• Six other projects funded by the National Research Agency (ANR) and certified by LyonBioPole (support with application formalities) for a value of €7m over three years (€4m in subsidies expected).
• A joint programme with Clara on cancers caused by viruses.

Your AEPI contact: Joëlle Seux

More info: LyonBiopole