Amgen and LabCentral have nominated two early-stage companies; Kernal Biologics Inc. and QurAlis as the winners of the Amgen Golden Ticket at LabCentral. The winners were picked from five finalists who had pitched their business plans to attendees at a “Quick Pitch” event hosted by the Biotech. An Amgen internal committee was at hand to pick the two Golden Ticket winners through the help of the audiences’ input, which represented one vote of the total results.

According to the VP of Neuroscience at Amgen, John Dunlop, “Awarding the Golden Tickets to Kernal Biologics Inc. and QurAlis aligns with Amgen’s ongoing research focus within oncology and neuroscience.”

Amgen’s commitment towards the Cambridge biotech ecosystem

Amgen has vowed to collaborate with Cambridge biotech ecosystem in advancing innovative science and this is exactly what the event was intended to capture. On the other hand, the Golden Ticket represents LabCentral’s shared infrastructure and services. Amgen is also having the drive of discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics.

Kermal has a unique way of engineering smart designs intended to develop a technology platform. The Biotech develops therapeutic messenger RNAs via deep learning. The company’s president, Yusef Erkul, says that the award will help in enhancing the company’s research efforts in bringing supportable and effective mRNA medicine to patients.

Founder and chief executive officer at QurAlis, Kasper Roet adds that apart from the recognition of teamwork, the award will strengthen its ALS patient-derived stem cell platform. This will in return help in the development of therapies for ALS patients. Currently, the company is running successful development of therapies for three diverse forms of ALS with known disease mechanisms.

Other companies, which have attained Amgen’s award include Cocoon Biotech, Torus Therapeutics, Holobiome and Novopyxis among others.

Other achievements by Amgen

The Biotech has received an approval of its Repatha from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The PCSK9 inhibitor is expected to help in reducing life-changing events of heart attacks and strokes. Records have it that in every 40 seconds, someone gets a heart attack and despite the use of some of the best therapies, hundreds of patients are still at risk of cardiovascular events.