SenzaGens styrelseordförande Carl Borrebaeck tilldelas BiotechBuilders Award 2017

SenzaGens styrelseordförande, professor Carl Borrebaeck, har tilldelats den prestigefyllda utmärkelsen BiotechBuilders Award för sin banbrytande medicinska forskning och framträdande roll som entreprenör inom Life science, bland annat som medgrundare till SenzaGen, Immunovia, Alligator Bioscience och BioInvent. Utmärkelsen delades ut i samband med BiotechBuilders sammankomst i Stockholm den 28 augusti. Genom sitt engagemang i SenzaGen har Carl Borrebaeck bidragit till utvecklingen av GARD™ – ett genbaserat test för utvärdering av kemiska substansers allergiframkallande egenskaper, vilket eliminerar behovet av djurförsök.

Carl Borrebaeck tilldelades priset med motiveringen att han är en flerfaldigt framgångsrik entreprenör som bidragit till skapandet av en rad nya life science-företag, inklusive, bl.a. Alligator Bioscience, Immunovia, BioInvent och SenzaGen, varav de tre förstnämnda har introducerats på börsen. Även hans ansträngningar för att bygga vetenskapliga nätverk, bland annat Medicon Village, NOME (Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship) och Cancer Crosslink Conference, bidrar till hans position som en framstående ”bioteknikbyggare” och god representant för svensk life science.

Carl Borrebaecks senaste startup-företag SenzaGen har sin bas just på Medicon Village i Lund. Bolaget utvecklar och säljer allergitester till framför allt kosmetika- och kemikaliebranschen. SenzaGens test GARD™ (Genomic Allergen Rapid Detection) är en alternativ metod för allergitester som eliminerar behovet av djurförsök. Metoden har utvecklats under ett tiotal år av en forskargrupp vid Lunds universitet, under ledning av Carl Borrebaeck, professor och prefekt, och Malin Lindstedt, professor och universitetslektor, båda vid Institutionen för Immunteknologi. GARD™ utnyttjar det mänskliga genomet för att klassificera kemikalier, och utvärdera hur dessa framkallar reaktioner i mänskliga celler. Idag äger SenzaGen patenten och driver utvecklingen och den globala marknadsföringen av GARD-testerna. SenzaGen planerar en listning på Nasdaq First North under september 2017.

För mer information, vänligen kontakta:
Anki Malmborg Hager, VD, SenzaGen AB
Email: anki.malmborg.hager@senzagen.com
Tel:  0768 284822


Om GARD
Genom att analysera ett hundratalmarkörer, genererar GARD™ stora mängder data och levererar resultat med upp till 90 % precision. Detta kan jämföras med den gyllene standarden som är djurtester på möss som ger endast 70-75 % precision. SenzaGens test har därtill förmågan att mäta potensen (styrkan) av en substans och kan därmed avgöra till vilken grad en substans orsakar allergi.

Om Senzagen
SenzaGen gör det möjligt att ersätta djurförsök med genetiska tester i provrör för att bedöma om de kemikalier vi kommer i kontakt med i vår vardag är allergiframkallande. Det kan till exempel handla om kosmetika, läkemedel, livsmedel och färgämnen. Bolagets patentskyddade tester är de mest tillförlitliga på marknaden och ger mer information än traditionella utvärderingsmetoder. Testerna säljs i egen regi i Sverige och USA, och genom partners i flera andra länder. De närmaste åren kommer bolaget expandera geografiskt, knyta till sig fler distributionspartners och lansera nya, unika tester. SenzaGen har sitt huvudkontor i Lund och dotterbolag i San Francisco, USA. För mer information, besök www.senzagen.com


Om BiotechBuilders
BiotechBuilders startades i Danmark, 2002, av Dr Jørgen Thorball en tidig morgon på Köpenhamns flygplats, Kastrup. Nyheter om en döende bioteknikindustri krävde åtgärder för att stimulera entreprenörer och ge nytt liv till branschen. Dr Torberg bjöd in ledande life science-företag för att initiera den första BiotechBuilders-träffen. I en lekfull och inspirerande miljö gavs de olika företagens grundare, visionärer, riskkapitalister och verkställande direktörer möjlighet att skapa nätverk och utbyta idéer. År 2009 testades evenemanget även i Sverige och har sedan dess hållits årligen i Stockholm, och det har varit en stor framgång och mycket uppskattat bland de deltagande.

