Archivel Farma is a R&D biotech company that develops immunotherapeutic agents to respond to unmet medical needs, notably in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) but also asthma, allergic rhinitis and some types of cancer.
We work in partnership with companies and public and private R&D organizations to accelerate the development of our products and that they can reach the market faster.
In collaboration with the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute and the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, we have developed RUTI®, a poly-antigenic vaccine aimed at the treatment of active, multidrug-resistant and latent tuberculosis, and which is also under study for other indications.
Since its foundation, in 2005, Archivel Farma has been committed in fighting tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease that causes ill-health for about 10 million people each year and that killed more than 1.6 million people in 2016.
Drug-resistant TB is a permanent threat, with 600,000 cases emerging in 2016. Archivel Farma have designed a new strategy to help patients suffering from MDR-TB and rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) to overcome the disease. We are developing RUTI® as adjunctive therapy to antibiotic treatment that will help to reduce the time of medication and the relapse rates by increasing efficacy of chemotherapy treatment.
Mission & Values
Archivel Farma works in the discovering and development of new biopharmaceutical agents to prevent and treat tuberculosis and other diseases susceptible to immunomodulatory interventions.
Our company wants to make a valuable contribution to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis, with effective solutions to heal the current patients and to prevent the development of the infection, by providing our knowledge in immunotherapy to find new treatments for unmet medical needs.
Innovation
We are committed to new approaches, capable of providing real solutions to heal infectious diseases such as TB.
Flexibility
Archivel Farma is an organization that learns from experience and constantly adapts to a changing and challenging environment.
Efficiency
A rational use of resources and rigorous planning help us achieve our goals.
Quality
A team with the highest professional standards guarantees the quality of our services and the rigor of the results.
Commitment
We are committed to the well-being of people and to the ambitious goal we have set ourselves: to achieve a TB-free world.
Team Work
A solid and well-articulated team, and ongoing collaboration with other organizations are key to our success.
Team
Mercè Amat
Head of Research & Development
BIO
Mercè Amat has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Barcelona. She has broad professional experience in the sectors of bioscience and pharmaceuticals. For more than nine years, she led biological projects in respiratory and arthritis areas in the Research Departments at Almirall and at Menarini before joining Archivel Farma as Head of R&D in 2008. Currently, the focus of her work is on the development of RUTI®, most notably in the improvement of the manufacturing process and the product characterization. She is also conducting research on the use of RUTI® beyond tuberculosis.
Joan Casanovas
Head of the Production Department
BIO
Joan Casanovas holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology by the University of Barcelona. In recent years he has developed his professional career in London, working in the Cellular Therapy department at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Gene Therapy at University College London (UCL). He was involved in the translation of Lymphocyte manufacture for immunotherapy clinical trials, from research to GMP standards. Joan joined Archivel’s team in October 2019 as Production Manager, with the goal of manufacturing RUTI® vaccine.
Janina Duch
Quality Control Manager
BIO
Janina Duch is a Technician in Analysis and Quality Control from the IES Narcís Monturiol in Barcelona. With a professional trajectory of more than 10 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical industry, and numerous specific training courses around Quality, she has worked in companies as Sandoz and Biofarm Biotechnology.
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Pere-Joan Cardona
Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP)
Doctor specialized in Clinical Microbiology and MD by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), he is the chief of the Experimental Tuberculosis Unity of the Germans Trias i Pujol Institute (IGTP).
BIO
He also is associated teacher of the Genetics and Microbiology Department of the UAB from 2001. After his training at the Colorado State University (1995-96), he devoted to the study of tuberculosis in its more immuno-pathological side through “in vitro”, “in vivo” and “in silico” experimental models using human origin tissues.
He has been the Scientific and Medical Director of Archivel Farma during the Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of the RUTI® vaccine.
Reviser of several international specialized magazines, he is editor of the book “Understanding Tuberculosis”; he is author of 5 book chapters and of 70 articles revised by experts (index h=21). He is also Academic Editor of the PLOS One magazine since 2009.
He is author of 7 invention patents, 4 of them referred to the RUTI® vaccine, the first therapeutic vaccine against latent tuberculosis.
Funding
Private Funding
Archivel Farma is a private company, founded in 2005, which has as main investors TGT Group and Archivel Technologies, and has a minority participation of Laboratorios Reig Jofré.
In its different stages of development, the company has received financial support from investment funds such as FonsInnocat (BcnHighGrowth); Agora Invest; Inversions Valor Afegit; and Etios Capital Invest. All of them exited Archivel Farma in 2011.
Public Funding
The company has also received public funds from CDTI (Center for the Development of Industrial Technology); ENISA (Empresa Nacional de Innovación, SA); the missing Genoma España Foundation, now FECYT; and ACCIÓ, Catalan Agency for Business Competitiveness, as well as European funds through H2020 Research and Innovation projects.
Projects
Archivel Farma is part of the international consortium that has been awarded with a H2020 program grant of € 4.5M to develop the project In Silico Trial for Tuberculosis Vaccine Development (2017-2021).
More information
Project funded
by European Union
Collaborations
Dr. Pere-Joan Cardona and Dr. Cristina Vilaplana Unitat Tuberculosis Experimental (UTE)
Prof. T. Van der Werf and M. Groeschel
Prof. Helen Fletcher and Satria Prabowo, PhD
Dr. Simon Clark
