Industry collects billions Record sums for biotech companies

Status: 15.06.2021 10:46 a.m.

The successes of biotech companies such as BioNTech attract investors: The industry has a new financial record in Germany. But the exuberance could be followed by disillusionment. By Thomas Spinnler, tagesschau.de The entire biotech industry is currently benefiting greatly from the attention generated by the rapid and successful development of corona vaccines. The pandemic has given a boost to a sector that is already in the focus of many investors due to technological and medical advances in recent years. As the “Financial Times” (FT) reports, the venture capitalist Flagship Pioneering – one of the major investors in the Vaccine manufacturer Moderna – around $ 3.5 billion for a new fund. Its aim is to promote the next generation of biotech companies.

Fund tries a new model

When investing in the biotech industry, investors must calculate with particular risks. Many of the companies to invest in do not yet have a product on the market. It is uncertain whether this will ever be the case, as the path from research to a marketable product is very long and often fails.

01/06/2021

Flagship Pioneering is now trying a different way. What is special, according to “FT”, is that the fund’s goal is not the usual search for newly founded companies in which to invest. Rather, modern biotechnologies are to be developed in-house in certain segments under the umbrella of the fund. Only then are plans to set up companies as offshoots.

The profits are gushing

Unsurprisingly, financiers are on the lookout for business ideas; they smell a gigantic business. Just a look at the rapidly rising share prices of many companies in the past few months shows how convinced the market players are of a lucrative future for the sector. In fact, profits are gushing – at least for the best-known representatives who have successfully launched products. BioNTech generated a net profit of 1.1 billion euros in the first quarter of 2021. In the first quarter of 2020, the Mainz-based company had to accept a net loss of 53 million euros due to high research and development costs.

05/10/2021

The US vaccine manufacturer Moderna made in the first quarter profit – equal to a billion dollars. In the previous year, Moderna had to cope with a loss of 124 million. The turnover multiplied from eight million to 1.9 billion dollars. $ 1.7 billion of this comes from corona vaccine revenue. While Moderna shares rose by more than 200 percent in the past twelve months, BioNTech shares gained over 340 percent in the same period.

Lighthouse companies in particular benefit

In Germany, the biotech industry set a new financial record last year. As the experts from the testing and consulting company EY calculated in their Biotech Report 2021, financing in Germany reached a peak of 3.1 billion euros in 2020. A comparison with the USA shows the order of magnitude. According to EY, around $ 100 billion went into biotech financing for venture capitalists.

02/27/2021

“Covid-19 is a huge catalyst for the entire biotechnology industry,” said Alexander W. Nuyken, Head of the Life Sciences Sector in Strategy and Transactions at EY and co-author of the study. In their report, the experts at EY point out that the investments essentially relate to the flagship company BioNTech, which alone accounted for 51 percent of the financing volume in 2020. According to Nuyken, biotechnology is part of the solution to a problem that is a matter of fate for humanity. “That has come to mind.”

More help from the state?

This year it’s going on at a high pace: The “Handelsblatt” quotes from preliminary figures from the Bio Deutschland Association. Accordingly, the industry received a total of 870 million euros in capital from January to May. That is around three and a half times as much as in the same period last year. Nuyken campaigns for the state to help even more: “I hope that politicians show more will to improve framework conditions.” There is now an opportunity for the biotech scene to play a major role in this country in the long term or to play an even greater role in the future.

Hope for new products

In fact, taxpayers have already made a major contribution to making the industry so successful: Since the beginning of the pandemic, governments have allocated tens of billions to research and development on vaccines, which are now generating sales and profits for companies. However, it is uncertain whether, thanks to the many fresh billions, the supply of innovative medical products will make a leap. Nuyken warns of disappointing expectations: “If investors with no biotech experience think they can make a quick buck here, they’re wrong.” After the boom, the expert warns, disillusionment could quickly set in.