Tidigare mottagare av det prestigefyllda svenska priset har varit:

  • Mathias Uhlén (2016)
  • Saeid Esmaeilzadeh & Ashkan Pouya (2015)
  • Gunilla Lundmark (2014)
  • Thomas Eldered (2013)
  • Johan Malmqvist (2012)
  • Hans Wigzell & Conny Bogentoft (2011)
  • Elisabeth Lindner (2010)
  • Torbjørn Bjerke (2009)

Pressmeddelande som pdf

SenzaGen’s chairman Carl Borrebaeck has received the Biotech Builders Award 2017

SenzaGen’s chairman, Professor Carl Borrebaeck, has received the prestigious BiotechBuilders Award for his ground-breaking medical research and prominent role as entrepreneur in Life Science, including being the co-founder of SenzaGen, Immunovia, Alligator Bioscience and BioInvent. The award was announced at the annual BiotechBuilder’s meeting in Stockholm on 28 August. Through his involvement in SenzaGen, Carl Borrebaeck has contributed to the development of GARD™ – a gene-based test that evaluates the allergenic properties of chemical substances, thus eliminating the need for animal testing.

Carl Borrebaeck was given the award on the grounds of being a successful entrepreneur who contributed to the start of several new life science companies, including, Alligator Bioscience, Immunovia, BioInvent and SenzaGen, of which the first three have been introduced on the Swedish stock market. His efforts to build scientific networks, including Medicon Village, NOME (Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship) and Cancer Crosslink Conference, also contribute to his election as an outstanding “biotech builder” and good representative of Swedish life science industry.

Carl Borrebaeck’s latest start-up company SenzaGen, has its base at Medicon Village in Lund. The company develops and sells allergy tests, mainly to the cosmetics and chemical industry. SenzaGen’s test, the GARD™ (Genomic Allergen Rapid Detection) is an alternative method for allergy testing that eliminates the need for animal testing. The method has been developed for over 10 years by a research group at Lund University, led by Carl Borrebaeck, Professor and at the time Head of Institution, and Malin Lindstedt, Professor and Senior Lecturer, both at the Institution of Immunotechnology. GARD utilizes the human genome to classify chemicals, and evaluate their ability to induce allergic reactions in human cells. Today, SenzaGen owns the patents and drives the development as well as the global marketing and sales of GARD. SenzaGen is planning a listing on Nasdaq First North in September 2017.

For more information:
Anki Malmborg Hager,
 CEO, SenzaGen AB
Email:  anki.malmborg.hager@senzagen.com
Phone:  +46 768 284822

About GARD
GARD™ is a group of tests for assessing chemical skin sensitizers. The tests make use of genetic biomarkers for more than 200 genes which cover the entire immune reaction and are relevant to predicting the risk of hypersensitivity. The tests have 90% reliability. This compares with the current predominant test method, experiments on mice, which has a reliability rating of 72%. SenzaGen’s tests are also capable of measuring the potency of a substance’s allergenic properties. Consequently GARD tests provide a much more comprehensive basis for determining whether a substance should be classified as an allergen than current testing methods.

About SenzaGen
SenzaGen makes it possible to replace animal experiments with in vitro genetic testing to determine the allergenicity of the chemicals we come into contact with in our daily lives, such as for example in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food products and dyes. The company’s patented tests are the most reliable on the market and provide more information than traditional evaluation methods. We ourselves sell the tests in Sweden and the USA, and we sell through partners in several other countries. Over the next few years the company will expand geographically, make alliances with more distribution partners and launch further unique tests. SenzaGen has its headquarters in Lund in Sweden and a subsidiary in San Francisco, USA. For more information visit www.senzagen.com

About Biotech Builders
BiotechBuilders was first initiated in Denmark, 2002, by Dr Jørgen Thorball an early morning at Copenhagen Airport.  The news about the dying Biotech industry called for action to energize the entrepreneurs and bring new life to the industry. Dr Torberg invited the leading life science companies to initiate the first BiotechBuilders event. In this playful and inspiring environment, company founders, visionaries, venture capitalist and CEOs had the opportunity to network and exchange ideas. In 2009 the event was brought to Sweden and have since been held annually in Stockholm, and it has been a great success and much appreciated among the participating people.

