Enhancing Outreach to Partners
Recognizing the tremendous importance of regularly reaching out to our many collaborators, partners, stakeholders, and supporters, CDRD and our commercial arm, CDRD Ventures Inc. (CVI) have recently developed a number of new tools to increase and enhance this communication. These include this new quarterly newsletter, a re-launched website (visit us at www.cdrd.ca and
www.cdrdventures.com), and a growing social media presence (click here to follow us on Twitter).
We greatly appreciate all your involvement in and support of CDRD and CVI over our first five years, and we hope to only grow that engagement further over many years to come. Please watch this space as well as our website for further updates on CDRD/CVI's mission, model and most recent milestones, as well as blogs from a wide range of team members discussing their perspectives on today’s drug development landscape.
We will only be able to meet our mandate to serve Canada’s health researchers and life sciences industry though if this communication is two-way. So to connect with CDRD or CVI, share your thoughts, ideas, etc. please feel free to contact me directly via bgee@cdrd.ca anytime.
We look forward to a fruitful dialogue.
- Barry Gee
Director, Communications
on behalf of all the members of the CDRD and CDRD Ventures Inc. teams
CDRD and CDRD Ventures Inc. Announce Transition of Management to Lead Organizations to Next Stage of Success
On June 4th, The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and its commercial arm, CDRD Ventures Inc. (CVI) announced changes to the leadership of the two organizations in order to position them for their next phase of growth.
Former CDRD President and CEO Natalie Dakers has taken on a new role and become the first fully-dedicated CEO of CVI. At the same time, Karimah Es Sabar, previously Senior Vice President, Business and Strategic Affairs has been named as the new President and CEO of CDRD, charged with executing on the organization's newly-developed Five-Year Plan.
To date, CDRD and CVI have shared a management team, but as CDRD evolves, and as its research projects are effectively developed to a point where they are able to attract private sector partnerships and investment, the commitment of dedicated resources to CVI shall enhance the focus on the commercialization of these projects. At the same time, strong leadership of CDRD is critical to ensuring that it continues to effectively work with national and international research partners to advance the most promising early-stage drug candidates towards this commercial stage.
READ MORE....
BC Provincial Government Announces $29 million in Renewed Support for CDRD
On June 19th, 2012, The British Columbia Provincial Government announced a renewed investment of $29 million into The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) as well as a further $10 million for Genome BC -- tremendous news for not only CDRD and Genome BC, but for our entire life sciences community as it will further increase the level of support available for academic health research in the province, and the translation of that research into commercial opportunities for our private sector industry.
On behalf of CDRD, we would like to sincerely thank everyone within government who made this possible, and for their recognition of the importance of research and innovation to our province. We would also like to acknowledge the teams at CDRD and CDRD Ventures Inc. as well as our broad network of academic researchers, industry and government partners, and wide stakeholder community for all their support and hard work in ensuring that government’s investment in CDRD is resulting in tremendous economic and societal outcomes for British Columbia and Canada.
Our objectives for this funding are:
- To enhance commercialization of BC and Canadian innovation leading to the growth, creation and retention of life sciences companies, and the attraction of investment back into the life sciences sector;
- To increase the number of national and international technologies that are brought to CDRD and CVI to be commercialized – creating new economic benefits for the country;
- To attract an even greater level of foreign direct investment to British Columbia and Canada through CDRD’s global strategic partnerships; and
- To expand our innovative Training Program to attract and retain Canada’s top young health research talent – talent that will be trained to be industry‐ready and to become the next generation of entrepreneurs for BC and Canada.
READ MORE....
Five-Year Anniversary Marks Major Milestones and New Five-Year Vision
It has been five years since CDRD was officially launched following an initial $25 million investment in 2007 by the Province of British Columbia, and the successful securing of infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
Since that time, CDRD has achieved a number of key milestones and outcomes, making a significant impact on Canada’s drug development environment. Here is a quick look at CDRD's impact by the numbers....
492 Projects evaluated
100 Research projects (80 novel technologies) undertaken
74 Principal Investigators assisted
40 Technologies successfully advanced towards commercialization
6 Technologies out-licensed to the private sector or being optioned by CVI
1 Spin-off company launched
11 New patent families supported with CDRD data
18 Collaborations on scientific publications
$67 million in grant funding facilitated for PIs and their CDRD-related projects
$33 million in international pharmaceutical sector investment attracted
$152 million in incremental health research being conducted in BC as result of CDRD
2,209 Direct and indirect jobs created
$121.6 million contributed back to provincial GDP
83 Post Doctoral Fellows, co-op students and interns through the CDRD Training Program
60 Drug development and commercialization workshops and seminars offered.
CDRD and CVI are now looking to the future, having developed a new Five-Year Plan to take us through to 2017. Key initiatives for the organization under this Plan include:
- Focusing on commercialization by allocating dedicated resources to CVI
- Enhancing collaborations with investigators throughout Canada
- Expanding drug development resources available to investigators by establishing new partnerships with complementary organizations from around the world
- Further developing and expanding our Biologics platform focusing on therapeutic antibodies, the fastest growing class of new medicines
- Moving to our new headquarters in the University of British Columbia’s new Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences building which includes 35,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the art drug development infrastructure for CDRD
- Expanding our Training Program to increase opportunities for Canada's next generation of drug developers.
