Collaboration
The large-scale French research collaboration ADNA (Advanced Diagnostics for New Therapeutic Approaches), coordinated by Mérieux Alliance, has received the European Commission’s approval for €89.5 million in state research and innovation aid from OSEO.
ADNA brings together four of France’s most prominent biotechs - bioMérieux and GenoSafe in the field of diagnostics, and Généthon and Transgene in the field of therapeutics.
It also calls upon the expertise of other partners, such as the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS), the Lyon University Hospitals (HCL), STMicroelectronics (ST), and Claude Bernard University in Lyon (UCBL).
The aim is to develop personalised medicines for infectious diseases, cancer, and rare genetic diseases. Since response to treatments varies from one patient to the next according to specific genetic and biological factors, the objective is to develop drugs with associated theranostics that can predict predicting the response to a given treatment.
The foundations of ADNA will be based on the identification and development of biological markers, or biomarkers that make it possible identify likely responders to new treatments.
bioMérieux will work in conjunction with its partners CEA, CNRS, HCL, ST, and UCBL to develop new molecular biology platforms for diagnosing infectious diseases and cancers and develop biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of certain types of cancer and infectious diseases.
Meanwhile GenoSafe aims to develop a technology platform for monitoring immune responses to new biotherapeutic products, and Généthon will develop three gene therapy products for the rare genetic neuromuscular diseases, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy and limb girdle dystrophies (gamma-sarcoglycanopathy and calpainopathy) along with treatment and diagnostic biomarkers for neuromuscular diseases.
Under ADNA, Transgene is funded to develop a vaccine against persistent human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, currently in the preclinical stage, advance the development of a cancer vaccine TG4010 and develop associated biomarkers.
The ADNA programme represents a total investment in research and development of nearly €400 million over the period of 2008-2017. OSEO’s support breaks down into €50.8 million in subsidies and €38.7 million in loans, which are reimbursable in the event of success.
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