One of the goals of the Imagine Foundation is to valorize the results of research generated by its scientists. New products or significant improvements of therapies can be directly produced by Imagine research. These innovations can either be directly exploited by Imagine or be used by industrial companies through partnerships. Valorization can result in the improvement of both diagnosis tools and new treatments (molecular, gene therapy, surgery…).
Innovation generated by Imagine researchers resulted in 14 patents et 13 licences.
AB Sciences, a start-up company was created to develop research and commercialize tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Among them, the commercialization of masitinib has already started in Veterinary Medicine after a marketing authorization was granted for canine mast cell tumors. AB Science is currently developing products in human beings through ongoing clinical studies in pancreatic cancer, GIST, mastocytosis and inflammatory diseases.
Genetic diseases are a relevant model to understand life sciences as research on genes involved in some rare diseases may also be relevant for more common diseases. Collections of patients (and their affected or non affected relatives) include over 30,000 phenotypically and genotypically well identified people (over 75,000 samples are available: blood cells, skin cells, tissues, DNA samples...).
Imagine teams have developed new molecular, cellular tools or models to achieve their scientific goals. Moreover, these tools helped them developing the best technological and industrial know-how particularly concerning genome and cell imaging. These tools are very attractive for industrial development partnership agreements as reflected by the 50 external deals already signed or negotiated with around 40 companies. The number of deals should increase in the near future, together with development of public-private partnerships in France.
A prerequisite to develop valorization in Imagine is the reinforcement of links with external valorization structures.