Companies in the BioRegion Regensburg in East Bavaria support the development of a vaccine for Corona Virus
COVID-19, the new infectious respiratory disease acquired through Corona virus SARS-CoV-2, has led to a pandemic (ancient Greek “all people”). Accordingly companies and research institutes across the whole world have been researching for protective vaccines to combat the virus which first became known in the New Year. Currently the World Health Organization has a count of 68 vaccine projects that are running, currently announced by the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies VFA in Berlin as an update. “In this way the companies from our BioRegion Regensburg Cluster are actively supporting the global activities in the development of vaccines”, commented Dr. Thomas Diefenthal, CEO at BioPark Regensburg GmbH, an enterprise of the City of Regensburg, from which the cluster is steered.
Already with the first appearance of the novel Corona virus Thermo Fisher Scientific GENEART at the Regensburg location has been producing more than 1000 tailor-made synthetic SARS-CoV-2 genes for universities, the pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The demand for DNA genetic material which codes for the virus sheath or genes is constantly increasing. So from the start the company has been prioritizing all orders for SARS-CoV-2 genes at no cost and thereby made available urgently required tailor-made virus constructs to clients worldwide. This allows the development of vaccines and therapeutics to be fast-tracked. The company is currently producing material 7 days a week 24 hours per day with shift work.
The Regensburg company Davids Biotechnolgie GmbH, specialized in the manufacture of antibodies to detect viruses, bacteria and parasites, is delivering these to clients worldwide that manufacture respective diagnostic tests. Thanks to the employees with their capability and passion, this has brought functioning to full operation, the company’s production has been driven up to its maximum to be able to reliably deliver its clients with the antibodies to the virus.
PAN-Biotech GmbH from Aidenbach supports all renown pharma, biotech and research institutes in the development and manufacture of vaccines or the production of test kits with media, reagents and serums for cell culture. The production of Corona virus test kits has been increased by a factor of 10 in the last few days! New in the assortment of products is Virus Protect, a disinfection product which was developed in accordance with WHO guidelines and offers effective protection against viruses. In doing so the company wants to counteract the current shortage in deliveries.
The Cluster Management in the Regensburg BioRegion, which is steered by the BioPark, supports the search for innovative applications that can be implemented against the Corona virus. “With our companies we are on various COVID-19 platforms online in the process of being called upon to find a solution to the COVID-19 crisis with common projects”, explained Dr. Diefenthal. The Bavarian biotechnology cluster, steered by Bio-M in Munich or the industry association BIO Deutschland have similarly built up respective platforms. The backbone is the BioPark team though. “Our small team is succeeding in this exceptional crisis mode with two separate teams, physical distance and digital technology to keep the complex state-of-the-art plants running 24 hours per day, also at weekends and public holidays, so that the system relevant companies at the BioPark are able to keep on producing”, thanked Dr. Diefenthal his motivated team that is always there for customers at this time.