TWB Annual Report 2021

TWB has exceeded its pre-health crisis performance with a turnover of €9.1 million for 2021, compared with €7.3 million in 2020 and €8.4 million in 2019. The TWB consortium welcomed 6 new members, including 4 start-ups: Aviwell, BioEB, Dynveo and Lantana Bio; and 2 major groups: Clarins and Lesaffre.

In 2021 turnover reached €9.1m, of which €5.3m was new industrial contracts (€2.9M in 2020) and €3.2m grants (€2.7M in 2020). Amongst these new contracts are four large-scale projects in the fields of bio-production for health or cosmetics, which demonstrates the growing interest of industrial biotechnologies for these application sectors. In  2021 TWB supported 66 projects in total, of which 46 were new; compared to 2020 with 61 projects, 30 of which were new.

Photo credits : TWB / Jérémie Lortic

Increased support for start-ups

The start-ups Aviwell and Lantana Bio have joined the facilities of TWB to accelerate their development. Now up and running, the start-up, Micropep, has moved to new premises in Auzeville Tolosane to support its growth. This move illustrates the successful support of the TWB teams, who have monitored the progress of the start-up from its outset to the pre-industrial stage.  In total, six start-ups were hosted by TWB in 2021: EnobraQ, Pili, iMEAN, BioC3, Aviwell, Lantana Bio.

TWB also collaborates with start-ups ALTAR & iMEAN that develop original technologies, enabling it to extend its service offering. This is illustrated by its partnership with the start-ups:

Despite the pandemic, TWB was able to hold the 4th edition of its event, ‘TWB START-UP DAY’ in a digital format, which brought together 225 professionals from 15 countries. On this occasion, TWB rewarded two start-ups. Spanish start-up ZYMVOL, winner of the competition “Fast track it!”, obtained €50,000 in the form of services on the TWB technological platforms. The Swiss start-up Fluosphera won the competition “Go for it!” with as prize 4 days of mentoring services provided by TWB and its ecosystem.

3 projects selected for the Grand Défi Biomédicaments

In 2020, TWB was certified as an industrial integrator for bioproduction in the filed of health, known as TIBH (Toulouse Industrial Biotechnology for Health). In 2021, as part of the “Grand Défi Biomédicaments” call for projects, three involving TIBH were selected and have been funded:

• BiopRNA: the objective is to optimise and robustly produce on a pre-industrial scale therapeutic RNA messengers from yeast. The project brings together five partners: CBM-CNRS (project leader), INSERM, TIBH, a SME and a pharmaceutical group.
• PHAEOmAbs: The ambition is to develop innovative approaches to increase the production yield of monoclonal antibodies in the microalgae Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The project brings together four partners: the University of Rouen Normandie (project leader), TIBH, IFREMER and CEA Cadarache.
• Magi@Line: in collaboration with the start-up MagIA Diagnostics, the project focuses on the development of a solution for real-time monitoring of bioprocesses, such as the production of therapeutic antibodies.

More information : Press Release