Pierre Fabre and VibioSphen agree new Nature Open Library partnership

Pierre Fabre and VibioSphen have announced a new partnership agreement within Pierre Fabre’s Nature Open Library framework, an open innovation programme that makes the company’s private plant collection available to innovating companies from a variety of sectors.

Following an initial partnership signed in February 2016 with Plasticell, this new collaboration is the second one that falls within the framework of this initiative. VibioSphen will first screen Pierre Fabre’s plants’ collection, one of the most important in the industry, numbering more than 15,000 classified samples and phytochemical compounds.

VibioSphen will then try to identify new natural molecules that could subsequently be tested on several models of infectious diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, if the screening phase is successful, Pierre Fabre will then become VibioSphen’s preferred partners for the further development of specific molecules.

‘This second partnership confirms the high level of interest in our Nature Open Library initiative. We are especially glad to implement it with a biotech company from the Toulouse region, which makes its dynamism available for the further development of therapies in the field of infectious diseases, an important medical field that’s not included in our R&D programme,’ Laurent Audoly, Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals R&D Director.

‘This partnership is a real opportunity for us to develop our portfolio of molecules. Access to these natural extracts and to prequalified molecules will help us to quickly identify new drug candidates and enable us to develop naturally derived compounds to fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria,’ commented Maxime Fontanié, VibioSphen’s CEO.