News

Axxam enters into Drug Discovery Collaboration with Vivozon for CNS Indications May 12, 2020 Axxam announces a collaboration with Vivozon Inc. with the aim to support Vivozon in the development of innovative small molecule drugs for the treatment of patients with unmet CNS medical needs. Thanks to its expertise in early phase discovery biology, Axxam began the collaboration with Vivozon by providing access to a panel of cell-based assays to test Vivozon’s compounds on targets of interest, thereby supporting Vivozon’s scientists in the hit-to-lead program and drug discovery research. Open PDF document

Axxam supports drug discovery efforts to identify novel inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 Apr 30, 2020 Axxam SpA (Milan/Italy), a privately-owned innovative Partner Research Organization (iPRO) announced its commitment to support the identification of antiviral therapies to treat the severe acute respiratory syndrome COVID-19, caused by the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Axxam is developing a series of in-vitro biochemical and cell-based assays using artificial pseudo-viral particles. These assays will be suitable for the identification of novel virus-specific small molecule inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 cellular uptake and biological pathways. We will be conducting High Throughput Screening campaigns using different small molecule libraries including known/approved pharmaceutical compounds for repurposing studies. Open PDF document

Axxam and ERS Genomics announce CRISPR-Cas9 license agreement to enhance discovery services Apr 2, 2020 Milan (Italy) and Dublin (Ireland) – 2 April 2020 – ERS Genomics Limited (“ERS Genomics”), which was formed to provide broad access to the foundational CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property co-owned by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, and Axxam S.p.A. (“Axxam”), a leading discovery biology company, today announced the signing of a license agreement granting Axxam access to ERS Genomics’ CRISPR-Cas9 patent portfolio, to support Axxam’s integrated discovery service platform. Open PDF document

Dr. Thilo Enderle appointed as new Chief Executive Officer of Hit Discovery Constance GmbH Jan 10, 2019 Milan (Italy)/Constance (Germany) – Axxam announces the appointment of Dr. Thilo Enderle as Chief Executive Officer of Hit Discovery Constance (HDC), a joint venture company held by Axxam, the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3) of KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and Lead Discovery Center GmbH (Dortmund, Germany). Thilo’s arrival will strengthen further the collaboration between Axxam and HDC in offering high quality discovery services, including high-throughput screening in a range of different modalities including fluorescence, luminescence, radiometric as well as high content screening. Stefan Lohmer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Axxam, said: “We are working with our colleagues at HDC as an integrated team and we are very pleased to welcome Thilo to the group and looking forward to leveraging his tremendous industrial HTS and lead discovery experience for the purpose of continuously delivering outstanding results to our partners and clients”. For more information please open the Press Release from HDC Open PDF document  

Axxam SpA expands to Denmark; opens office in Copenhagen Sep 27, 2018 Axxam SpA (Milan/Italy), a privately-owned innovative Partner Research Organization (iPRO) with a strong and leading expertise for the identification and characterization of bioactive compounds, announced this month the opening of its first Scandinavian office, located in the Copenhagen Bioscience Park (COBIS) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Open PDF document

Axxam SpA is a member of an international consortium for the further development of a promising drug against neuropathic pain Milan (Italy), 20 September 2018 Axxam is proud to announce its participation to a consortium of international partners, held by the Danish Hoba Therapeutics, for the further development of a promising drug against neuropathic pain. The consortium has received DKK 18.4M (≈USD3M) from the Innovation Fund Denmark, for the continued development of the drug candidate HB-086. Axxam will contribute to the success of the project with its experience in developing cell-based assays for the further evaluation of HB-086. For more information please see the Press Release from the consortium below. Open PDF document

Axxam SpA is a member of the RESOLUTE consortium Milan, 4th July 2018. Axxam is proud to announce its participation to the RESOLUTE (Research empowerment on solute carriers) consortium, a public-private research partnership supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), to accelerate research in the field of solute carrier (SLC) class of transporters and to potentially establish them as a novel target classes for effective new therapies. Axxam will make available its expertise in cell-based assays and high-throughput screening in order to contribute to the success of the project. For more information please open the Press Release from the RESOLUTE consortium. Open PDF document

Acousia Therapeutics Announces €10 Million Series B Financing to Advance its Hearing Loss Portfolio May 14th, 2018 – Milan (Italy) – Axxam is proud to announce that Acousia Therapeutics (Tubingen; Germany), a biotech company participated by Axxam and focused to develop therapies for the treatment of hearing loss, raised €10 Million in Series B Financing round. The financing was led by new investor LBBW Venture Capital, and joined by other new investors, Creathor Ventures and Bregua Corporation. Existing investors, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) also participated in the round. For more info please open the Press Release from Acousia Therapeutics. Open PDF document

Axxam S.p.A. collaborates with GenSight Biologics S.A. to support Clinical Trials of an optogenetic-based gene therapy drug for sight-threatening diseases April 24th 2018 – Milan (Italy) – Axxam S.p.A. announced today a collaboration with GenSight Biologics S.A. in the field of optogenetic gene-therapy drug development, with the goal to support GenSight effort of establishing innovative therapies to preserve or restore vision in patients suffering from sight-threatening ophthalmic diseases, such as Retinitis Pigmentosa. GenSight is an innovative clinical-stage gene therapy company with an initial focus on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapies for severe retinal neurodegenerative diseases. Its unique know-how in using optically controlled gene products for orchestrating cellular functions in miniaturized HTS-compatible functional assays, made Axxam the research partner of choice for the development of a cell-based potency assay to be used to validate GenSight GS030 drug product batches for the use in clinical-stage experimentation. Axxam started the collaboration with GenSight with the establishment of a miniaturized in-vitro assay aimed at robustly and quantitatively measuring the biological effects linked to GS030 therapeutic properties, namely photoactivated cellular excitability. The potency assay, specially developed by Axxam for GenSight, is now ready to process for the method qualification in order to meet the regulatory requirements for clinical and further commercial stages. Open PDF document