Press release in pdf

Integrated hazard identification of chemical sensitizers using in vitro and in silico readouts – A comparative evaluation of predictive performance

By Lhasa

Donna Macmillan, Henrik Johansson, Olivia Larne, Malin Lindstedt
1. Granary Wharf House, 2 Canal Wharf, Leeds, LS11 5PS
2. SenzaGen, Lund, Sweden
3. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

 

Introduction

There has been a significant drive to reduce, refine and replace animal models for the prediction of skin sensitization. This is in part due to the implementation of EU regulation 1223/20091 which prohibits the sale and marketing of any cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients which have been tested on animals, alongside REACH2 and CLP3 regulations which state that non-animal methods must be exhausted prior to considering the use of animal tests. The use and availability of non-animal methods is ever-increasing and 3 assays have been validated by the OECD thus far; the in chemico DPRA, the in vitro KeratinoSens™ and the in vitro h-CLAT. A number of other assays are undergoing OECD validation, including the GARDskin assay (Genomic Allergen Rapid Detection), a dendritic cell-based assay which identifies skin sensitizers from 200 genomic biomarkers4. However, it is generally accepted that no single non-animal method can be used as a standalone approach to replace animal models such as the murine local lymph node assay (LLNA). The focus has instead turned to combining multiple in chemico/in vitro/in silico assays and/or molecular descriptors to derive a more accurate assessment of hazard or risk, known as integrated testing strategies (ITS)5. The GARDskin assay has demonstrated high predictivity and has been reported as ready to use in an ITS6, therefore, it was decided to investigate the effect on performance when GARD was used in combination with Derek Nexus – and to compare these results against Derek with the DPRA, KeratinoSens™ and h-CLAT.

 

Conclusion

Using Derek skin sensitization predictions in combination with in chemico/in vitro assay results has a beneficial effect when predicting the LLNA outcome. GARDskin in particular performs extremely well when used with Derek in a conservative call approach. Human sensitization is more challenging to predict and GARDskin performs less well for this compared to predicting the LLNA – attributed to the small number of chemicals with both GARDskin and human data (n = 57), in addition to the positive bias in the GARD dataset (70%). However, the addition of Derek predictions clearly improve assay performance. Future work will focus on repeating this analysis on a larger, more balanced dataset.

Poster at Lhasa website
https://www.lhasalimited.org/publications/integrated-hazard-identification-of-chemical-sensitizers-using-in-vitro-and-in-silico-readouts-a-comparative-evaluation-of-predictive-performance/4428

 

New colleague at SenzaGen

Welcome to SenzaGen Anna Chérouvrier Hansson!

Anna has started her position as Chief Commercial Officer with us here at SenzaGen this week. Anna comes from Camurus, a pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing innovative and long-acting medicines for the treatment of severe and chronic conditions. At Camurus, Anna was Director of Marketing and responsible for the Medical Device Business Unit. She has previously worked as Head of Business Development Life Science at Invest in Skåne, Partner at Zitha Consulting and in a number of senior positions in European pharmaceutical and chemical companies. Anna was born in France, studied and worked in Germany and Luxembourg before moving to Sweden in 2000 to study a Master in Business Administration and Business Law and decided to stay. Anna strengthens SenzaGen’s management for the commercialization of the GARD tests and prior to the company’s planned listing on Nasdaq First North.

We are very happy to have you in our team, Anna!

SenzaGen secures patent protection for its GARDskin™ test in Europe

SenzaGen announces today that the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted a patent for GARDskin™, the company’s recently launched test that determines whether chemical substances may induce skin allergies. GARD™ tests are significantly more reliable than traditional evaluation methods, and provide more comprehensive information on the allergy-inducing properties of the chemicals studied. Hence, GARD™ confers increased protection level for humans. The test is carried out in vitro, thus eliminating the need for animal testing.

The recently granted European patent covers the analytical methods and genetic signatures that form the foundation of SenzaGen´s proprietary GARDskin™ technology. The patent is valid until October 2031.

“This affirmation from the European Patent Office of the merits of our technology is an important milestone in SenzaGen’s strategic plan to establish our unique GARDskin™ test as a new global standard for the industry. Robust patent protection in Europe for GARDskin™ further strengthens our company’s commercial potential and makes us even more attractive to international distribution partners,” says SenzaGen’s CEO, Anki Malmborg Hager.

The announcement from the European Patent Office relates to European Patent No. 2,633077 B, entitled: “Analytical methods and arrays for use in the identification of agents inducing sensitization in human skin”. Corresponding patent applications are currently being processed by the patent authorities in Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea and the United States.

