The Enea Tech and Biomedical Foundation, a private law foundation supervised by Mimit, has formally acquired Holostem, a business branch sold by Holostem Terapie Avanzate, a biotech company founded in Modena in 2008 and dedicated to the development, production and distribution of therapy products advanced, based on epithelial stem cell cultures for cell and gene therapy.
With the signature between Giovanni Tria, president of the Enea Foundation and former Minister of Economy and Finance and Mario Tardini, liquidator of Holostem, in addition to the acquisition, the appointment, with immediate effect, of Alessandro Padova as the new sole director of the biotechnology company.
Create open platforms for cell and gene therapy research
“The acquisition operation by the Foundation – explains a note – has the aim of developing a highly specialized innovation hub while maintaining an asset of strategic value in Italy, aimed at the research and development of gene and cellular therapies for the treatment of rare diseases, with a consequent notable impact on patients, their families and the entire Italian healthcare system. The acquisition of the Modena company is, therefore, part of the strategic vision that the Foundation is pursuing with conviction in order to create infrastructural platforms open to research institutions, spin-offs and SMEs operating in the cell and gene therapy sector and aimed at promoting and enhancing scientific assets and advanced skills present in the country”.
With the Foundation’s intervention “it will be possible to continue to guarantee patients affected by epidermolysis bullosa access to life-saving therapies, the result of decades of research studies. This rare and disabling genetic disease makes the skin extremely fragile from birth, like wings of a butterfly and for this reason it is also defined as “butterfly children’s syndrome”, it manifests a progressive worsening during the patient’s growth phases and, in the most serious forms, can be lethal. Holostem’s products also find applications in treatment of ocular burns, thanks to a unique therapy in Europe, the first based on cells taken from the patient and subsequently grown in the laboratory, which so far has allowed hundreds of patients to recover their sight”.
To complete the operation, the Foundation was assisted for labor law issues by the lawyer Antonella Parisi, partner of the Pessi e Associati law firm, and by her team, while for corporate, state aid and regulatory issues by a multidisciplinary team led by lawyers Catia Tomasetti, Marco Arato, Massimo Merola and Vincenzo Salvatore of the BonelliErede law firm.