On Wednesday November 13, Marseille Immunology Biocluster announced that it had won the Biocluster call for projects under the Innovation santé 2030 plan, the healthcare component of France 2030, and had signed an agreement with the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), the French national research agency operating the call for projects on behalf of the French government. This marks a decisive step that will enable the biocluster to receive its first funding and accelerate its deployment.
On Wednesday, November 11, Marseille Immunology Biocluster (MIB) announced its deployment following the agreement with the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, in the presence of Christophe Mirmand, Prefect of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, President Delegate of Régions de France, Emmanuelle Charafe, Vice-President of the Metropole, and Dr. Lise Alter, Managing Director of the Agence de l’innovation en santé.
The Marseille Immunology Biocluster project was born of an alliance of private and public sector players in partnership with local authorities, and was one of the five winners of the Biocluster call for projects under the Innovation santé 2030 plan, the health component of France 2030, launched in 2022 to boost France’s attractiveness as a land of innovation and research in cutting-edge fields, particularly in the healthcare sector. The aim of the MIB project is to contribute to French sovereignty in the field of healthcare, and in particular in immunotherapy, which holds great promise for patients awaiting therapeutic answers.
A territorial base at the heart of a high-performance ecosystem
Located in the heart of Marseille, a land of research in immunology for over 40 years, MIB’s mission is to implement and develop cooperation between all players in the service of tomorrow’s immunology, at national, European and international level. Coordinated by Aix Marseille University and involving some twenty partners, MIB brings together players from academia, hospitals, institutions and industry to accelerate research in immunology applied to four therapeutic areas: oncology, infectiology, autoimmune diseases and inflammatory diseases.
An ambitious project to accelerate the discovery of immunotherapy drugs
MIB supports and develops an internationally recognized R&D ecosystem to amplify and accelerate the clinical research, approval and marketing phases of tomorrow’s treatments. From the outset, MIB has set itself ambitious 10-year objectives, reflecting the project’s scientific and entrepreneurial dynamism:
- Strengthening R&D projects: +50% phase I / II trials, 5 antibodies in
phase II / III - Developing new French drugs: 1 blockbuster drug and
3
- approved niche antibodiesStimulating
- entrepreneurship through the creation of start-ups and the establishment of new
companies in FranceContributing - to economic development: creation of 2,000 direct jobs and
capitalization of start-upsIn concrete terms,
MIB’s technology offering will help identify new antibodies and accelerate projects from R&D through clinical research to industrialization, with the provision of cutting-edge technology platforms as early as 2025.
Support also includes an entrepreneurial component, with a start-up studio and services for companies.
