Boehringer Ingelheim and CBmed join forces to translate novel cancer therapy approaches faster into new medicines for patients

Today, Boehringer Ingelheim and CBmed GmbH Center for Biomarker Research in Medicine (CBmed) announced a long-term strategic partnership. Jointly the partners will apply translational medicine approaches to accelerate the development of first-in-class medicines to transform the lives of people with cancer and achieve Boehringer’s ultimate ambition to cure a range of cancers.

Precision medicine has revolutionized cancer care, offering great potential to cure more types of cancer. Still, 97 out of every 100 clinical trials testing compounds in a specific indication fail to demonstrate significant benefit for cancer patients.1 The reason is often a poor understanding of how or why a cancer treatment kills cancer cells directly or via activation of the immune system and which cancer patients could benefit from a specific treatment. Translational medicine addresses this challenge by identifying biomarkers for the assessment of the therapeutic effect of a treatment and by creating a deep understanding of the disease pathology. 

“We are excited to join forces with CBmed’s team of translational science experts,” said Vittoria Zinzalla, Global Head of Oncology Translational Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at Boehringer Ingelheim. “This new partnership will further support our efforts to increase the success rate of our clinical development by translating research discoveries into actionable insights for the clinic. It will also enable us to further expand our pipeline to achieve our goal of transforming the lives of people living with cancer.”  

“In the partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim we will leverage our capabilities to support multiple projects across their oncology pipeline,” said Thomas Pieber, Chief Scientific Officer of CBmed. “We are thrilled to work with Boehringer’s scientists to achieve our vision of bringing tailored and customized game-changing therapies to individual patients.” 

“In a first step CBmed will expand its research infrastructure as of April 2024 in Graz with dedicated labs and offices and up to 30 experienced translational scientists and physicians focusing on the new partnership with Boehringer,” explains Robert Lobnig, Chief Executive Officer of CBmed.  

Hellmut Samonigg, Rector of the Medical University of Graz, states: "As the Medical University of Graz, we welcome Boehringer Ingelheim here in Graz. This scientific cooperation between CBmed and Boehringer shows that concept and infrastructure of our Medical Science City Graz has been well received by many, making Graz a highly visible hub for biomedical research." 

Markus Müller, Rector of the Medical University of Vienna, is delighted about the strengthening of the Vienna and Graz research axis: "CBmed combines excellent research infrastructure, scientific expertise, medical knowledge and national and international industry partners in the field of systems biomedical research. I am confident that with Boehringer Ingelheim's commitment, promising translational projects will find their way to patients even faster." 

Accelerating cancer treatment development with translational approaches 

CBmed is pioneering translational medicine research. By closely integrating with the Medical Universities of Graz and Vienna the company bridges the gap between scientific discoveries and patient care. CBmed has built a unique multi-omics technology platform to accelerate the discovery of novel biomarkers. This platform combines cutting edge in-house capabilities in molecular pathology, cancer immunobiology and data science with leading scientific and medical expertise and access to comprehensive biobanks. These include Europe’s largest biobank in Graz with seven million patient samples and BBMRI-ERIC, the world’s biggest biobank network with 60 million patient samples. 

The partnership with CBmed will enable Boehringer Ingelheim to identify and validate biomarkers for projects across its growing cancer pipeline to support early proof of therapeutic effect, identification of new indications and patient selection. This will accelerate and broaden Boehringer Ingelheim’s oncology portfolio. 

Financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.