MATWIN and Pierre Fabre Fund for Innovation strengthen partnership

Maturation & Accelerating Translation With Industry (MATWIN), a France-based support programme for early innovation in oncology, has strengthened its collaboration with Pierre Fabre Laboratories ahead of this week's MEET2WIN Oncology Business Convention.

Pierre Fabre has been a partner of MATWIN since 2014 and will expand its contribution to this year's convention, which is dedicated to open innovation and collaborative research in oncology, and takes place on 12–13 May in Bordeaux, France. More than 200 participants involved in the oncology innovation cycle are expected to attend.

At the meeting, several research projects in oncology and onco-dermatology pre-selected by MATWIN will be evaluated by the Pierre Fabre Fund for Innovation. If selected and a partnership signed, these projects will benefit from the support and expertise of the Pierre Fabre Group across the spectrum of R&D activities and/or from financial support for their project to advance through the clinic.

'Biotech entrepreneurs in oncology and onco-dermatology can expect a highly collaborative interaction with us in order to advance projects in the most efficient manner across the product development steps,' said Laurent Audoly, Head of R&D Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals and Managing Partner of the Pierre Fabre Fund for Innovation.

We want to offer true flexibility to our partners, without forcing them to follow a set pattern

'This collaboration between MATWIN and Pierre Fabre Fund for Innovation falls into Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals' R&D strategy to forge partnerships with external parties showing a real potential for delivering highly differentiated medicines to patients.'

'We want to offer true flexibility to our partners, without forcing them to follow a set pattern. We are willing to take risks on projects that are still at a very early stage of the innovation process. The whole purpose of strengthening our ties with MATWIN is to identify projects of interest,' added Vincent Serra, Operating Manager of the Pierre Fabre Fund for Innovation.

Robert Lucia, CEO of MATWIN, said the new partnership offers additional opportunities for project applications to the organisation.

'It will expand the expertise and support we provide at an early stage, allowing the most promising projects to boost the development of their solutions for unmet medical needs,' he said.

MATWIN is based on a public-private partnership between 12 pharmaceutical companies focusing on oncology (Amgen, AstraZeneca, BayerHealthCare, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, Pierre Fabre, Roche, Sanofi) and the French Cancéropôles network.

Since June 2015, MATWIN has become a subsidiary of the Unicancer Group, which brings together the 20 French Comprehensive Cancer Centres.