BioWorld Today Correspondent

LILLE, France - The headline events at today's opening of EuroBIO 2007 here include the announcement of Phase II trials for an emerging super molecule, the first European showing of a Japanese synthetic collagen, and a portfolio of European Union financing tools aimed at boosting the continent's science-rich but underfunded biotech sector.

About 5,000 participants are expected for the three-day conference that remained a predominantly French event until recently.

"This year marks a true acceleration toward opening this event to neighbors," said Etienne VerVaecke, general commissioner for EuroBIO. He added that 75 percent of the speakers and 60 percent of the 450 participants in partnering meetings are from outside France. The exhibition space grew 25 percent this year, he said, and is now 60 percent non-French. "There are more biotech companies now in Europe, than in the United States," VerVaecke said. "But these are younger and smaller companies by both size and market capitalization, and the sector is going to see some consolidation."

The accent is on technology transfer for this year's program, he said. "This is not just about out-licensing from academia, but promoting real collaboration through pan-European tenders and more offers for biotech-to-biotech collaborative research. We have been very clear in our offer to help these companies get out and push their molecules, tests results, research capacity or technological platform."

Genfit Advancing GFT505

Ahead of the opening, Genfit SA, based in Lille, told BioWorld Today that in mid-October it will launch Phase II clinical trials for GFT505, a proprietary molecule that targets a wide spectrum of indications in the treatment of cardiometabolic disease and metabolic syndromes affecting diabetes and obesity. Jean-François Mouney, chairman of Genfit, said completion of Phase II trials, expected in April 2008, will trigger a strategic partnership with a pharmaceutical company to conduct the more expensive Phase III trials.

At the company's annual meeting in June, Mouney reported: "With the ability to mobilize nearly €30 million (US$42 million), the company is endowed with all the means needed to build the most favorable conditions for major product deals. Current solutions, such as statins, are effective for only 30 percent of the target population yet have created an enormous market." He described the GFT505 molecule as a preventive therapeutic addressing the larger population and said it has proven to be a safer treatment.

GFT505 is called a next-generation drug candidate since it targets more precisely than the current class of therapeutics three specific subtypes of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, with preference for the alpha and delta receptors. Pharmacological data from the Phase I trial involving 48 volunteers showed "a highly satisfactory safety margin," Genfit said.

Mouney said the data showed no increase in creatine or homocysteine levels, which gives GFT505 a competitive advantage with respect to currently available therapeutics.

The Phase II trial will be performed with a representative population of men sporting a waist circumference starting at 40 inches and women measuring 37 inches at the waist, a population that presents a high risk for cardio-vascular disease and diabetes and record low levels of high density lipoproteins (HDL).

Mouney said the primary endpoint for the Phase II trial is decreasing triglycerides, decreasing low density lipogens (LDL) and increasing HDL. Secondary endpoints are to show effectiveness in increasing inflammation markers and to demonstrate insulin resistance.

On Thursday, the second day of the conference, Dean Hum, Genfit's chief science officer, will present the company's portfolio of other multimodal drugs under development coming out of Genfit's technological platform for Selective Nuclear Receptor Modulation (SNuRM).

"It is not just our own pipeline we are filling," Mouney said. The SNuRM platform is the focus of strategic partnerships with Sanofi-Aventis, Solvay, Merck AG and Servier, he added.

Earlier this year, Mouney said that six research collaborations with big pharma generated research and development funding of €12 million to €13 million a year for the company.

Filling In The EU Funding Gap

Opening day at EuroBIO also will see the presentation of a new European financing tool created by the European Commission (EC) and the European Investment Bank that aims to narrow the financing gap with the U.S. for R&D. "The United States enjoys a great advantage having a single stock market with a critical mass of investors ready to risk their capital," said VerVaecke from EuroBIO. "We do not have this, and it has been a real constraint to building a true European biotech space. We need support from governments to make up for this difference, and we are seeing that now."

The funding gap between the European Union and U.S. research investment is estimated in excess of €120 billion annually and widening fast, according to an EC expert group report in September.

More state support for biotech development in the form of the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme is the subject of the opening session in Tech Transfer Wednesday morning. Broadening participation in EU research and technological development programs is a priority for the commission, which increased by 40 percent funding for its Framework Programme that started this year and runs until 2013. Health-centered research and development received record funding of €6 billion.

Synthetic Collagen Preview

Among the must-see moments at EuroBIO exhibition will be a synthetic collagen from the Chisso Corp. (Kyoto). An expected pharmaceutical application, Chisso said, is as a carrier material for the sustained and controlled release of a drug. The synthetic product is free from allergic risk and bovine spongiform encephalopathy associated with collagens derived from animals, the company said, adding that it also presents a potential for regenerative medical materials, such as in wound care.

The collagen was first presented in June in Tokyo following Japanese patent award. That will be the first European presentation for Chisso.

"We are here looking to sell our new product, of course," said Tsuyoshi Nakama with the company's Yokohama Research Center. "But we are also hoping to meet potential partners for launching novel applications and initiating new collaborations."