Welcome to “Biotic Valley!”

Within the space of less than two years, the Rhône-Alpes Region has boosted a highly dynamic drive to build up a “Biotic Valley”, combining the “BIO” and the “TIC” (in other words, information technologies). It has an additional asset: a plan of action based on structured centres, a viable network, and a clearly identified bridgehead: ARTEB, the Rhône-Alpes Biomedical and Biotechnology's Agency.

By placing its stakes on the Biotic Valley, the Rhône-Alpes region has given increased momentum to its projects. The first link in the chain, ARTEB, the Rhône-Alpes Biomedical and Biotechnology's Agency, was set up, at the same time as the IT Regional Development Agency, to encourage synergy between the two entities. Priorities were flagged for action. First of all, organising the Biotech and Digital sectors by involving the entire network of cities and actors in the public and private sectors. Next, by encouraging the development of projects and start-ups. Two incubators were set up: GRAIN in Grenoble and CREALYS in Lyon, with 22 biotech projects launched out of the 100 audited. To finance these projects, two seed funds were created: firstly, national-based BIOAM exclusively devoted to biotech projects; the other, a regional fund managed by Rhône-Alpes Creation for high tech. Concurrently, the Rhône-Alpes Genopole project, a Lyon /Grenoble-based technological site oriented to bio-computing, genomics and post-genomics, was awarded official State recognition. Finally, in the calendar of events, two world-scale venues were set up: "BioVision", the Living Sciences world forum, and "Economy and Health", an international planning convention for Public Health and Related Economic strategies. With promotion by the Central and Regional government bodies, these operations were all given support by the Greater Lyon Technology Complex mission, Grenoble and the Rhône-Alpes Cities Network to strengthen the biotech and health activities in all parts of this large bio-region.

A Policy of Determination & The Assets of Integrated Local Resources

Thanks to the determination policy of the actors and of ARTEB, the Rhône-Alpes region is now equipped with a system integrating all the key elements into one single network so as to stimulate bio-business and the new economy. Research, technical centres, incubators, training, management coaching, seed capital, risk capital, networks and a promotion agency, with counselling, services, and communication support are all available in Rhône-Alpes to enable start-ups and promoters of biotech projects to venture forth, starting with their technological idea right up to their listing on the Stock Exchange!

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1. The Network Makes for Strength

Far more important than laboratories and companies, the success of bio-valleys depends on the collective resolve of those who promote them to give wholehearted support to a project that will give structure to their area. As far as ARTEB and the actors in Rhône-Alpes are concerned, they have pledged all the drive it takes The network makes for strength, and sharing responsibility spells effectiveness.

ARTEB: Biomedical Devices and Biotechnology's Created in 1995, ARTEB was originally called the Regional Medical Technologies Development Agency. Early 2000, ARTEB was completely revamped to include Biotechnology's, with a team of 8 full-time staff, headed by a Director, Jean-Baptiste Philippon (an agronomy engineer, former Associate Director of a consulting firm) and a Chairman, an industrialist.

Apart from the web of actors within the Life Science network and its promotional rôle, ARTEB has set itself certain very distinct tasks: make an inventory of and link up all significant “biotech” projects; stimulate technological development of complexes, tools and projects that give a boost to the economy; increase tech watch, counselling and services in the key emerging markets; and, lastly, become a unique intermediary, thus improving the visibility and attractiveness of the Rhône-Alpes Bio-region. ARTEB has a very extensive area in which to operate: biotechnology's (health, agri-food, and environment), health engineering and biomedical devices. Installed in Lyon-Gerland as a region-based agency, ARTEB works closely with the Grenoble-based IT Regional Development Agency as well as the overall high-tech operations support network, such as the GRAIN and CREALYS incubators, the BIOAM seed fund and other regional or national funds. The establishment of such a network, composed of all the actors in the innovation field, appears as Rhône-Alpes' trump card in the international environment.

2. A Critical Mass Bio and Health Pool: 4,000 Researchers and 500 Companies

The Rhône-Alpes Biotic Valley has a potential in Life Sciences and Health that is exceptional in Europe and even world-wide, and the envy of many. A total of 500 firms, 3 university hospital centres and over 60 public hospitals, 3 science foundations, 6 international research centres, over 200 laboratories that bring together 4,000 scientists, out of the total 900 laboratories and 20,0000 regional researchers in all fields. Bio-business: Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and Biotech The Rhône-Alpes region has over 500 companies, small-and-medium businesses and services or consulting firms whose main activity is related to bio-business. Covering a very wide spectrum of operations and markets, this potential can be grouped under three main headings.

