ImmuneHealth consolidates the repositioning of its activities through the asset transfer of its immune monitoring laboratory to the Canadian company Caprion Biosciences and the focusing on the supply of human biological samples via its clinical unit.
Founded in 2007 by the Université libre de Bruxelles, ImmuneHealth is a collective research center specialized in the supply of human biological samples for the purposes of research and development and in the design and the performance of immune monitoring assays in the sectors of new vaccines, immunotherapies, cell therapies and diagnostic. Over the years, through its scientific expertise in the field of infectious diseases and its work environment operating according to several quality standards, ImmuneHealth has built a well-recognised position in immune analytical services supporting the development of new vaccines and immunotherapies for biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
As a result of the sale to Caprion Biosciences, the laboratory activities will be integrated within a commercial environment that provides solid perspectives of growth and development. As a leading global provider of specialized immunology and proteomics analytical laboratory services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Caprion Biosciences, located in Canada, is positioned for continued growth particularly in the rapidly expanding R&D services for immune oncology therapies, precision medicine biomarkers and biotherapeutics.
Caprion will leverage this acquisition of a fully operational immune monitoring laboratory to expand its immune monitoring offering and strengthen its business partnerships and research collaborations throughout Europe and America and will diversify its immune oncology services offering with a complementary expertise and assays for cellular and humoral immunity in the areas of infectious diseases in support to new vaccine development. Caprion will maintain the laboratory team, its operations and its location in the Biopark of Charleroi.
ImmuneHealth maintains within its organization the activities related to the clinical unit.
Located within the hospital CHU Tivoli, the clinical unit is specialized in conducting prospective human biological samples collection studies in compliance with the clinical and ethical regulations. Over the years, the unit has established, with most of the hospitals within the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, a strong network offering its partners a large access to biological samples from healthy donors and clinically well characterized patients.
As a conclusion to this transaction, Brigitte Genard, CEO of ImmuneHealth, stated: "While consolidating its repositioning strategy, ImmuneHealth’s first priorities were to offer each of its activities a structure providing solid perspectives of growth while maintaining the regional anchoring of the teams and the activities in Wallonia".
And Dominique Demonté, Chairman of ImmuneHealth and Director of the Biopark of Charleroi, to add: "Caprion's expertise and vision will support the deployment of the services developed at ImmuneHealth on a broader scale and will create a natural bridge between Canada and Wallonia to promote strong business partnerships. This acquisition is therefore very good news for ImmuneHealth clients and for the development of our region".
With its two locations in North America and Europe, 120 employees including 70 PhD and/or MSc degrees, Caprion is now well-positioned to support the global clinical immune monitoring needs of its biopharma partners. Caprion will continue to operate from its headquarters in Montreal (Canada) as well as from its new location in Belgium under the leadership of Caprion's current management team.
