News

Building on their parallel research paths – one in molecular diagnostics and imaging and the other in drug development – CTMM and TI Pharma worked closely together from the very beginning. The reason is simple. Delivering precision personalized medicine requires pharmaceuticals, molecular diagnostics and diagnostic imaging to converge.

Good news. Since January 1, 2016, CTMM and TI Pharma are fully integrated into the new organization Lygature. To effectively develop new solutions for patients, we drive large complex collaborations, bringing together industry, academia and society.

Last week, the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB) launched the Young MEB, with the aim to involve young talent in the work of the Board. Lygature’s Leonie Hussaarts is one of the 14 members.

Lygature and the European Lead Factory are highlighted in a recent Spotlight article in Nature Jobs. The article discusses how a tradition of easy collaboration is helping start-ups and small companies drive a new wave of biotech innovation in the Netherlands.

A major new research program supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) launched on 26 April. The RADAR-CNS program will develop new ways of monitoring major depressive disorder, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis using wearable devices and smartphone technology. Lygature will co-lead the regulatory work package and provide the data integration platform.

This week, guiding principles for scientific data management were published in the Nature Publishing Group journal Scientific Data. These guidelines, ‘the FAIR Principles,’ address the need for widely shared and broadly applicable best practices around the publication of scientific data.

On 18 February, the premier healthcare event Innovation for Health 2016 took place in Rotterdam Beurs-WTC, the Netherlands.

The start of the new year marks an important milestone: on January 1st, Lygature formally came into existence as a result of the merger of CTMM and TI Pharma. Impressive joint track records in medical innovation mean that the merged organization is well equipped to achieve both improved healthcare results and wider economic benefits.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that leads to pain and joint deformities, with many different clinical manifestations. The IMI-funded APPROACH project will set up a broad database of different OA patients and a longitudinal cohort, to identify different osteoarthritis phenotypes.

Managing Director Jorg Janssen explains that it will be business as usual for the merged organization, but with more opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaborations than ever before.

Innovative medicines may be brought to patients faster. How this can be achieved is investigated by ADAPT SMART, a public-private partnership between 32 European partners with funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative. The project that launched last week is coordinated by the Lygature platform for regulatory innovation 'Escher'.