News Release
October 19, 2020
MilliporeSigma Awards Grant to Combined Therapeutics for its Nucleic Acid Platform That, with Virotherapy, Targets Liver Cancer
- Nucleic acid platform combined with virotherapy targets cancerous cells while protecting healthy tissue of key organs
- Company to receive in-kind MilliporeSigma products, consultation in downstream processing, formulation excipients and sterile filtration
Burlington, Massachusetts, October 19, 2020 — MilliporeSigma today announced that Combined Therapeutics Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been selected as the North American winner of its 2020 Advance Biotech Grant Program. The biotechnology company was selected for its innovative nucleic acid platform which, combined with virotherapy, has the potential to treat liver cancer by using a lipid nanoparticle delivery system.
“We help pioneering biotech companies bring lifesaving drugs to market, faster,” said Andrew Bulpin, head of Process Solutions at MilliporeSigma. “Combined Therapeutics’ platform shows promise to treat liver cancer, which affects thousands of people across the world each year.”
As part of the award, Combined Therapeutics Inc. will receive in-kind MilliporeSigma products and consultation in downstream processing, formulation excipients and sterile filtration.
Combined Therapeutics Inc. is in pre-clinical development of a platform to treat cancer by targeting solid tumors while protecting the healthy tissue of key organs. Virotherapy is treatment that uses a modified virus to target and destroy cancer cells. However, this approach can often lead to low patient response and safety concerns due to poor targeting. Combined Therapeutics aims to direct and enhance virotherapies while preventing off-target effects. With its potential to target specific cells only, this combined approach shows promise to be a safe and effective therapy for cancer.
“MilliporeSigma’s expertise in large biomolecule filtration, scale-up and extensive range of excipients will play a pivotal role in moving this project forward to GMP and clinical trials,” said Romain Micol, CEO, Combined Therapeutics Inc. “We are honored to have been selected as the winner of MilliporeSigma’s Advance Biotech Grant, and we look forward to the collaboration.”
Since 2014, MilliporeSigma’s Advance Biotech Grant Program has awarded technologies and consultation to 28 biotechnology companies. These grants have been used to support biotech companies whose missions are to help patients suffering from cancer, brain tumors, osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disorders.
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Follow MilliporeSigma on Twitter @MilliporeSigma, on Facebook @MilliporeSigma and on LinkedIn.About Combined Therapeutics Inc.
Combined Therapeutics Inc. (CTx) is a pre-clinical-stage biotech in the game-changing segment of cancer research that is immunotherapy. The company is converging nanomedicine and biotechnology to enhance the tumoral cells and the tumoral microenvironment targeting. Based in Cambridge, MA, Combined Therapeutics Inc. (CTx) is an immuno-oncology spin-out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
About the Life Science Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has some 22,000 employees and 59 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing, and testing services.
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science, and electronics. Around 58,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene-editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2020, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany generated sales of € 17.5 billion in 66 countries.
The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Electronics. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. For more information about Merck, KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, visit www.emdgroup.com.