17. Januar 2022 Accelerated drug development and personalised treatments for cancer

The company’s headquarters are in Hamburg, with Indivumed currently employing over 200 members of staff. Its project “Development of an AI-based platform for the accelerated development of therapeutics for precision cancer treatments” will receive 4.3 million euros in EU funding from the ERDF structural fund.

When the notification of funding was received on 17 January 2022, Senator of Economics Michael Westhagemann said: “Indivumed is a figurehead for Hamburg as a biotech hub. With its activities, which center on the development of personalised diagnostics and drugs, it sets standards for the future.”

Ralf Sommer, CEO of the Hamburg Investment and Development Bank, added: “The REACT-EU programme is intended as a contribution to stimulating the economy and overcoming the effects of the COVID crisis while making the economy greener and more digital. We as Hamburg Investment and Development Bank are pleased that we can support Indivumed with the implementation of this innovative undertaking using artificial intelligence.”

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Juhl: “Indivumed’s mission is to decipher the complex mechanisms of cancer and drive the development of precision oncology. With our top-quality multi-omics data and state-of-the-art bioinformatics, we are among the pioneers who are paving the way for this. The funding will bring us a lot closer to our goals.”

The project will create a unique platform for the fast and efficient development of active substances, leveraging the established clinical Indivumed network, AI-driven oncological data analytics, and innovative disease models to validate the therapeutic targets and drive therapeutic development. With this approach, Indivumed aims to create a portfolio of novel treatment approaches, which will also be a strong driver for Hamburg’s biotech scene. The platform enables fast and highly efficient identification and validation of therapeutic targets. Targets are identified by means of computational biology analyses using artificial intelligence and the unique cancer database, the only one of its kind in the world. When the programme is completed, Indivumed will not only have a platform that enables the accelerated development of therapeutics, but also new and patentable potential treatment approaches for various forms of cancer, which will, in turn, lead to the development of medical substances.

Indivumed GmbH is one of the standout players in the Life Science Nord cluster. Life Science Nord (LSN) is the brand under which the commercial company Life Science Nord Management GmbH and the non-profit organisation under the same name cooperate to promote the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein region as an internationally leading life science network hub. LSN Management GmbH initiates strategic projects and supports the funding of companies and scientific or academic institutions with a focus on medical technology, biotechnology and pharma. The organisation builds networks between businesses, research institutions and policy in the north of Germany, sharing the technical knowledge from research centres and its contacts in the business world. This has already led to a number of success stories, jointly written with other actors from the cluster, such as Indivumed GmbH.