News & Events

Social entrepreneurs improve healthcare access across the African continent

https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/socialentrepreneursimprovehealthcareaccess?

Making More Health (MMH) Accelerator program supports social health entrepreneurs to strengthen and scale their work
Joint workshop brings together senior executives from Boehringer Ingelheim with promising start-ups from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria
Social entrepreneurs enter pilot phase in the next six months

Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany, August 19, 2019.
Kenya is not only labelled as the cradle of technological innovation in Africa. It is also considered to be one of the most innovative countries in sub-Saharan Africa. So it comes as no surprise that Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, hosted the latest workshop for the Making More Health’ (MMH) Accelerator in Nairobi, the vivid capital of Kenya. The research-driven pharmaceutical company invited leaders from around the globe, social entrepreneurs from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria as well as the non-profit organization Ashoka to brainstorm on ways to enhance the start-ups business models and identify opportunities for strategic collaboration to improve human and animal health.

Boehringer Ingelheim opens Health Management Centre in China

The new Health Management Centre integrates animal disease and health diagnostics as well as monitoring tools
The centre further strengthens the company’s ability to provide services along the full value chain for Chinese customers and reconfirms its commitment to continuously invest in China

Shanghai, China, 12 August 2019 - Boehringer Ingelheim, world leading animal health company, announces the opening of the Boehringer Ingelheim Health Management Centre (HMC), again boosting Boehringer Ingelheim’s investment in China. The HMC records the first of its kind established by a multinational animal health company in China. Designed for world leading veterinary reference laboratories, the centre integrates animal disease and health diagnostics as well as monitoring tools to maintain and enhance animal health.

Located in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, the HMC has an investment of nearly 3 million euros in its first phase. It is a full service reference laboratory with all diagnostic disciplines to provide comprehensive diagnosis for animal diseases, with a total projected staff of 25. The veterinary reference laboratory of the HMC, containing a serology lab, a molecular biology lab and a bacteriology lab, is currently capable of detecting more than 10 animal pathogens. It comprises state-of-the-art design, functionality, safety, and is eco-responsible. Numerous high-tech components allow for rapid detection with maximum quality control.

PHAGE MARKET INSIGHTS

The global phage therapy market possesses significant opportunities in the treatment of diseases like Bacteremia and Pneumonia.

The "Global Phage Therapy Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2019 Edition)" report presents an analysis of the global phage market in terms of value. This is followed by a market opportunity analysis of phage therapy in diseases such as Bacteremia and HAP, VAP and CF Pneumonia. The report also includes the analysis of different phages such as AP-SA01 and AP-PA02 in terms of value for the US region.

Under competitive landscape, players in the phage industry have been compared on the basis of various parameters such as the phage product offered, modification, target, indication and scheduled/ expected time of clinical trial of the particular phage.

The growth of the phage therapy market is supported by various growth drivers such as considerable spike in antibiotic resistance, improving regulatory scenario, demonstration of improved efficacy and excellent safety profile. Tackling material disruption of targeted phage therapies and bacteriophage product candidates in the event of security breeches is a major challenge for the players operating within the market.

Adaptive Phage Therapeutics Enters into Collaboration with Yale University

12 December 2018 | Business Wire. Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (APT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company founded to provide an effective therapeutic response to the global rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogenic bacteria, today announced it has entered into a collaboration agreement with the Paul Turner Lab at Yale University to manufacture and supply therapeutic bacteriophage (phage) for use in clinical trials. Through this collaboration, APT is committed to leveraging the exquisite specificity and potency of phage in the fight against the global rise of MDR infections. Phages that die during bacterial invasion help other viruses defeat the microbes’ immune responses.

Crispr Is Overcome When Viruses Gang Up on Bacteria

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/crispr-is-overcome-when-virus...
19 July 2018 Kerry Grens. Bacteria can fend off viral infections by chopping up their DNA with their CRISPR-based immune system, but sufficient numbers of phages can overwhelm microbes’ defenses. In two papers published in Cell today (July 19), scientists report that part of phages’ strategy appears to be an “altruistic” method of invasion, in which viral genomes that never succeed in replicating nonetheless impair bacterial immunity and facilitate infection by other viruses.

