 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Highlights
|
|
Continued Success for NRC Life Science Spin-OffsThe National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has a long track record in creating new companies based on NRC research and technology. It has created over 50 firms since 1995, resulting in hundreds of new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment for Canada. NRC spin-off firms, Ionalytics and Zelos Therapeutics, recently attracted attention and market interest for their innovative solutions.
In early April, Zelos announced $14-million in new financing from Canadian and U.S. sources. Zelos is developing a drug called Ostabolin-CTM for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. The World Health Organization has declared osteoporosis as the world's second largest health problem after cardiovascular disease, affecting 100-200 million people worldwide. An estimated 1 in 2 women and 1 in 8 men will suffer an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime. Ostabolin-CTM is a parathyroid hormone (PTH) analog that holds promise of rebuilding and regenerating bones in the human body and is slated to enter clinical trials by the end of 2003. Zelos evolved from technology licensed from over 10 years of research at the NRC Institute for Biological Sciences
Earlier this year, Ionalytics netted $4.5 million in venture capital funding. R&D into the ion separation technology began in 1997 as a result of a collaboration between the NRC Institute for National Measurement Standards and MDS Sciex. Breakthroughs by the team encouraged both partners to commercialize the technology by creating Ionalytics. Zelos and Ionalytics are just two of a number of new NRC ventures active in the field of life sciences, a major research area across the NRC which has produced many promising results in fields as varied as medical diagnostics, vaccine development and biopharmaceuticals. For more information on other exciting new NRC ventures in this domain, visit some of the links below which lead to web sites outside NRC and the Government of Canada. PharmaLaser IMRIS Ionalytics Corporation NovaDAQ Technologies PharmaGap Technology for altering intercellular communication Spin off from the NRC Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences IatroQuest |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||
Ionalytics is also heavily involved in the life sciences sector, focusing not on therapeutics, but on improving a key tool used in the drug discovery process, the mass spectrometer. Working on the premise that discoveries come faster if information and analysis is more accurate, Ionalytics has developed an ion separation device for use with mass spectrometers. The product reduces background noise and increases the sensitivity of mass spec units for analysis of complex samples.