Hospices Civils de Lyon and bioMérieux inaugurate a joint immunogenomics and inflammation unit

Hospices Civils de Lyon and bioMérieux inaugurate a joint immunogenomics and inflammation unit

Lyon, France - June 23, 2005. Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL) and bioMérieux will inaugurate today the “HCL-bioMérieux” joint unit dedicated to research in immunogenomics and inflammation. The unit is headed by Prof. Pierre Miossec and Bruno Mougin.
 

This joint unit has been created to bring together multidisciplinary expertise in a hospital setting in order to:

• Apply the most innovative tools in fundamental and applied research to patients in order to better understand the mechanisms behind inflammatory diseases.
• Foster close collaboration between people involved in healthcare, research, diagnosis and therapeutic development.
• Leverage research from diagnosis to therapeutic treatments.

Research at the unit is centered on rheumatoid polyarthritis, inflammatory response and selecting treatment-responsive and treatment-resistant patients. Rheumatoid polyarthritis, an inflammatory disease suffered by 25,000 people in France’s Rhône Alpes region, and inflammation in general are the unit’s two priorities. The goal of its doctors and researchers is to better define these pathologies in order to better predict how patients will respond to treatment, particularly biotechnology treatments and new types of gene therapy.

The team has already developed a simplified genetic typing method for severity markers in rheumatoid polyarthritis. Instead of requiring a 40 ml blood sample, only a tiny amount deposited on blotting paper is needed. This innovative new method opens the door to wider use, including with children.

The concept behind the unit is based on strong collaboration between the private and public sectors, and the synergetic relationship established between complementary yet different partners.

Hospices Civils de Lyon brings to this relationship its access to patients and its medical and scientific expertise in clinical issues of concern. For its part, bioMérieux provides technological developments in the field of markers, notably genetic markers. Therapy, the third component of this relationship, is voluntarily being left open-ended to foster interactions with the pharmaceutical industry.

The research unit operates under an agreement signed by founding members Hospices Civils de Lyon and bioMérieux on January 30, 2002. It moved into its current premises, a newly renovated 400 square meter space in building P at Edouard Herriot Hospital, in January 2004.

The partnership has also been embraced by a number of public-sector institutions, including the Rhône-Alpes regional council and the Lyon metropolitan area council, as well as various private-sector foundations and industrial companies. In addition, the unit has been recognized by the university as a technological research team (ERT 1041) since 2004.

About Hospices Civils de Lyon

Hospices Civils de Lyon is the second-largest university teaching hospital (CHU) in France and the largest healthcare institution in the nation’s Rhône-Alpes region. It is Lyon’s largest employer, with over 17,000 non-medical staff and nearly 4,500 medical and pharmaceutical staff. It has an annual operating budget of 1.2 million euros.

To effectively meet changing needs in healthcare, Hospices Civils de Lyon has formed a real center of expertise that brings together every medical specialty. Its 16 institutions are organized into 5 hospital complexes (3 multidisciplinary hospital complexes, 1 specialized complex and 1 geriatrics complex).

Hospices Civils de Lyon has a total of 5,484 beds (353 of which are reserved for outpatients) and patients benefit from everything modern technology has to offer.

Hospices Civils de Lyon has embarked on an unprecedented move toward modernization. By 2009, over 1 billion euros will be invested to offer the region’s citizens the best in healthcare.
Major projects under way:

• Women’s and children’s hospital (2007)
• Medical building, Southern hospital complex (2007)
• Clinical building, Northern hospital complex (2008)
• Modernization of Edouard Herriot Hospital (2008-2013)

About bioMérieux

bioMérieux is a leading international group that specializes in the field of in vitro diagnostics for clinical and industrial applications. bioMérieux designs, develops, manufactures and markets systems (i.e. reagents, instruments and software) used in:

• Clinical applications: the diagnosis of infectious diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis and respiratory illnesses, as well as pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer, based on the analysis of biological samples (such as blood, saliva or urine).
• Industrial applications: the microbiological analysis of food, environments (such as water and air), surfaces and pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, based on the analysis of product or environmental samples.

In 2004, bioMérieux sales reached 931 million euros, with international sales accounting for over 80% of overall sales. The company is present in more than 130 countries through 33 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors, which positions the company well to benefit from the growth potential of the in vitro diagnostics market. Some important drivers that underpin this growth are aging populations and age-related illnesses, illnesses related to lifestyles and eating habits, emerging new pathogens, the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the fight against bioterrorism, and the recognition of the importance of the quality of food products.

bioMérieux is listed on Euronext Paris’s Eurolist (FR0010096479 - BIM).