Press Release: CILcare-CBSET nominated for the prestigious PRIX Galien Medstartup award in the ‘Best Collaboration Dedicated to the Developing or Underserved Populations Worldwide’ Category

LEXINGTON, MA —  September 23, 2020  — CBSET Inc., a not-for-profit translational research institute, announced today that the company and its partner, CILcare, a leading CRO specializing in hearing disorders, have been nominated to receive a prestigious Prix Galien MedStartUp award for their collaboration in fighting hearing loss; the collaborators are nominated in the category ‘Best Collaboration Dedicated to the Developing or Underserved Populations Worldwide.’

The Galien MedStartUp fosters, recognizes and rewards excellence in scientific innovation to improve the state of human health and is awarded by the prestigious Prix Galien Foundation, considered by many to be the biopharmaceutical research equivalent of the Noble Foundation. Previously staged in New York, this year the Prix Galien Medstartup Award will be a digital event to be held on October 28-29, 2020. A focal point of the program is the active participation of the most innovative start-up companies (e.g, CILcare) who are working with U.S. partners (e.g., CBSET) to share research and support global commercial development of promising lead technologies.

“Hearing loss is at epidemic prevalence with almost half a billion people affected worldwide with no approved drugs to treat hearing loss and huge unmet medical needs. While there are hundreds of companies developing drugs, gene and cell therapies in this field, they all face the same challenge: how to translate research at the bench into efficient-proven therapeutic solutions for patients,” says Celia Belline, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CILcare. “We have never been so close to succeeding. The last decade has ushered tremendous progress in the understanding of the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of hearing disorders. Emerging auditory tests, especially objective ones such as those we have developed, will help speed-up the translation of these exciting therapies.”

“Though great progress is being made toward understanding the genesis of hearing loss, translation of promising fresh approaches into human clinical trials has been sluggish,” explains Rami Tzafriri, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation for CBSET. “This reflects multifactorial challenges ranging from the need to identify the relevant target populations and safe and efficacious compounds, to the need to better understand and overcome physiological barriers to inner ear drug delivery and the relative paucity of expert labs focusing on this disease.”

“With GLP-compliant and AAALAC-accredited, state-of-the-art laboratories along with novel expertise, the CBSET and CILcare partnership is strongly positioned to continue to assist drug developers in generating the requisite preclinical safety studies as part of their regulatory application. Without a single marketed drug therapy to restore hearing loss, and an ageing population, the need for therapies is dire and growing. The CBSET/CIlcare collaboration is empowering us to contribute to the development of promising new drug therapies,” adds Peter Markham, President and CEO, CBSET.

About CILcare

CILcare, with headquarters in Montpellier, France, and offices in Paris and Boston, is a CRO specializing in otology. CILcare has state-of-the-art laboratories, research experts in otology and neuroscience, as well as a global network of partners, enabling CILcare to offer fully customizable and comprehensive R&D programs including pharmacokinetics, preclinical efficacy, and GLP ototoxicology studies. Learn more about CILcare’s expert R&D services dedicated to ear disorders.

About CBSET

CBSET is a state-of-the-art biomedical research institute located in Lexington, Mass. As a not-for-profit entity, our mission is to advance biomedical research through innovative, high-quality preclinical services to achieve the scientific, regulatory and commercial goals of our sponsors. Our 40,000-foot, GLP-compliant, OLAW-assured, AAALAC-accredited facility includes vivaria, procedure rooms, catheterization / imaging labs, surgical and necropsy suites, histopathology, SEM, and a range of other technologies. We provide top-tier research with operational expertise by combining in vivo studies, in vitro studies, computational and 3D modeling, and complex histopathology into one integrated paradigm. Since inception, CBSET continues to develop technical and scientific acumen through collaborative projects in the medical device, pharmaceutical and academic communities. Learn more about CBSET’s expert biomedical research services.