AN OUTSTANDING INNOVATION POLICY

The first joint research units were set up by bioMérieux and a number of hospitals to promote interactions with hospital doctors and place public health and medicine at the heart of bioMérieux’s R&D activities.

With this objective in mind, three units were created with Hospices Civils de Lyon (Hôpital Edouard Herriot and Hôpital Lyon-Sud) in France, and with Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center in China.

Institut Mérieux subsequently expanded the program’s scope from in vitro diagnostics to immunotherapy as well, enlisting its company, Transgene, in the process.

Today, the efforts of these joint research units are focused on biomarkers. 

• The bioMérieux/Hôpital Edouard Herriot joint research unit works on sepsis. Its objective is to find new biomarkers that will make it possible to predict the progression and prognosis of patients in intensive care units.
• The Hôpital Lyon Sud unit is dedicated to identifying biomarkers that will make it possible to better diagnose and manage prostate cancer.
• The unit’s teams at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center develop new biomarkers for early diagnosis and management of colorectal and breast cancer.

Institut Mérieux’s innovation strategy reaffirms its commitment to build partnerships with leading international public health agencies and stakeholders.

A recent example of this commitment is the new research unit Institut Mérieux created with the Singapore Institute of Immunology in mid-2010. The unit will initially focus on research in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. There are plans to extend its work to oncology as well.