Reithera and Fondazione Tls, here are who the government will finance to fight the coronavirus
Who are they and what are Reithera and Tls on which the government invests to fight Covid-19
The Italian government also tries to do its part in the fight against the coronavirus and invests, among other things, in research, as announced by the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency, Domenico Arcuri.
The government – Arcuri announced – will invest in the Reithera company and in the Tls foundation.
The first has already given birth to a vaccine and started experimenting with the drug in Italy, the second is working on the development of monoclonal antibodies ( for this reason the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, visited the Tls headquarters on 9 September ). All the details.
THE WORD OF ARCURI
Let's start with the intentions of the government. “Italy participates in the development of some European vaccines. Furthermore, we have been working on some important Italian investments for some time and in silence. In a few weeks we will announce the first two ”, Arcuri told the newspaper Repubblica , specifying that the investments on the Italian front are for“ Reithera, which is testing a promising vaccine ”and for“ Tls, leader in the development of monoclonal antibodies ”.
“We will support subsequent developments. We want to be the first to use their doses and above all to leave Italy with a more competitive research and development platform than the one we have found ”, added Arcuri.
THE WORK OF REITHERA
The Reithera company has developed an anti Covid vaccine which is being tested on humans in recent weeks . The company has recruited over 500 volunteers in Italy, including adults between 18 and 55 years old. If the vaccine passes the test without any complications, 500 elderly people aged 65-85 will be enrolled.
REITHERA: SWISS COMPANY OPERATING IN ITALY
But who is the company that developed it? Reithera Srl is 100% Swiss-owned Keires, but operates in Italy with Italian staff (based in Castel Romano in the province of Rome).
The company, chaired by Antonella Folgori, head of immunology and founder of Okairos.
THE BIRTH
Reithera has a complex history. The company, as stated on the website , was born in 2007 with a team founded and led by professor Riccardo Cortese. Initially the company was integrated into Okairos, a biotech company with laboratories at the Ceinge in Naples, which together with Irbm (the company working on an anti Covid vaccine candidate with the Jenner Institute of Oxford and Astrazeneca) created the joint venture Advent , dedicated to the production of adenovirus-based vaccines.
Okairos was acquired in May 2013 by the British company Glaxo, and then became Reithera in 2014.
Among the vaccines the company works on are those against Ebola, Hepatitis C, Malaria and HIV.
THE COMPANY'S NUMBERS
The balance sheet numbers are good, Reithera closed 2019 with revenues of 19,565,923 euros , up compared to the 14,223,015 euros of 2018. 2019 profit more than tripled: 2,244,495 euros, against 664,858 of the previous year . Total production costs amounted to 16,680,460.
UNICREDIT AMONG THE FINANCERS OF REITHERA
In addition to the government, the Unicredit bank believes in the potential of the Reithera vaccine, from which a loan of 5 million euros has arrived to accelerate the search for the antidote.
TLS'S COMMITMENT AGAINST COVID
An Italian heart also for Tls, which in recent months has focused its research efforts on the development of human monoclonal antibodies in response to Covid infection. Tls hopes to develop a drug and a possible future vaccine.
WHAT TLS DOES
Tls is the name, in short, of the Toscana Life Sciences Foundation, a non-profit organization that has been operating since 2005 in the Tuscan regional panorama "with the aim of supporting research activities in the field of life sciences", reads the website .
THE MEMBERS OF THE TLS FOUNDATION
The founding members of the Italian bio-ethnology company are the Tuscany Region, the Foundation and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena; the Province of Siena; the Universities of Siena, Pisa and Florence; the Sant'Anna and Normale Higher Education Schools in Pisa and the Imt Institute of Higher Studies in Lucca; the University Hospital of Siena, the Municipality and the Chamber of Commerce of Siena.
Leading the foundation is Fabrizio Landi, president of Tls (formerly in Leonardo's board of directors on the recommendation of Matteo Renzi and financier of the Renziana Open foundation), assisted by vice president Carlo Rossi. Andrea Paolini is general manager while Paola Ricciardi Castagnoli is scientific director.
THE ACCOUNTS OF THE FOUNDATION
The non-profit foundation, in 2019 generated and attracted resources for over 38 million euros , "working to be able to intercept and aggregate the demand for innovation in the life sciences sector", reads the website.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/reithera-e-tls-ecco-chi-il-governo-coronavirus/ on Mon, 14 Sep 2020 14:30:28 +0000.