Innovation Prize for Antisense Pharma
MZ 19.05.05 - The Bavarian Innovation Prize is awarded to companies for highly innovative achievements that promote positive future developments and competitiveness in Bavaria. The prize is the second highest award in Germany directly behind the German President’s National Technology Prize.
The Antisense Pharma company was founded in 1998 in Göttingen by the brothers Dr. Reimar und Dr. Karl-Hermann Schlingensiepen, who now both run the company. At the end of 1999 they moved with 6 employees to Regensburg as the first company in BioPark. In October 2000 the first active agent (AP12009) was clinically tested. Hidden behind the abbreviation is an ingredient that may well revolutionize cancer treatments. Whereas up to now the standard radiation and chemotherapies did not or only just barely have an affect, specifically in the case of brain tumors, the so-called „glioblastom“, new forms of cancer treatment are desperately needed. With AP 12999, Antisense has had many promising results in clinical testing and was awarded with the Bavarian Innovation Prize 2004 in the grand salon of the State Ministry for their “innovative therapy concept”.
Economic Minister Dr. Otto Wiesheu expressed in his Laudatio: „Exceptional achievements like these give afflicted people hope, offer proof the innovation capacity of the Bavarian business economy and point to Bavaria as the location for advanced technology.“ In addition, with a wide portfolio of patents applications and patent as well as a unique technology platform Antisense Pharma has made a technological leap and has the advantage of being one of a kind on the market.
The principle of the Antisense therapy is based on the blocking of genes that can cause cancer or that make the growth of tumors more probable. “Antisense“ is the term for molecular reflection of genetic information. The highly specialized medication follow the “Schlüssel-Schloss” Principle which is used to block essential factors for the growth of tumors on the molecular level. International studies are currently being held with the new treatment. AP 12009 for the treatment of brain tumors is however not the only Antisense-medicine in the pipeline. A study on the treatment of pancreatic cancer has also begun. Further substances for the treatment of for example lung, colon and prostate cancer are in the pre-clinical stages of development.
Antisense Pharma has approximately 30 employees and is the largest company in BioPark. “This example proves that investments in Bavaria for new technology are very sound”, according to Wiesheu. In the framework of this high tech offensive 68 million Euro have flowed into the expansion of BioRegio Regensburg alone. The head of the Department of Economic Advancement, Dieter Daminger, congratulated the Schlingensiepen brothers in Munich on being awarded. “Awarding the innovation prize to one of the first companies in BioPark Regensburg is a commendation for the city and linked with its biotech activities.”
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