BOHEMIA, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sartorius recently recognized startup company MyoGene Bio at the QB3 Pitch Summit, a competition showcasing promising new life science companies. This award provides the company with a $25,000 voucher that they can use for the purchase of any Sartorius products and services to support their development of a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
MyoGene Bio’s MyoDys45-55 gene editing therapy uses CRISPR/Cas9 to restore a functional dystrophin protein in about half of DMD patients, which they hope will significantly improve their quality of life and their lifespan. Sartorius chose MyoGene Bio for this award because of the broad coverage that their adeno-associated virus-mediated gene therapy provides. With 50% efficacy, this therapy could be used to treat more than three times the number of patients than any other treatment currently used or in development. Additionally, since it facilitates permanent gene editing, there is potential to use this solid viral vector platform to develop therapies for other indications. By giving this voucher to MyoGene Bio, Sartorius hopes to support the further development of a production platform that can be used to facilitate their pre-clinical and safety studies.
“We are thankful to Sartorius for giving this award, because it has allowed us to obtain additional equipment and resources at a critical time during our early development,” said Courtney Young, CEO of MyoGene Bio. “We will be able to buy necessary equipment for the production of our gene therapy that we otherwise would not have been able to afford.”
In 2020, Sartorius was a gold partner with the QB3, the University of California's hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in the life sciences. Together, they selected MyoGene Bio out of 140 companies that applied for this award.
“Sartorius is focused on supporting the next generation of medical breakthroughs,” said Remi Laliberte, Head of Business Development for Sartorius. “We recognize the importance of innovation for better health in society and by partnering with QB3 at its Pitch Summit event, we were able to mentor innovative entrepreneurs in life sciences to help them succeed from the beginning of their endeavour.”
Sartorius is also engaged in other partnerships as part of the company’s Biotech Incubators Partnership Program. It has Gold Sponsorship agreements with Biolabs, a growing network of eight biotech incubators that reside in most of the biotech clusters in North America, and with MBC Biolabs, a pioneer biotech incubator that currently has three sites in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A profile of Sartorius
The Sartorius Group is a leading international partner of life science research and the biopharmaceutical industry. With innovative laboratory instruments and consumables, the Group’s Lab Products & Services Division concentrates on serving the needs of laboratories performing research and quality control at pharma and biopharma companies and those of academic research institutes. The Bioprocess Solutions Division with its broad product portfolio focusing on single-use solutions helps customers to manufacture biotech medications and vaccines safely and efficiently. The Group has been annually growing by double digits on average and has been regularly expanding its portfolio by acquisitions of complementary technologies. In fiscal 2019, the company earned sales revenue of some 1.83 billion euros according to preliminary figures. At the end of 2019, more than 9,000 people work at the Group’s approximately 60 manufacturing and sales sites, serving customers around the globe.
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