The Rhône-Alpes Biotic Valley has a potential in Life Sciences and Health that is exceptional in Europe and even world-wide, and the envy of many. A total of 500 firms, 3 university hospital centres and over 60 public hospitals, 3 science foundations, 6 international research centres, over 200 laboratories that bring together 4,000 scientists, out of the total 900 laboratories and 20,0000 regional researchers in all fields.

Bio-business: Pharmaceuticals

Medical Devices and Biotech The Rhône-Alpes region has over 500 companies, small-and-medium businesses and services or consulting firms whose main activity is related to bio-business. Covering a very wide spectrum of operations and markets, this potential can be grouped under three main headings.

* Health Engineering: From Scalpel to Scanner!

Variously called “Medical Devices” or “Biological and Medical Engineering” ( BME, for short) , health engineering is a highly atomized and very heterogeneous sector. It accounts for close to 350 firms that total approximately 20% of the country's activity ( 6 billion French francs - 0.92 billion euros - out of the total 28 billion French francs - 4.27 billion euros). The range of products and markets covered are very varied, ranging from a seringe to a lithotripter, via medical imaging and computing equipment, prostheses, artificial organs, or diagnosis robots and related kits.

* Biotechnology's: Health, Agri-foods and Environment

Under the term “biotechnologies”, a huge variety of activities are grouped together, both traditional (fermenting agents or bioreagents) and high tech (coming from genomics, biochips, viruses and modified organisms,or genes as medical drugs). In the Rhône-Alpes region, 80 firms of all sizes are involved in biotechs with applications in the three sectors of health, agri-foods and environment. Among the best known we find groups (Aventis, Schering-Plough) as well a small-to-medium businesses (Flamel Technologies, Floréane, Colética, Biomatech, Gattefossé, Genome-Express, Stem-Cell Technologies) and young start-ups (GenOway, TBE, Novotech or Episkin).

The Rhône-Alpes Region, particularly concerning Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne, accounts for 10 to 30% of the French national product and jobs in these three sectors, depending on the specialities.

3. The Meshing of the Rhône-Alpes Region's Urban Network

At a time when one thinks in terms of a Europe composed of its regions, only tandem teams of cities / region makes sense in gaining access to the international context. This is the joker card that the RhôneAlpes urban network is playing along with ARTEB in the fields of health and biotechnologies. Biotic Valley is laying out its territorial bounds, built on two very strong anchorage points, Lyon and Grenoble work in absolute complementarity. A number of highly dynamic complexes specialise in Health, Agrifoods and Environment revolve around these two pluridisciplinary sites (Saint-Etienne, Roanne, Bourg-en-Bresse and Chambéry/ Annecy)..

Lyon: Biotech and Medical Devices

With close to 40 health care centres and the Lyon Civic Hospital Foundation's 17 hospitals together with some hundred laboratories oriented to biosciences or health, Lyon constitutes one of the major European complexes in the field. Thanks to an ambitious technology park project and a policy of determination on the part of the City-Central Government-Region authorities, Greater Lyon has set up two original international-scale complexes: the Gerland Biopole and the Rockefeller Health Complex. This has been done in close co-operation with two other Lyon biology complexes: namely, Marcy-l'Etoile (National Veterinary School and Aventis Pasteur), the Rockefeller and La Doua campuses (Claude Bernard/ Lyon 1 University, the CNRS, INSERM, INRA, INSA and CPE).

The Gerland Biopole: Genomes, Viruses and Integrative Biology

Envisioned as a symbolic site for the future, the Gerland Biopole has undergone what can only be described as an explosion, in which were born: ENS-Science, The Protein Biology and Chemistry Institute, the Science Boulevard, the European Virology and Immunology Centre (CERVI / Jean-Mérieux P4 /Mérieux -Pasteur Complex), plus the Rhône-Alpes Genopole Projects, extensions to graduate schools, universities, laboratories and firms (Aventis Pasteur, PMSD, Episkin, Synbiotics and GenOway). Over 170 million French francs (25.6 million euros) are due to be invested by the Region, Greater Lyon and the French government to make Gerland a world-scale Bio Complex, targeting two distinct niches: “virology, immunology and vaccines”, and “post-genomics and integrative biology“. By 2002, three new laboratories are due to open: namely, Mathematics, Virology and Development Biology plus two original training entities in Health Sciences and humanitarian medicine for students, doctors and industrial executives (1,200 students). In addition, the Gerland Biopole is to have an incubator facility for the various firms. It is also in the heart of this Biopole that ARTEB has decided to set up its new regional headquarters to stimulate the Rhone-Alpes Biotech and Health network (the Lyon Life-Science Network)..