Global Industry Partnerships Bring New Resources to Research Projects
Roche and GlaxoSmithKline establish new funds within CDRD & CDRD Ventures Inc., while Pfizer Canada renews its long-standing commitment to CDRD
Over the past eight months, CDRD and our commercial arm, CDRD Ventures Inc. (CVI) have been pleased to have grown our partnerships with global industry leaders Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.
In September, CDRD Ventures announced its first Strategic Industry Collaboration with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Roche) to support and jointly develop innovative health research technologies under the management of CVI.
Under the Agreement, CDRD Ventures will drive the development of projects jointly selected in cooperation with Roche. They collectively determine the most appropriate development paths for the intellectual property associated with the projects, and assess opportunities for collaboration, funding, management, and commercialization of these technologies. READ FULL ANNOUNCEMENT
Following this significant announcement, long-standing CDRD partner Pfizer renewed its commitment to the organization by making a further investment into the Pfizer-CDRD Innovation Fund which has been one of the most critical elements to CDRD's success, having now provided financial resources and expertise to 30 CDRD research projects (representing 27 novel technologies).
Most recently, on May 29th, CDRD and CVI announced a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to advance the development and commercialization of Canadian health research. Under this new collaboration, GSK will provide project-based funding to support the commercialization of health research through two distinct funding vehicles. The first such is a “GSK-CDRD Innovation Fund” within CDRD to support certain early-stage projects to be conducted by CDRD and carried out in collaboration with academic investigators at CDRD’s affiliated institutions and/or hospital-based research centers.
The second vehicle takes the form of a joint venture with CVI that will see additional funds invested in advancing projects further towards commercialization. Under this collaborative relationship, CVI will then conduct (or manage the conduct of) multiple selected research projects to be partially funded by GSK with the goal of commercializing the technology and resulting intellectual property. READ FULL ANNOUNCEMENT
In addition to the Pfizer, GSK and Roche funds, CDRD has also established the two funds described below. The structure of all of these partnerships provides not only financial resources for selected projects, but also gives CDRD and Principal Investigators access to world-class industry expertise to help develop project plans.
The Western Canada Innovation Fund: A partnership with Johnson & Johnson (COSAT) which also includes investments from the Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.
The Genome BC-CDRD Development Fund: The Genome BC–CDRD Development Fund was created to accelerate the development of commercially promising projects related to advances and discoveries stemming from genome sciences and genetics.
CDRD Expands Across Canada and Around the Globe with New Research Affiliations and Alliances
Over the past year, CDRD has announced new partnerships with leading health research organizations in Canada and the world -- paving the way for a growing number of PIs to access CDRD's expertise and infrastructure, while at the same time building on the resources available to them. We welcome to the CDRD network...
University of Ottawa
University of Calgary
McGill
TEC Edmonton (University of Alberta)
AllerGen
The Brain Research Institute
National Research Council's Biotechnology Research Institute (BRI)
Todai TLO (University of Tokyo, Japan)
Lead Discovery Centre (Max Planck Institutes, Germany)
Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
"We are very pleased to have established each of these important relationships," comments CDRD President and CEO Karimah Es Sabar. "Through these collaborations, CDRD’s pipeline of new health technologies will be enhanced while a greater number of researchers will gain access to our state-of-the-art drug development platforms coupled with our specialized scientific and business expertise to advance their technologies to a stage where they are sufficiently de-risked for private sector consideration,” she said.
Please click here for further information on CDRD's growing network of Affiliated Research Institutions.
Fight Against Neglected Global Diseases Moves Another Step Forward Through a Partnership Between CDRD and NGDI-UBC
One year after CDRD and the Neglected Global Diseases Initiative at the University of British Columbia (NGDI-UBC) came together to develop interventions for neglected global diseases, a project to combine existing approved drugs to better treat Tuberculosis (TB) has emerged as the collaboration’s leading prospect.
TB is the second leading cause of death by infectious disease in adults worldwide and it is estimated that one third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Research by UBC’s Drs. Santiago Ramón‐García and Charles Thompson has found a synergistic combination of two known drugs (used for other therapeutic applications but never before to treat TB) capable of inhibiting Mtb growth, while neither of these drugs have any effect on their own against Mtb.
“Although this partnership is still relatively young,” said Dr. Kishor M. Wasan, Director and Co-Founder, NGDI-UBC and Professor and Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UBC, “it is already proving to be very valuable in this global fight.”
READ MORE....
CDRD People
CDRD and CDRD Ventures Inc. team members have been specifically selected for their combination of scientific and business skills as well as demonstrated ability to interact effectively with our stakeholders. These 90+ highly-skilled individuals (two thirds of whom hold Masters or PhD degrees) are business and administrative professionals, project managers, scientists, technicians, post-doctoral fellows, interns and co-op students -- and all make a critical contribution to our success every day.
We are pleased to welcome the newest additions to this team....