UC Browser is developed by UCWeb, a subsidiary of Alibaba (China). This is one of the most popular mobile browsers in Asia, with over 500 million downloads on Google Play alone. According to security researcher Gabi Cirlig, UC Browser silently sent iPhone users’ browsing data (even with incognito mode enabled) to UCWeb servers (registered in China, but located in the US). ). This is in stark contrast to the company’s previous statement, which does not record a user’s “browsing and search history” when incognito mode is activated. More worryingly, UC Browser also collects IDs (unique identifiers) to track users across various websites. The collection of user data happens on both Android and iOS versions, not sure what UCWeb is doing with all this information? Interested readers can watch the video at: “This kind of tracking is done on purpose,” Cirlig told Forbes. When compared with Google Chrome browser and some other popular browsers, he found there is no browser like UC Browser. UC Browser just rolled out a new update last week, but the company never mentioned monitoring users’ browsing activity. Currently the English version of UC Browser has been removed from the App Store, but the Chinese version still exists, and unlike the English version, it does not send data back to the UCWeb server. Earlier in 2019, the UC Browser version for Android also violated Google Play’s policies.

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Extended reading National Colleges for the Elderly have compiled textbooks

According to relevant predictions, during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the nation’s elderly population will exceed 300 million, and it will move from mild aging to moderate aging. The reporter was informed that the first batch of nationally compiled textbooks for colleges and universities for the elderly has recently been officially published by Sichuan Education Press and Commercial Press. Their publication has filled the gap that my country’s elderly universities have not compiled textbooks since they were founded.

Why organize the compilation of integrated teaching materials?

The reporter learned that there are five textbooks released in the first batch, namely “New Era University President’s Reader”, “Establishing and Cultivating Active Views on Aging”, “Aging Finance”, “Health Education and Management for the Elderly”, and “Legal Practice for the Protection of Elderly Rights and Interests” . Previously, my country’s elderly universities did not have a national textbook, and the curriculum system settings of elderly universities in various regions lacked uniformity and standardization. Curriculum construction was fighting each other, and the degree of resource co-construction and sharing was not strong.

The nationally compiled textbooks for colleges and universities for the elderly this time are organized and compiled by the China Association of Colleges for the Elderly. In order to cooperate with the compilation of teaching materials, Xinhua Winshare has established a special company and formed a professional team to make full preparations from market research, organization and compilation, editing, publishing, and distribution. “Affected by the epidemic, our original market research work was forced to postpone. In order to ensure the progress of the publication, in March last year, we organized an editorial committee under the guidance of the China Association of Aging and the China Association of Senior Citizens. The preparation work arrangement moved forward and gained time for publication.” Huang Yi, chairman of the Wenxuan Yinshi (Beijing) Culture Communication Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Xinhua Wenxuan, told the reporter.

What are the focuses of the first 5 textbooks?

The reporter learned that during the research phase, the team visited senior universities in 9 provinces, and the research work went deep into the three-level schools of the provinces, cities and counties. Through research, the textbook steering committee determined the compilation plan, starting with general education-mainly including ideological and political, national conditions education, laws and regulations, life education, medical care, family education, science popularization and other seven categories to generate textbook content.

According to Huang Yi, among the first five textbooks released, “New Era University President’s Reading Book” focuses on the training of senior university presidents and managers; “Establishing and Cultivating a Positive View of Ageing” takes active response to the aging of the population as the starting point. The aging of the population is included in the education of national conditions to help the elderly establish and cultivate a positive outlook on aging; “Health Education and Management for the Elderly” pays attention to the mental and physical health of the elderly; “Finance for the Elderly” allows the elderly to manage their pensions and assets, and realize funds and assets Maintain and increase the value, rationally plan and use your own capital and property; “Legal Practice for the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly” protects the rights and interests of the elderly, so that the elderly are aware of the law and abide by the law, and use legal weapons to protect their rights.

Where do the writers come from?

The authors of these textbooks mainly come from domestic authoritative institutions and well-known experts in the industry. For example, “Geriatric Health Education and Management” is compiled by experts from the National Health Commission, the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, and the Beijing Hospital of the National Health Commission, which is different from the more common “big print health science” and “teach you how to maintain health” on the market. Other books, from the scientific perspectives of health management and prevention, help the elderly understand the physical and mental health status; the book “Aging Finance” invited the executive dean of the HSBC Financial Research Institute of Peking University, the chief economist of the China Banking Association, and China Professor Ba Shusong, vice president of the Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics, served as the editor-in-chief, designing financial knowledge commonly used in the lives of the elderly.

