International Biotechnology companies are successful in Canada and this page highlights their achievements. You can use this section in two ways.
- Case Studies
Review our list of case studies to learn more about the successes and “Lessons learned” from your colleagues
- Database Search
You can search our foreign investment database on recent investments
Case Studies
ID Biomedical
Vancouver´s ID Biomedical´s nasal Proteosome™-based vaccines protect against pneumonic plague caused by lethal aerosol infection with virulent plague bacteria. U.S. Army Medical and Materiel Command joined in experiments in which mice nasally immunized with plague antigen formulated with the Proteosome technology were completely protected against lethality, even when the plague antigen dose was tenfold lower than ever given nasally.
In early May 2004, Frost & Sullivan recognized Toronto-based YM Biosciences as a global entrepreneurial leader for breast cancer drugs. The company has developed a novel late-stage cytotoxic-enhancing compound for fighting metastatic breast cancer. YM focuses on novel therapeutics that principally target advanced solid tumour indications.
Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Vancouver´s Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. focuses on advancing medical devices using disease-modifying drugs. The company´s technology platform exploits paclitaxel´s ability to block inflammation.
Angiotech has forged alliances with Boston Scientific, Cook Inc., Baxter Healthcare and U.S. Surgical. Boston Scientific received U.S. FDA clearance in 2004 to market the TAXUS™ paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system, which uses Angiotech´s technology. Angiotech is one of 30 companies worldwide selected by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer for 2004.
SemBioSys Genetics Inc.
Calgary´s SemBioSys Genetics Inc. develops high value protein and oil body based products using its proprietary oil body/oleosin technology, enabling commercialization of purified protein products. Syngenta and SemBioSys entered into an agreement in 2004 giving Syngenta access to SemBioSys´ proprietary oilbody-based Stratosome™ Biologics and StratoCapture Purification™ systems that could significantly reduce downstream purification costs of therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies.
Caprion Pharmaceuticals
Montreal´s Caprion Pharmaceuticals provides biopharma companies with proteomics research to better mobilize early stage drug discovery and is also developing its own diagnostic and therapeutic products. Caprion´s diagnostic cell-mapping process, CellCarta™, has allowed the firm to gather research to create blood tests to detect Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease.
Caprion and Abbott Laboratories announced a research collaboration in 2004 applying CellCarta™ for the discovery of novel antibody targets and the development of therapeutics for the treatment of lung cancer.
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