This innovation could quickly move into the industrial phase, relying on Walloon excellence in biotechnologies.
Between skyrocketing energy bills and idling factories, sunny spells are rare in the Belgian economic sky. Even the recovery plans, supposed to reverse the trend, are slipping at the start. Fortunately, there are exceptions to the rule. Thus, the Biotech School site (Gosselies) anticipates the initial schedule with the start of work announced for December 15. This training center co-financed by the private sector should enable companies in this sector, which is booming in Belgium, to find the labor they need a little more easily.
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Between skyrocketing energy bills and idling factories, sunny spells are rare in the Belgian economic sky. Even the recovery plans, supposed to reverse the trend, are slipping at the start. Fortunately, there are exceptions to the rule. Thus, the Biotech School site (Gosselies) anticipates the initial schedule with the start of work announced for December 15. This training center co-financed by the private sector should enable companies in this sector, which is booming in Belgium, to find the labor they need a little more easily. One of the nuggets in this sector is the Univercells group. He has just announced his contribution to the new production plant for vaccines against measles and rubella, under the aegis of the Institut Pasteur in Dakar. “Knowing that our revolutionary NevoLine vaccine manufacturing platform will help accelerate vaccine manufacturing in Africa is very exciting,” said José Castillo, co-founder of Univercells. ‘Univercells and we are delighted that our technology is helping to advance towards regional autonomy.” The NevoLine platform, developed in Nivelles, will be used to manufacture vaccines at affordable prices in order to carry out vaccination campaigns on the African continent. The Univercells group has also just announced that it has raised 44 million euros from public (SRIW, SFPI) and private (3dInvestors, Global Heath Investment, etc.) organizations. The impressive development of biotechnologies here has sometimes surprising repercussions, even in the field of… hydrogen production. The company H2WIN from Nivelles thus announces that it has developed a mechanism for producing hydrogen that is much less energy-intensive than known techniques. Its founder Philippe Lorge was based on the observation of nature and the photosynthesis capacity of blue algae. The enzyme responsible for this ability has been identified and its structure reproduced by “molecular biomimicry”. “We are now developing the industrial production of these enzymes by genetic recombination, explains Philippe Lorge. Belgian excellence in biotechnology enables us to achieve enormous capacities in this field.” H2WIN has just raised 3.3 million euros from several Belgian private funds – Bertrand Velge (Bekaert), Eric Sweden (Vandemoortele) and Jérôme Lhoist – to develop this activity with very strong potential. The company negotiates with Walloon pharmaceutical companies specialized in the production of proteins by genetic recombination. “When our prototype is ready, the transition to the industrial phase will be extremely rapid, assures Philippe Lorge. The technological know-how already exists in Wallonia.” It evokes a commercial launch within two years.
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