Research and Development
Bioneer's R & D projects creates the solutions to future client needs
Bioneer provides the tools, technology and products aimed at improving the productivity of the early, explorative drug development phase in pharma and biotech companies. Furthermore, Bioneer facilitates the adoption of new therapeutic strategies by the health care sector.
Our R&D strategy is focused on four areas with commercial potential for our customers and where we, alone or with university and company partners, can build a strong position.
Individualized therapy
We believe that individualised therapy will be a major future driver in the health care sector as it may significantly reduce time-to-market and increase the success rate for drug development. We strive to apply a systems approach to improve target validation and identification of clinically relevant biomarkers by using mathematical modeling. Current research activities include:
- Biomarker detection and validation - new in situ techniques for microRNA detection
- Target validation - new binder technology for validation of protein-based drug targets
Targeted therapy
Time-to-market for new drugs is a critical parameter for our customers. We believe that targeted therapy is an important strategy to increase efficacy and reduce side effects. We work with two targeting strategies. Initially, Bioneer is developing models of the human immune system in order to provide our customers access to highly validated human cell models which by predicting immunomodulatory effects may be valuable in development of new active drug compounds and ingredients. Secondly, our goal is to develop new ways of delivering therapeutics in a localised fashion at a site of disease. Current research activities include:
- Targeting the immune system - advanced human dendritic cell and T-cell models
- Targeted tissue delivery - innovative liposomal delivery techniques
Regenerative therapy and cell technology
Regenerative therapy based upon autologous stem cells is currently in early development in a number of diseases for which no alternative treatment exists. To explore this opportunity in full, new methods are needed for expansion of properly differentiated stem cells, and new biomarkers are needed for quality assurance of such cell-based therapeutics. We are developing new tools for identification of biomarkers for stem cells including microRNA technology, and, together with collaborators, we are developing new methods for generating autologous stem cells. Finally, we work with new techniques to produce human therapeutic proteins with a desired pattern of glycosylation. Current activities include:
- Stem cell technology - new ways of producing stem cells and of generating biomarkers
- Glycooptimised protein production - new ways of producing optimally glycosylated human proteins
Accelerated drug development
A large fraction of new drug candidates fails in clinical trials due to toxicity or lack of effect. We believe that in vitro methods to predict the in vivo fate of drug compounds and drug formulations may significantly increase the success rate for development of new therapeutics based upon small chemical entities as well as biologics. Critical parameters to predict comprise stability in the gastrointestinal tract for oral therapeutics and the absorption over biological surfaces such as oral or gastrointestinal mucosa, skin or the blood-brain barrier. Bioneer has established a new business unit, Bioneer:FARMA, at the Faculty of the Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of Copenhagen to address this need for predictive in vitro models. Current activities include:
- Absorption and transport of drugs over mucosal surfaces - combined intestinal barrier models for drug transport analysis
- Analysis of poorly soluble drugs - complex simulated media for modelling of oral drug behaviour in the gastrointestinal tract