this new arsenal of rapid response to emerging viruses

“New brick” in the Lyon medical ecosystem, the new biocluster on infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance is finally on track. Born from the call for expressions of interest “biocluster” launched by the State in its “Innovation Santé 2030” program at the end of the health crisis, it was officially launched this September in Lyon, via the creation of a prefiguration association, in conjunction with Bpifrance and the Health Innovation Agency.

Chaired by Professor Bruno Lina, virologist at the International Center for Infectious Disease Research, head of department at the Hospices Civils de Lyon and member of the Scientific Council during the Covid-19 health crisis, it aims to connect research laboratories and health industries in order to accelerate the arrival of new projects, but also to guarantee a better response in the event of a new epidemic.

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Contractualized in September, launched this fall and fully operational from the beginning of 2025, the “French BioCluster for Innovation in Infectiology” (BCF2I) is thus endowed with an operating and investment envelope of 120 million euros over five years, divided between public funds (60 million euros from the State via the General Secretariat for Investment) and private (also 60 million euros) via three industrial partners from Lyon: bioMérieux, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi.

The latter also inaugurated in mid-September, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron, a brand new “modular” vaccine production plant in Neuville-sur-Saône, making it possible to switch production in just a few days and thus quickly respond to the need for manufacturing doses in the event of an epidemic.

Diagnostic tests, new vaccines, phage therapy… 26 projects identified

The goal is to facilitate bridges between research and industry. To achieve this, the biocluster will work with the Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, the Hospices Civils de Lyon, the Pasteur Institute, Inserm-ANRS-MIE, the APHP and the University of Paris Cité.

For the time being, the new entity only has two permanent members: Professor Bruno Lina and Christophe Jacquinet, its new director general, previously director general of the Rhône-Alpes Regional Health Agency (from 2011 to 2014), then president of the specialist firm Santéliance Conseil.

The team, housed in the premises of the Lyonbiopôle competitiveness cluster in Gerland (7th arrondissement), should expand in the coming months, to be fully operational from January 2025.

But already, initial projects are currently being studied: nearly 26 have been identified over the last three years in order to be “accelerated”, that is to say, given operational and financial assistance. Some of them are even ” almost finished “, describes Professor Bruno Lina, president of the biocluster: “ For example, we have an artificial intelligence project with Sanofi and German players on the evolution of viruses, for which the biocluster will be able to play a role quite quickly. “.

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New vaccines, development of diagnostic tests with bioMérieux… The virologist gives us other examples, such as that of phage therapies (using bacteriophages), developed in order to respond to resistance to antimicrobials in often complex infections, which are currently at a therapeutic impasse.

” HAS Lyon, a RHU (program of ““university hospital research” in health (editor’s note) was awarded to set up a clinical bacteriophage production platform and conduct a clinical evaluation in cases of osteoarticular infections “, continues Professor Bruno Lina.

“ The biocluster will support the RHU to facilitate the implementation of clinical trials and give it access to broader clinical platforms. But also potentially help with the industrialization of bacteriophage production by going beyond the scope they already use. ».

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The method of project selection still needs to be confirmed.
“ Some will go through Bpifrance “, the president continues. ” Others through mutual agreements between the biocluster and manufacturers ».

In this second case, the evaluation will be carried out jointly by scientific experts, members of a strategic orientation committee currently being formed. It will be composed of eight people from academic and industrial partners.

” If we identify a very promising subject, we will try to be able, in less than two months, to provide financial support that would allow them to move faster on development,” continues Bruno Lina.

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In addition to these first two selection circuits, other projects will also be selected in calls for tenders, launched by the biocluster. For example, ” we could start one on research into a new vaccine against bird flu “, adds the virologist, who here underlines the “one health” dimension of the center, namely a systemic and global approach to public health, which combines research on humans, animals and the environment.

In the event of a new epidemic, launch solutions “in less than two months”

Above all, the biocluster is one of the tools of “sovereignty” in health matters according to the State, which allocated 7.5 billion euros to the “Health Innovation 2030″ plan launched three years ago. The objective here is to bring ” a quick response ” in the event of an emerging virus. Faster, in any case, than during the covid-19 health crisis, at the very beginning of 2020.

“ Let’s imagine it’s December 2019. We see Covid coming and the fact that it’s possibly a problem “, recalls Bruno Lina, who was part of the Scientific Council during the pandemic. “ With the biocluster, we are asking manufacturers to recover the virus from academic members, to manufacture a vaccine, diagnostic tests, and possibly to see if they have treatments in their pharmacopoeia that could inhibit the replication of this virus. All this, during the period from January to February.

“The challenge we set ourselves with bioMérieux is, for example, to be able to develop, validate and market a new diagnostic test for an emerging respiratory virus in less than two months,” adds the virologist. “ Similarly, it is about using conventional or disruptive technologies to quickly manufacture a vaccine against a new pathogen. ».

The sovereignty constraint concerns the production site. The biocluster ensures that it only supports projects carried out in France. In the coming months, another challenge is to ” to bring “start-ups and industrialists emerging in Lyon, Bruno Lina tells us, in fields that are also widely explored internationally, in the United States as well as in Asia.