Three new small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – Syncom, Synvolux and InteRNA, have signed a partnership agreement with TI Pharma by participating in two new projects. These projects would focus primarily on cancer and inflammatory diseases.
The new consortium, formed by Syncom, Synvolux, and University Medical Center Groningen, focuses on designing a drug delivery system for inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Another new consortium is formed by InteRNA, Utrecht University and VU University Medical Center. It focuses on the development of anti-angiogenic microRNA-based therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer.
Roel Schaapveld, CEO of InteRNA, said: “Conventional cancer treatment such as surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy are far from sufficient, therefore, new strategies of cancer treatment are needed more than ever.”
There is a large body of evidence indicating that tumor growth and metastasis formation are dependent on the formation of new blood vessels. Furthermore, angiogenesis is an early event in the development of tumors, being already switched on in pre-cancerous events and long before visible or clinically relevant tumor mass is present. These two features make angiogenesis an ideal target for the development of novel anti-cancer strategies,” he added.