January 17, 2022

Accelerated drug development and personalised treatments for cancer

Indivumed receives EU funding from ERDF structural fund

Hamburg, 17 January 2022 Indivumed GmbH is a biotech company with international activities and representative offices in the US, Japan, Italy and Brasil. It cooperates with numerous international research institutions and hospitals and has specialised in personalised cancer treatments. The limited liability company was founded by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Juhl in 2002, who has been its CEO ever since. The company’s headquarters are in Hamburg, with Indivumed currently employing over 200 members of staff. Its project “Development of an AI-based platform for the accelerated development of therapeutics for precision cancer treatments” will receive 4.3 million euros in EU funding from the ERDF structural fund.

When the notification of funding was received on 17 January 2022, Senator of Economics Michael Westhagemann said: “Indivumed is a figurehead for Hamburg as a biotech hub. With its activities, which center on the development of personalised diagnostics and drugs, it sets standards for the future.”

Ralf Sommer, CEO of the Hamburg Investment and Development Bank, added: “The REACT-EU programme is intended as a contribution to stimulating the economy and overcoming the effects of the COVID crisis while making the economy greener and more digital. We as Hamburg Investment and Development Bank are pleased that we can support Indivumed with the implementation of this innovative undertaking using artificial intelligence.”

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Juhl: “Indivumed’s mission is to decipher the complex mechanisms of cancer and drive the development of precision oncology. With our top-quality multi-omics data and state-of-the-art bioinformatics, we are among the pioneers who are paving the way for this. The funding will bring us a lot closer to our goals.”

The project will create a unique platform for the fast and efficient development of active substances, leveraging the established clinical Indivumed network, AI-driven oncological data analytics, and innovative disease models to validate the therapeutic targets and drive therapeutic development. With this approach, Indivumed aims to create a portfolio of novel treatment approaches, which will also be a strong driver for Hamburg’s biotech scene. The platform enables fast and highly efficient identification and validation of therapeutic targets. Targets are identified by means of computational biology analyses using artificial intelligence and the unique cancer database, the only one of its kind in the world. When the programme is completed, Indivumed will not only have a platform that enables the accelerated development of therapeutics, but also new and patentable potential treatment approaches for various forms of cancer, which will, in turn, lead to the development of medical substances.

Indivumed GmbH is one of the standout players in the Life Science Nord cluster. Life Science Nord (LSN) is the brand under which the commercial company Life Science Nord Management GmbH and the non-profit organisation under the same name cooperate to promote the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein region as an internationally leading life science network hub. LSN Management GmbH initiates strategic projects and supports the funding of companies and scientific or academic institutions with a focus on medical technology, biotechnology and pharma. The organisation builds networks between businesses, research institutions and policy in the north of Germany, sharing the technical knowledge from research centres and its contacts in the business world. This has already led to a number of success stories, jointly written with other actors from the cluster, such as Indivumed GmbH.

Find out more at: www.lifesciencenord.de

 

Background of the development programme

The REACT-EU crisis recovery fund was established as an instrument to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in connection with the EU’s ERDF and ESF structural funds. Funds from the REACT-EU crisis recovery fund are intended to help overcome the social repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and to support a green, digital and sustainable recovery of the economy.

The fund is endowed with a budget of 47.5 billion euros for 2021 and 2022, of which 2.4 billion euros are earmarked for Germany. The federal distribution plan for Germany allocates about 47 million euros from the REACT-EU funds for Hamburg. Two focus areas have been determined for the life science sector: Fighting infectious diseases and pandemics, and digitisation.

 

Media Contact:

Authority for Economy and Innovation
Press Office | Susanne Meinecke
pressestelle@bwvi.hamburg.de

Indivumed
Marketing & Corporate Communications | Kristin Maack
maack.kristin@indivumed.com