For more information please contact:
Anki Malmborg Hager, CEO, SenzaGen AB
Email: anki.malmborg.hager@senzagen.com
Telephone: +46 768 284822

About GARD™
GARD is a group of tests for assessing chemical skin sensitizers. The tests make use of genetic biomarkers for more than 200 genes which cover the entire immune reaction and are relevant to predicting the risk of hypersensitivity. The tests have up to 90% reliability. This compares with the current predominant test method, experiments on mice, which has an accuracy of 70-75%. SenzaGen’s tests are also capable of measuring the potency of a substance’s allergenic properties. Consequently, GARD tests provide a much more comprehensive basis for determining whether a substance should be classified as an allergen than current testing methods.

About SenzaGen
SenzaGen makes it possible to replace animal experiments with in vitro genetic testing to determine the allergenicity of the chemicals we come into contact with in our daily lives, such as for example in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food products and dyes. The company’s patented tests are the most reliable on the market and provide more information than traditional evaluation methods. We ourselves sell the tests in Sweden and the USA, and we sell through partners in several other countries. Over the next few years the company will expand geographically, make alliances with more distribution partners and launch further unique tests. SenzaGen has its headquarters in Lund in Sweden and a subsidiary in San Francisco, USA. For more information visit www.senzagen.com

Press release in pdf

SenzaGen säkrar patentskydd för GARDskin™testet i Europa

SenzaGen meddelar idag att det europeiska patentverket (EPO) har beviljat ett patent för GARDskin™ – bolagets nylanserade test för att avslöja om kemiska substanser riskerar att framkalla hudallergier. GARD™ testerna är betydligt mer tillförlitliga än traditionella utvärderingsmetoder och ger dessutom mer omfattande information om de studerade kemikaliernas allergiframkallande egenskaper. På detta vis ökar GARD™ skyddsnivån för människor mot farliga kemikalier. Testerna utförs i provrör och eliminerar därför behovet av försöksdjur.

Det nyligen beviljade europeiska patentet täcker de analysmetoder och genetiska signaturer som utgör basen i konceptet bakom SenzaGens GARDskin™ teknologi. Patentet är giltigt till och med oktober 2031.

“Denna bekräftelse från det europeiska patentverket runt vår teknologis meriter är en viktig milstolpe i SenzaGens strategiska arbete för att etablera vår unika testmetod GARDskin™ som en ny global branschstandard. Ett robust patentskydd i Europa för GARDskin™ ökar ytterligare vårt företags kommersiella potential och gör oss än mer attraktiva för internationella distributionspartners”, säger SenzaGens vd, Anki Malmborg Hager.

Beskedet från det europeiska patentverket avser det europeiska patentet med nummer 2,633077 B, med titeln: ”Analytical methods and arrays for use in the identification of agents inducing sensitization in human skin”. Motsvarande patentansökningar behandlas för närvarande av patentmyndigheterna i Brasilien, Kanada, Kina, Hongkong, Indien, Sydkorea och USA.

För mer information vänligen kontakta:
Anki Malmborg Hager, vd, SenzaGen AB
Email: anki.malmborg.hager@senzagen.com
Telefon: 0768 284822

Om GARD™
Genom att analysera ett hundratalmarkörer, genererar GARD™ stora mängder data och levererar resultat med upp till 90 % precision. Detta kan jämföras med den gyllene standarden som är djurtester på möss som ger endast 70-75 % precision. SenzaGens test har därtill förmågan att mäta potensen (styrkan) av en substans och kan därmed avgöra till vilken grad en substans orsakar allergi.

Om SenzaGen
SenzaGen gör det möjligt att ersätta djurförsök med genetiska tester i provrör för att bedöma om de kemikalier vi kommer i kontakt med i vår vardag är allergiframkallande. Det kan till exempel handla om kosmetika, läkemedel, livsmedel och färgämnen. Bolagets patentskyddade tester är de mest tillförlitliga på marknaden och ger mer information än traditionella utvärderingsmetoder. Testerna säljs i egen regi i Sverige och USA, och genom partners i flera andra länder. De närmaste åren kommer bolaget expandera geografiskt, knyta till sig fler distributionspartners och lansera nya, unika tester. SenzaGen har sitt huvudkontor i Lund och dotterbolag i San Francisco, USA. För mer information, besök www.senzagen.com

Pressmeddelande som pdf