The Rockefeller Health Complex

Located on the Lyon-Bron university hospital campus, the Rockefeller Health Complex has a unique concentration of actors in the health sector: 10 hospitals, the Léon Bérard Centre, the IARC, Faculties of Pharmacy, Odontology and Medicine, the Nursing School, 50 CNRS, INSERM and HCL research units, plus one hundred biomedical firms. Added to this are the Neuropole (Neurosciences and Cognitive Sciences), the Physiolopole, the CERMEP and the imaging facility, as well as the future Mother-Child Hospital. Not forgetting the Hadrontherapy Centre in the planning stage that intends to provide Lyon with innovative radiotherapy facilities for treating radio-resistant tumours (see the box). In the face of this potential, Greater Lyon has decided to make the Rockefeller Complex a launch pad for biomedical activities by setting up on-site the “Health and Telemedicine Technologies complex” with the idea of providing researchers, clinicians and firms with human and material means close to hospital centres to enable them to test and market their products more rapidly. Another project in the works is setting up an incubator on the La Buire site for start-ups and established companies.

4. Grenoble: Nano-biotech, Biocomputing and Health

In synergy with Lyon, Grenoble has chosen to promote the double specialisation of Biotech and Health to develop its centres of excellence, namely, nano-technologies, structural genomics at the Louis Néel Science Polygon, and the medical facilities at the Grenoble-La Tronche Health Complex.

The Nano-Biotech Complex: Louis Néel Science Polygon

In the area of the Science Polygon near the CEA-LETI and the IBS, Structural Biology Institute (CNRS/UJF/CEA), the idea is to create a Nano-Biotech Complex based on local potential and part of the operations of the Genopole (involving the UJF, INRIA and CEA as well as ENS-Lyon and UCB/ Lyon1 plus many regional partners). Specialities targeted include nano-technologies (biochips, biosensors, etc.), biocomputing, structural and functional genomics, and proteomics. Add to this, the topic of Structural and Functional Virology in partnership with the IBS and the EMBL (see box: European centres).

The Biopolis Site at La Tronche

In a phase of complete transformation, the Grenoble-La Tronche University Hospital is setting up the Biopolis Centre and the Health Complex to combine the two Training and Research Units of Pharmacy and Medicine, with the intent of forming an avant-garde centre for biology and health engineering (medical computing, imaging, computer-aided surgery and telemedicine). This new entity will work in synergy with the Saint-Martin-d'Héres Biology complex (oriented to molecular plant biology, bacterial genomics, bio-energetics and population genetics). All the actors of the Campus Health complex and the Grenoble complex will thus be networked: the University Hospital (CHU), the Army Health Service Research Centre (CRESSA), the Albert-Bonniot Institute (IAB), as well as various units of Joseph Fourier University (neurosciences, mathematics, biocomputing and interface projects between chemistry, physics and biology). Within this Health Complex, three further entities are to be added: namely, the Health Engineering Institute (TIM-C and the medical computer service), the Jean Roget Institute (infectious stress and cardiovascular and respiratory hypoxia) and the Neuroscience Institute, (four INSERM units and the Joint NMR Research Institute). Another project in the planning stage is the Medical Technologies complex which, linked to the Lyon complex, is to work on health engineering, telemedicine and medical facilities of the future. In direct liaison with the GRAIN incubator, the site is soon to have a “fertilizer” and a bio-incubator for use by start-up companies.

Each City has its Speciality

Revolving around these two major biopoles, Lyon and Grenoble, are specialised sectors devoted to three different fields of Life Sciences: Health, Agri-foods and Environment. Working in synergy, each, in its own particular way, takes its place in sectors that are strategic for the economy of the local areas around them to the general advantage of the region.

Saint-Etienne: Biotextiles

Equipped with a Science and Health university hospital complex, Saint-Etienne has succeeded in securing a prime position in key niches for local industries. This applies particularly to biomedical technologies, extreme medicine, exercise physiology, the fight against handicaps, biomaterials and medical textiles.

Roanne: Santel Teleservices

Another aspect of health is online services and continuing medical training. Roanne has placed its stakes on this profitable market by launching since early 2000 the first French-speaking university server centre for continuing medical training accessible via Internet. The idea is to make this city a pilot site for teleservices devoted to health and medical, scientific and technical information.

Bourg-en-Bresse: Alimentec

Very early on, Bourg-en-Bresse saw the interest in strengthening the local fabric specialised in agrifoods, whether traditional or high-tech. This is the way Alimentec became an original complex combining university training, research, a technical centre and companies, including counselling and services, as well as state-of-the-art research online with Claude Bernard / Lyon 1 University. Oriented to industry, this international-scale complex is a launch pad for the regional centres involved in this field, such as Bourg-en-Bresse, Valence or Privas. With a reputation for its research fields and its expertise, Alimentec attracts a host of actors from France itself and Europe.

