Most Innovative European Biotech SME for 2018
Bruxelles, Belgium, December 3, 2018 – Company receives award in healthcare category for cancer therapy in clinical development with an action on cancer stem cells.
Genoscience Pharma is delighted to announce that it received the Most Innovative European Biotech SME Award for 2018 in the Healthcare category at EuropaBio. Its new therapy with an activity against cancer stem cells, which are considered to be responsible for treatment resistance, relapse and metastasis, is currently in an international Phase 1/2 trial in liver cancer (US and Europe). Genoscience Pharma’s drug candidate has the potential to be combined with any other anti-cancer therapy (chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapies and cell-gene therapy).
For the ninth edition of the EuropaBio Most Innovative European Biotech SME Awards, the members of the awards panel, Dr. Peter Heinrich, chair of EuropaBio’s SME platform; Dr. Andrew Porter from the University of Aberdeen; Dr. Paul Rübig, Austrian MEP and Joanna Dupont-Inglis, EuropaBio secretary general, assessed 40 companies from across the EU, acknowledging their outstanding contribution towards tackling significant challenges through the application of biotechnology.
In order to be considered for the EuropaBio SME awards, a company must qualify under the standard EU SME definition (e.g. primary location of operations within Europe, 250 or less employees, annual turnover of €50 Million ($56.8M) or less). EuropaBio awards companies and runners-up in three categories: healthcare, agricultural and industrial biotech. Biotech start-ups compete across all sectors in one special category recognizing early stage entrepreneurship. Each winner gets a cash prize plus two years free membership of EuropaBio. Both winners and runners-up also receive exposure in the EuropaBio network and the European biotech industry, as well as to top-level policy makers and industry leaders.
“Genoscience Pharma is delighted to receive such recognition of its work. We truly believe we can make the difference in cancer treatment with our innovative discovery, the first clinical-stage oral drug with an action on cancer stem cells. As we continue to face significant financing and regulatory barriers, this prize is an important opportunity to demonstrate our work. It will help us to further develop our technology,” said Philippe Halfon, CEO of Genoscience Pharma. “Cancer is probably the most important challenge for humanity. This recognition is one small step for our company but an important step in the fight against cancer.”
“For all the Genoscience Pharma team, this prize is a recognition of our hard work. We are delighted to see our efforts awarded, and this shows that no matter the size of a company, with motivation, strength and passion, we can reach our goals,” said Cindy Khaldi, translational science manager at Genoscience Pharma. “We are now looking forward to being able to spread our innovation worldwide to treat patients.”
