Paris, France & Cambridge, US, April 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Independent international pharmaceutical company Servier and LabCentral, a well-known launchpad for innovative startups in the United States, have announced that Revitope, a startup specializing in biotechnology, has won the Golden Ticket awarded by Servier as part of its sponsorship of the prestigious American coworking facility. The prize is a year’s residency at LabCentral’s facilities for a Revitope scientist. Located in Cambridge, LabCentral is at the heart of scientific and technological innovation in the United States.
Servier has been a Gold sponsor of LabCentral for two years. Each year, it can award a Golden Ticket to a startup in the field of healthcare in order to provide support for a research project corresponding to the Group’s development strategy.
“Servier is happy to have given this award to Revitope whose innovative technology could enable the therapeutic antibodies developed by the Group to precisely target the cells to be treated in patients with cancer and inflammatory diseases”, said Olivier Nosjean, Scientific Director of the Center of Excellence Research and Biopharmacy. “In an open-innovation approach, Servier is committed to supporting promising startups in the field of healthcare, and particularly oncology, one of the company’s priority areas of research.”
The Golden Ticket award underwrites the cost of a lab bench for a Revitope scientist to reside in LabCentral’s open lab for one year. This includes access to all the latest research equipment, shared infrastructure, extensive programming and services offered by LabCentral. The start-up will also benefit from LabCentral’s corporate development support (co-working area, business coaching, investor relations).
“A core principle in every aspect of what we do at LabCentral — from the design of our facilities and speaker series to our sponsorship programs and networking events — is a deliberate attempt to encourage interaction and collaboration,” said LabCentral Cofounder and President Johannes Fruehauf, M.D., Ph.D. “The Golden Ticket program is a great example. It’s enormously gratifying to see our mission come to fruition, with Servier helping to support Revitope’s continued work at LabCentral.”
Revitope Oncology is developing prodrug platforms that have the potential to unleash potent immune responses that are focused entirely on the tumor. The company’s programmable antibody circuits are designed to focus immune activation to the cancer cell surface while expanding the antigenic targeting space on solid tumors to widen the therapeutic index in immune-oncology.
Revitope Chief Scientific Officer Werner Meier, commented, “We are very excited to have been selected by Servier as their Golden Ticket winner for 2017. It is particularly gratifying that an international pharma leader like Servier — laser-focused on bringing innovative therapies to patients across important therapeutic areas including cancer — is recognizing the potential of the Revitope prodrug platforms to widen the therapeutic index for T-cell redirection. The Servier Golden Ticket provides much-appreciated support that helps us to continue to be part of the LabCentral entrepreneur community — a terrific place for young, life sciences companies to grow.”
The cooperation agreement with LabCentral is part of Servier’s dynamic collaborative partnership strategy which aims to better respond to the challenges of therapeutic innovation by placing its research activities in the most dynamic research ecosystems where creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship are promoted and valued. This new agreement also confirms Servier's commitment to developing its partnership strategy in the United States.
About Servier
Servier is an international pharmaceutical company governed by a non-profit foundation, with its headquarters in France (Suresnes). With a strong international presence in 148 countries and a turnover of 4.152 billion euros in 2017, Servier employs 21,600 people worldwide. Entirely independent, the Group reinvests 25% of its turnover (excluding generic drugs) in research and development and uses all its profits for development. Corporate growth is driven by Servier’s constant search for innovation in five areas of excellence: cardiovascular, immune-inflammatory and neuropsychiatric diseases, cancer and diabetes, as well as by its activities in high-quality generic drugs. More information: www.servier.com
About LabCentral (www.labcentral.org; twitter @labcentral)
LabCentral is a first-of-its-kind shared laboratory workspace in the heart of the Kendall Square, Cambridge, biotech innovation hub, designed as a launchpad for high-potential life-sciences and biotech startups. We offer everything young companies need to begin lab operations immediately upon move-in and propel their science forward faster and more cost-efficiently. This includes: beautifully designed, fully permitted lab and office space, first-class facility and administrative support, skilled laboratory personnel, peer learning and networking opportunities, an expert speaker series — as well as critical access to potential funders and industry partners. A private, nonprofit institution, our first site opened in 2013, with support from our real-estate partner, MIT. Founding sponsors include Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Roche, and Triumvirate Environmental. To accommodate demand for growing startups, with support from Pfizer, opened LabCentral 610 at the end of the year. We now have capacity to serve a total of ~450 scientists and entrepreneurs in about 70 companies across our two-building campus. In 2017, we also added the LabCentral Learning Lab for STEM programming to help inspire the next generation of science entrepreneurs.
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