(Original title: Chengdu University for the Elderly receives 25 yuan tuition for 1 semester: no price increase for 18 years, at least 9 courses) Source: Beiwan New Vision Integrated First-hand Video Netizens commented on the process editor of CCTV: TF019

Berkeley Lab is pursuing negative emission technologies and related research to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. According to Jeffrey Long, senior scientist in the Berkeley Laboratory’s Materials Science Department, UC Berkeley Professor of Chemistry, MOFs are highly porous solid materials that act like a sponge. They are capable of absorbing large amounts of a specific gas molecule, like CO2. A special feature of MOFs is its high internal surface area. Therefore, if properly designed, a small amount of MOF can remove large amounts of CO2 from the flue gases produced during the burning of fossil fuels. “We have shown that MOFs can capture and release CO2, using a much smaller temperature change than is required by other technologies. This offers a great advantage over conventional methods of CO2 capture. Variations of MOF can be effective in removing CO2 from other gas mixtures, including biogas, natural gas and even directly from the air, ”explained Mr. Long. However, this expert emphasized, reducing the cost of direct gas collection is essential, because this process is extremely expensive. The cost of removing CO2 with such a technology is at 500 – 1,000 USD / ton. Therefore, Mr. Long said that in the future, researchers will create more efficient materials. As a result, it helps to reduce costs below 100 USD / ton. Besides, the main issue is the amount of energy required to regenerate the adsorbent. This means that the scientists want to release CO2 in its pure form. As a result, the material can then be reused to capture more CO2. “One of our research goals is to develop materials with high capacity, high capture rate, fast kinetics for CO2 adsorption and low regeneration temperature. At the same time, limit the co-adsorption of water so as not to waste energy on the desorption process “, Mr. Long said. According to the scientist, it is possible to find a way to achieve below $ 100 for each ton of CO2 removed from the air. However, scientists will have to do much of the research needed to achieve that. “We need to really rethink some of the ways materials are designed and understand how to manipulate things like delta-S (entropy) to adsorb CO2, so that less heat is needed to release CO2,” Mr. Long stressed.

Recently, the Waterway Management Center in coordination with Saigon Traffic Construction Joint Stock Company has operated new technology equipment in the collection of rubbish on the Vam Thuat River, at Ben Phan Bridge (Go Vap District, City). .HCM).

As noted by PV, there are three devices in operation to pick up trash, mainly water hyacinth and floating garbage. A device like a large barge has a garbage storage compartment and a pick-up crane. On both sides of the conveyor belt are fitted with two garbage collection wings, which help to put the garbage on the deck. In addition, the small garbage pick-up machine is operated by one person, moving the garbage and bringing it to the barge.

According to PV’s observations in just a few working hours tons of water hyacinths are collected ashore.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hai, Head of Maintenance Management Division, Waterway Management Center, said that for many years, garbage collection has contributed to reducing the amount of rubbish on the above rivers, gradually improving the regional environment. However, the garbage collection is still rudimentary, using a lot of manual labor, and the efficiency and productivity are not high.

Therefore, the unit has piloted operation of new technology equipment imported from the US. With this new technology, workers do not have to salvage manually but completely control by machine, collecting every two days, the capacity to pick up about 25 to 30 tons within 8 hours.

“This device will save manpower, time and collect large volumes, thereby increasing the economic efficiency of the city. Besides, it will also create a better image on the river compared to traditional garbage collection.” – Mr. Hai said.

Regarding the current difficulties, Mr. Hai added that in addition to floating rubbish and water hyacinths, there are large-sized rubbish such as blankets, mattresses, tables and chairs, making it difficult to collect trash. In addition, the river bank is not straight and flat, so the access of the machine is also difficult.

Mr. Hai added that the garbage collection system consists of five devices, of which two are imported from the US and three are researched and manufactured by a team of Vietnamese engineers. After the pilot period, the Department of Transport will report to the City People’s Committee replicated in the area. At the same time, the unit is also building a unit price that is suitable for management in the future.

Pilot garbage collection with new technology

Previously, on October 9, 2020, the Department of Transport of Ho Chi Minh City held a pilot meeting to collect and collect rubbish on the Vam Thuat – Ben Cat river using modern equipment with new technology.

This equipment is proposed by Saigon Transport Construction Joint Stock Company to use in the spirit of the “Ho Chi Minh City people do not litter the streets and canals because the city is clean and less flooded”.