EU grants Hamburg's Indivumed EUR 4.3 million in funds

19 January 2022

Indivumed's cancer therapy project uses AI to accelerate development of medicines

The Hamburg-based Indivumed has received EUR 4.3 in EU funding to accelerate the development of cancer medicine using an artificial intelligence-based platform. Hopes are now high that cancer therapy will become faster and more efficient in future. The platform should facilitate the identification of new targets for treating different types of cancer.

Flagship for Hamburg as a biotech location

Founded in 2002, Indivumed now employs over 200 staff and is considered one of the outstanding companies in the Life Science North cluster, which aims to further develop the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein region into a leading international life science network. After receiving the notification of funding on Monday (January 17, 2022), Michael Westhagemann, Senator for Economics, remarked: "Indivumed is a figurehead for Hamburg as a biotechnology hub. It sets standards for the future With its activities, which centre on the development of personalised diagnostics and medicines."

Focus on cancer therapy

"Indivumed's mission is to decipher cancer in its complex mechanisms to advance precision oncology," said Prof. Dr Hartmut Juhl, CEO. The company's high-quality systems biology data and state-of-the-art bioinformatics makes it one of the pioneers in cancer therapy. Indivumed will combine its clinical network, AI-driven data analytics and innovative disease models in the funded project,.

EU funding

The funds stem from the "React-EU" scheme set up by the EU in response to the crisis induced by the pandemic. The City of Hamburg will receive a total EUR 47 million during the scheme to promote infection and pandemic control as well as digitalisation in life sciences. Ralf Sommer, Chairman of the Board of the Hamburgische Investitions- und Förderbank (IFB), commented: "The React-EU scheme should help rebuild in response to the coronavirus crisis and make the economy greener and more digital at the same time"

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