Promethera BioSciences and Coris BioConcept, one active in the area of cell therapy and the other in that of in vitro diagnostics, have been chosen to participate in collaborative projects with businesses in Massachusetts.

This initiative from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), a public investment fund based in Boston, aims to promote collaboration between American and international SMEs active in life sciences and to stimulate the development of new products or processes close to commercialisation.

Four regions took part in the call for projects launched by the MLSC: Wallonia (Belgium), Alsace (France), the Province of Quebec and Victoria State (Australia). Seven companies responded to the call and four were chosen, two of which are from Wallonia. Promethera BioSciences and Coris BioConcept will both receive funding, €500,000 and €350,000 respectively, which equates to two thirds of the amount they need for their activities.

Promethra and its American partner, EMD Millipore, aim to combine their technologies in order to commercialise a radically innovative toxicology screening test for drug candidates.

Thierry Leclipteux, CEO of Coris BioConcept, explains: "Collaboration with the company Covaris (our American partner) will enable us to launch an integrated platform onto the market that will make it possible to carry out rapid multiplex molecular diagnostics. The integration of Covaris' technology with that of Coris BioConcept, developed within the scope of BioWin projects, will minimise handling processes to provide a "sampling-to-results" procedure in less than 60 minutes".

"These partnerships will help to launch new health technologies on the market while contributing to the economic development of Wallonia and Massachusetts. No single country or region can take on the health needs that we face and we're very pleased to partner with Wallonia, one of Europe's most innovative regions in the area of life sciences,"  declared Suzanne Windham-Bannister, Chairman and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

 It's also a great success for the Walloon health cluster, BioWin, who also announced a new partnership with the first global biotechnology hub.