Chambéry and Annecy: Environment and 'Green'-Business

Located on the outskirts of Chambéry, the Savoie-Technolac site is home to the University of Savoie and the ESIGEC, the Chambéry Graduate School for Environmental Engineering. With loyal support from the Savoie and Haute-Savoie local government administrations, this technological complex constitutes, along with Lyon, one of the most exemplary resource centres for environmental and biotech studies, be they in the fields of research, innovation or industrial development.

5. The Movers and their Projects: Rhône-Alpes Genopole

The Rhône-Alpes Genopole : Studying the Genome and Post-Genome on the Grand Scale Given official recognition early 2000, the Lyon- and Grenoble-based Rhône-Alpes Genopole belongs to the new “French Genopole Network” whose task is to strengthen the industry of biotechnologies in France. The Genopole operates on five technology sites: Biocomputing (Lyon and Grenoble), the study of the transcriptome and the production of biochips (Lyon and Grenoble), functional exploration of genes (Lyon), study of the proteome(Grenoble), and structural biology (Grenoble). It will mix together researchers, industrialists,and other experts, clinicians or engineers, to develop projects on a grand scale. They will include, in particular: pharmacy (grading of new molecules, identification of new therapeutic agents, new targets for antibiotherapy), proteins and their rôle in certain pathologies (viral infections, neuro-degenerative pathologies, endocrinian disorders, obesity, cancer and identification of new pathogenic agents). Other lines of investigation are: research in new products (herbicides, pesticides), improvement of plants, via analysis of the molecular mechanisms of reproduction and growth). Covering the living world, ranging from micro-organisms to plant life via animal and human life, the Rhône-Alpes Genopole has the support of the local bodies and is resolutely oriented towards study of the post-genome.

It is managed by a steering committee headed by Jacques Samarut of the ENS-Lyon, pictured left, Jacques Joyard of the CEA in Grenoble, Hans Geiselmann of the UJF in Grenoble, and Vincent Laudet of the ENS-Lyon, who are also members of the national steering committee.

The Genopole has four different missions: optimize the public /private research networks by by melding the fundamental, economic and social sectors; become attractive at world level in original fields; promote state-of-the-art sites and training projects that are helpful to the industrialists, researchers and young people (such as the Grenoble-based DNA Centre, for instance). Finally, create and attract start-ups and high potential growth firms in successful markets.

The stakes and spin-off for mankind, science, medicine and the econmy are simply gigantic!

(*) The Rhône-Alpes Genopole is supported by Claude Bernard University in Lyon, Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, the Lyon Ecole Normale Supérieure, the Grenoble CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) and INRIA in Grenoble (French National Information and Automation Technologies Research Institute). Associated to these major players are six partners: namely, CNRS (French National Scientific Research Centre), INSERM (French National Health and Medical Research Institute), INRA (Fench National Agronomic Research Institute), Lyon-based Ecole Centrale, the Lyon Civic Hospital Foundation and Grenoble University Hospital Centre.

6. A Package Kit to Aid Star-Up Companies

CREALYS and GRAIN: Two Incubators for Innovative Projects The vital phase for a new project is the starting point to the actual creation of the business. The Rhône-Alpes region has a major asset: its ability to support projects from their conception by offering beginners “incubators”, guidance and seed money. GRAIN in Grenoble and CREALYS in Lyon plan to support some 60 projects per year.

Almost 50% of the investments are oriented towards high tech. This explains how important it is for a region such as Rhône-Alpes to stimulate creation of activity in these areas, by giving them a maximum chance of succeeding. The rôle of incubators like CREALYS in Lyon or GRAIN in Grenoble is to do so by aiding creators in the crucial phase: namely, the validation and start-up of their project. As a product of the research world, CREALYS is a group project that has been set up by a score of regional bodies as a Public Interest Group. Under the leadership of Christian Pillot, known in France as a leading figure in innovation, CREALYS has taken off at spectacular speed. In one single year, over 100 projects have been audited (50% of them concerned with biotechs) and 22 of them approved for launching as start-ups. In fact, the incubator has five different rôles: detecting the projects, assessing them, and providing support for the ones that are efficient. Then, assisting them by getting the networks to help them in various ways ( technologies, industry, financing, management, legal advice and export techniques). Finally, it coaches managers in setting up a high tech company. Sharing tools and means, each member pledges to bring his / her skills with him /her. It encourages sensitivity to innovation and entrepreneurship (Lyon School of Management), transfer, assessment, industrial relations (Ezus, Insavalor, Atlas or Centrale Lyon Innovation), technology watch and documentation, premises, access to laboratories, facilities, capital and licences (Graduate Business and Engineering Schools and Universities, ANVAR or INPI). In Grenoble, the GRAIN incubator works in synergy with CREALYS on the very same principle, from the viewpoint of human support, tools, training and networks. These two incubators take care of all the requests from the region's academic, scientific and economic world.