“This work shows that phages can work together to disable bacterial immune systems, and this has important implications for using phage to treat human infections, since the dose of phage that is used can determine whether the phage is able to kill the bacteria,” Stineke van Houte, a coauthor of one of the studies and a researcher at the University of Exeter, says in a press release.

Esther the Wonder Pig Has a Drug-Resistant Infection

The antibiotics are not curing the drug-resistant infection that Esther, the Wonder Pig has been struggling with for many months. She needs phage therapy! Anyone interested in helping the world's most famous pig? @AGEofthePHAGE

UPCOMING EVENTS

https://bacteriophage-summit.com/
March 2020, Boston, MA

The Bacteriophage Therapy Summit is the only meeting uniting large pharma, biotech companies, research institutions and technology experts to harness bacteriophage science and accelerate the clinical development of effective phage therapy. As phage therapy re-emerges, it is poised to become a mainstream option in a post-antibiotic era. However, challenges remain in navigating an untested regulatory pathway, demonstrating pharmacology of clinically useful phage candidates and delivering these products into the hands of physicians and patients in need.

Join the leaders in phage therapy product development as they discuss the latest data-driven case studies and forge collaborations you need to unlock the full potential of bacteriophage therapeutics. Register your interest to receive agenda and speaker updates as they are announced.

The WORLD PHAGE WEEK commences on the 22nd October with WORLD PHAGE DAY, created to celebrate the collaborative work of everyone pioneering the development of phage therapy. The choice of October to promote the phage was viewed as appropriate as November marks the WHO World Antibiotic Awareness Week, 18-24 November and European Antibiotic Awareness Day. The 22nd October also marks the 1877 birthdate of Frederick Twort, a British microbiologist, the father of virology, who in 1915, published the first report of viruses that infect bacteria, replicate there and kill the cells. Sadly the outbreak of the World War 1 suspended his research funding and he served as a medical officer during the war.

World Phage Week aims to increase awareness of the long-overlooked phage and encourage public dialogue on the potential benefit of investing in phage research. Phages could offer one response to the increasing threat posed by antimicrobial resistance - an area of critical importance to human, animal and environmental health. Phage researchers around the world, continue to undertake pioneering work on different microbial communities. All are encouraged to join us and promote the message of the life-saving potential of phage therapies.

The Phage Pioneers - Twort-d’Herelle Phenomenon

(Frederick Twort and Felix d'Herelle)

For a brief history of Bacteriophages visit http://www.intralytix.com/index.php?page=hist

Phage researchers and ‘Phage Phans’ around the world are encouraged to join with AGEofthePHAGE.com and promote awareness of the wide-ranging and life-saving potential offered by phage development.

Please promote #WorldPhageDay (22nd October) and #WorldPhageWeek (22nd to 28th October)
Do tweet our banners and create your own phage images for social media and organise special events.

Please send details of any phage-related promotional actions you organise or participate in to contact [at] AGEofthePHAGE.com

EUROPEAN ANTIBIOTIC AWARENESS DAY

https://antibiotic.ecdc.europa.eu/en
European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) will be marked on Monday 18 November, in partnership with WHO's World Antibiotic Awareness Week 18 – 24 November. https://antibiotic.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about

The European Antibiotic Awareness Day is an annual European public health initiative that takes place on 18 November to raise awareness about the threat to public health of antibiotic resistance and the importance of prudent antibiotic use. The latest data confirms that across the European Union the number of patients infected by resistant bacteria is increasing and that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health.

WORLD ANTIBIOTIC AWARENESS WEEK 18-24 November

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-antibiotic-awareness-week

World Antibiotic Awareness Week aims to increase awareness of global antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers and policy makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.

A global action plan to tackle the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines was endorsed at the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly in May 2015. One of the key objectives of the plan is to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education and training.