The National Growth Fund is investing 325 million euros in the plans of Oncode-PACT to accelerate the development process of new cancer medicines. The government is following the weighty advice of the review committee of the National Growth Fund. In addition to its significant role in Oncode-PACT, UMC Utrecht participates in the Growth Fund applications Biotech Booster, NXTGEN HIGHTECH and PharmaNL, for which the Council of Ministers has also issued a positive advice. The RegMed XB pilot plant has also received funding for its second phase.
In total, the cabinet is investing 5 billion euros in new Growth Fund plans, with an additional 1.3 billion being reserved. The funds will be used for 28 large-scale national projects that will have a positive effect on the well-being of Dutch citizens and that will ensure structural and sustainable economic growth for the long term.
Read more about the growth funds in which UMC Utrecht is a consortium partner:
Accelerating the preclinical development process of new cancer drugs
Innovative medicines are needed to improve cancer treatment. The bottleneck is often the long and challenging preclinical development process. Oncode-PACT focuses on making this early phase of drug development more efficient and effective. It aims to build a national infrastructure that improves and accelerates the development of cancer drugs. It will provide cancer researchers and (SME) companies with access to expertise and facilities for preclinical development.
At the same time, Oncode-PACT innovates the preclinical development process, using a combination of organoids, patient cohorts and artificial intelligence. In this way, predictions can be made at a very early stage as to whether prospective drugs are truly promising. This should lead to fewer risks in the process and cheaper new medicines and will ultimately ensure that patients can be treated better and as quickly as possible.
The investment from the National Growth Fund in the project is up to € 325 million: an awarded € 161 million and a conditional award of € 164 million. UMC Utrecht is the leader of 2 major Oncode-PACT subprojects: well-defined patient cohorts for developing a national preclinical platform, and cellular therapies (together with NKI).
The new generation of high-tech equipment
The Dutch production of high-tech equipment is of world class and accounts for a large share of Dutch exports. But global competition is growing, there are pressing social challenges and the required investments are increasing. The NXTGEN HIGHTECH investment program tackles all of these issues at once by making production future-proof.
The investment from the National Growth Fund in this project is up to € 450 million, this is a conditional award. UMC Utrecht participates in this consortium with the portable artificial kidney and with testing production equipment for cell therapy.
Offering societal innovations the best possible start
Investments in biotechnology offer solutions to major societal issues. For example, by improving people’s health through prevention programs. These innovations are often expensive and have long development times. Biotech Booster has a new approach with a national network that allows bottlenecks to be addressed more quickly.
The investment from the National Growth Fund in the project is up to € 246 million: an award of € 50 million for the first phase and a conditional award of € 196 million. UMC Utrecht participates in this consortium to improve valorization: getting our academic knowledge to the market more quickly and effectively.
Closing the lab-to-life gap of drug candidates
At present, many drug candidates fail to reach patients because a lot of academic institutions do not have the infrastructure, knowledge and financial resources to market their discoveries. PharmaNL aims to change this. It wants to accelerate lab to patient route for innovative medicines. Another goal of the consortium is to position the Netherlands as a major player in international drug research. It mainly focuses on the technical facilities for startups in the pharmaceutical industry.
The investment from the National Growth Fund in this project is up to €80 million, this is a conditional award.
Promising therapies for patients one step closer
The Council of Ministers has also decided to award the second phase for the national RegMed XB Pilot Plant for Regenerative Medicine. Promising therapies are on their way from the lab to the patient, however a good infrastructure is needed to make this possible. The first phase grant of 23 million euros was intended primarily for physical infrastructure and the second part of up to 33 million is also intended for further development and scaling up.
Regenerative Medicine Crossing Borders (RegMed XB) is a patient-driven public-private partnership dedicated to bringing affordable regenerative medicine solutions to patients with chronic conditions. Regenerative medicine focuses on repairing damage to cells, tissues and organs that can prevent or cure chronic diseases. This is achieved by using stem cells, mini-organs, tissues and smart (bio)materials.
Utrecht is creating the Innovation Center for Advanced Therapies (ICAT) with a facility for biofabrication, a (GMP) simulation environment and a GMP production facility for the purpose of regenerative medicine and will receive a total of €12.5 million from the National Growth Fund for this project.
With the National Growth Fund, the government is investing €20 billion between 2021 and 2025, in projects that ensure structural and sustainable economic growth for the long term. These are projects in the field of knowledge creation or research, development, and innovation in the areas where the greatest opportunities exist for the Netherlands.
More information about the National Growth Fund and the projects can be found at www.nationaalgroeifonds.nl.