Dr. Gregorio Aversa, Senior Vice President, Drug Development (pictured above)
Dr. Gregorio Aversa joins us as our new Senior Vice President of Drug Development, responsible for strategic oversight of CDRD's drug development platform, development of our project portfolio, development strategy and priorities, and overseeing strategic alliances with industry. CDRD has long had the pleasure of working with Gregorio through our Poject Development Committee (PDC) and Innovation Fund Review Panels, and we are now very pleased to have him join us in a full-time capacity.
Dr. Aversa is an experienced immunologist and industrial scientist. He has made significant contributions to the identification of novel molecules and to the understanding of the regulatory processes leading to allergies, autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection. He brings a wealth of global pharmaceutical experience to our organization, having spent several years with the DNAX/Schering-Plough Research Institute in California, and having held mutliple leadership positions with organizations such a the Novartis Research Institute in Austria.
Gregorio completed his Ph.D. studies in Transplantation Immunology at the University of Sydney and Stanford University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney School of Medicine in Australia.
Ms. Donna Wong, Director, Human Resources
Donna has been a member of our local biotech community for many years, having over 20 years of experience working with a number of our companies such as Chromos Molecular Systems through both a consulting and full-time capacity. She has been one of our leaders in the area of HR, with strong strategic, management and generalist experience, and a track record of establishing progressive HR programs. She is also an active peer mentor.
Dr. Alex Mandel, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Medicinal Chemistry
Alex obtained his PhD at the University of California, San Diego where he was involved in natural product synthesis, isolation, and chemical biology. He followed that with work at ESPCI ParisTech as well as the National University of Singapore where he developed a system for transdermal vaccination by leveraging nanotechnology.
Kristina Lilly, Project Management Coordinator
Kristina holds a Bachelor of Science (Biology) from the University of Saskatchewan as well a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) designation from the University of British Columbia. She joins us from the Centre for Molecular Medicine & Therapeutics (CMMT) where she studied neurodegenerative disease.
Estelle De Jager, Executive Assistant
With a background in Quality Management, Estelle spent several years with local biotech companies Angiotech and INEX Pharmaceuticals supporting their executive and research and development teams prior to joining CDRD.
Dr. Brian Duff, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Screening
Brian is a native of Ireland, and completed his BSc honours degree in bio-analytical science from the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, Dublin (ITTD) in 2007. Following this, he undertook a PhD at ITTD, examining the in vitro toxicology and pharmacology of novel metal-based anti-cancer agents. Since then, he has lectured in immunology and cell technology.
Vionarica Gusti, Technician, Pharmacology/Toxicology
Originally from Indonesia, Vionarica achieved her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology at University of British Columbia. Previously as a co-op student, she was involved in tumor model development as part of the In Vivo group at AMGEN.
Tina Lee, Administrative & Accounting Assistant
Tina is new to the biotech industry having come from a background in art history, and is now supporting CDRD's finance department while pursuing her accounting designation.
And we offer our congratulations to...
CDRD President and CEO, Karimah Es Sabar who has been appointed as the Chair of Providence Health Care Research Institute's Board of Trustees.
Dr. Jason Crawford who was recently promoted to Senior Director of Scientific Operations.
Karen Tong who has been promoted to the role of Coordinator, Project Search and Evaluation.
Dr. Clement Mugabe, CDRD's MERCK/MSFHR Post-Doctoral Fellow for having his poster selected among the best at the recent European Association of Urology Conference in Paris. Click here to view the poster.
CDRD Business Division's Dr. Julie Wong on her appointment to the Women’s Advisory Committee to Vancouver City Council.
CDRD Co-Founder Dr. Terry Allen who has been elected to the College of Fellows of the Controlled Release Society.
Upcoming Events
13th Annual Conference on Systems Biology
August 19-23rd, 2012
University of Toronto
Join world experts in systems biology in Toronto for:
• Hot trends in bioscience research
• The emerging 'omic' – metabolomics
• Drug development
• Next gen sequencing
• Synthetic biology
• Proteomics
www.icsb2012toronto.com
Individuals interested in meeting with CDRD during this conference are encouraged to contact Karen Tong, Coordinator, Project Search and Evaluation via ktong@cdrd.ca
About CDRD and CVI
The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) is a national not-for-profit drug development and commercialization centre that provides expertise and infrastructure to enable researchers from leading health research institutions to advance promising early-stage drug candidates. In doing so, we de-risk discoveries stemming from publicly-funded health research and transform them into viable investment opportunities for the private sector — successfully bridging the commercialization gap between academia and industry, and translating research discoveries into new therapies for patients and economic returns for British Columbia and Canada.
Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence Program has recognized CDRD as a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR).
CDRD Ventures Inc. (CVI), is The Centre for Drug Research and Development’s (CDRD’s) for-profit commercial arm, and acts as an interface between CDRD and industry. The company in-licenses intellectual property generated from selected CDRD projects directly from the affiliated institution or inventor, and forms strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to further develop and commercialize the technologies. Profits from CVI flow back to CDRD to support further ongoing drug development projects, thus providing a mechanism for long-term sustainability.
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