In addition, in order to help the start-ups to raise their crucial initial seed capital, GRAIN and CREALYS work directly with the finance engineering networks, ANVAR, BIOAM, regional or national seed funds, and all the other financing services. Performance and the new economy oblige(nt)!

7. Joining the International Market

European Research: Large-scale Facilities

As part and parcel of its dynamic rôle in international research, Rhône-Alpes region has the good fortune of clustering together, within a radius of 200 kilometers, ten European research centres, six of them involved entirely or partially in avant-garde studies in the fields of Life and Health Sciences, three in Grenoble and three in the Lyon area.

8. Grenoble: Life Sciences, from the Atom to Man

Benefiting from a reputed scientific environment, Grenoble is home to two major international facilities: the ESRF (European Synchotron Radiation Facility) and the ILL (the Laue-Langevin Institute. The ESRF produces the most brilliant X-rays worldwide and the ILL has a store of neutrons providing the most intense flux available to date. To these two giant instruments for investigation of matter we must add the EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) which conducts structural biology research programmes. The ESRF devotes almost one third of its operations to biology and medicine. For biology research, the technique most frequently used is crystallography by X-rays. It enables the researcher to resolve the structure of proteins, but also molecular complexes of the virus type, nucleosomes, ribosomes, etc. In medicine, it is possible to make a coronary angiograph- and tomograph-based diagnosis Moreover, radiotherapy by micro-beams is under study for treaatment of brain tumours. Closely complementary, ILL is proposing the 'neutronic view', which is only slightly destructive but penetrating and sensitive to movements of molecules and atoms. These three major international bodies receive over 600 researchers every year hailing from all parts of the world, stimulating the most high tech research projects in Life Sciences in cooperation with the actors of the biotech/ health sector of Grenoble, Lyon and the entire Rhône-Alpes region. Their means of investigation are of increasing interest to industry such as pharmaceuticals like Astra, Zeneca, Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo, Hoffman-La-Roche, Novartis, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Sanofi and Schering-Plough.

9. Lyon: Viruses and Cancer, Care for the Future

Based on a strong medical heritage and a Pasteurian tradition in the field of medicine, Lyon boasts three international centres that deal with world-oriented health issues: the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), the IIET (International Institute of Trace Elements), plus the Jean-Mérieux P4 complex, CERVI (European Centre for Virology, Immunology and Emerging Diseases) and the WHO Centre of Epidemio-Surveillance. Apart from cancer epidemiology (IARC) and disorders that stem from deficiency in oligo-elements (IIET), via the CERVI, Lyon is strengthening its expertise in the areas of humanitarian medicine and the fight against infectious diseases due to pathogenic micro-organisms (viruses, parasites aand bacteria). Thanks to this biosafety and biosurveillance complex, Lyon, France and Europe now rank as a competitive entity rivalling Atlanta's CDC (Centre for Disease Control) for studying highly pathogenic agents and the exceedingly serious diseases that they engender throughout our planet. As a complement, the cancerology complex, yet another highlight of Lyon's expertise, may very well take a crucial leap forward with the famous Hadrontherapy Centre that is in the planning stage. With a projected budget of 500-600 million French francs (100 million euros), this project aims at providing Lyon and Europe with pilot radiotherapy facilities (by heavy ions) making it possible to treat patients suffering from radio-resistant tumours. As an object of clinical research on a world-wide scale, only two prototypes of this kind are being tested at present in Germany and Japan to validate the scope and the features of this new generation radiotherapy.

(*) The ten international centres located in Rhône-Alpes are: the CERN on the Franco-Swiss border, the ILL, the ESRF, the EMBL, the IRAM and the LCMI in Grenoble, and the IARC, the IIET, the IET and the CERVI in Lyon.

  • ARTEB

  • 58 avenue

  • Debourg - BP 7051 - 69348

  • Lyon Cedex 07

  • Tel : 33 (0)4 37 37 85 85

  • Fax: 33 (0)4 72 71 32 45

  • arteb@wanadoo.fr

  • jbphilippon@arteb.com

  • www.arteb.com