Canada's capacity in health research is both strong and well-respected internationally. It is also contributing to an emerging and active biopharmaceutical industry. Research discoveries and innovations have become part of our defining strengths and will play an increasingly important role in stimulating economic opportunities in Canada.
In 2005, there were 459 biotechnology companies in Canada, more than half of them in the life sciences sector. In the same year, Canadian companies had 446 biopharmaceutical products in the pipeline, most of them at the research (147) and pre-clinical (133) phase.
As the largest funder of health research in Canada, CIHR is working hard to fully implement its commercialization strategy. This strategy has already helped stimulate the introduction of a number of novel life sciences innovations in Canada. Now, it is helping to build the expertise and infrastructure that will result in better quality of life for Canadians, through reduced pain and suffering, and contribute to Canada's productivity and economy.
CIHR's commercialization strategy builds on a tradition of CIHR-funded research resulting in commercial opportunities. The past few months have been especially noteworthy for several companies whose origins lie in CIHR funding. Senior officials with three of these companies are featured in this month's Web profile. Their experiences of realizing the economic benefits of promising health research discoveries can provide valuable insights that could assist other researchers in similar situations. Enhancing the ability of researchers to develop their health research discoveries here in Canada holds the potential for improving the health and quality of life of Canadians and people throughout the world while contributing to the strength of the Canadian economy.
As an example, in March 2006, Vancouver-based Neuromed Pharmaceuticals Ltd. signed the largest-ever licensing deal in Canadian history with Merck & Co., Inc., worth up to $475 million. More recently, Montreal-based Caprion Pharmaceuticals, an example of Canada's excellence in the field of proteomics, announced plans to go public. In addition, London-based Viron Therapeutics first won the prestigious Prix-Gallien award and, most recently, landed $20 million in new funding. We spoke to their representatives to get their thoughts on their recent successes and the role of CIHR funding in helping their companies. Some highlights from their responses follow.
Participants
Dr. Terry Snutch, Professor, Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia and Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Neuromed - Company formed in 1995 based on long-standing CIHR-supported research into calcium channels as a way of blocking chronic pain. (T.s.)
Dr. John J.M. Bergeron, Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University and Scientific Advisor to Caprion - Company formed in 1998 based on CIHR-supported proteomics research. (J.b.)
Mr. Neil K. Warma, President and CEO, Viron Therapeutics - Company formed in 1997 based on research by CIHR-supported scientists Drs. Grant McFadden and Alexandra Lucas, which is focused on the ability of viral proteins to inhibit inflammation. (N.w.)
What kind of impact has CIHR funding had on the development of the company? And, beyond that, what kind of role does CIHR play in helping stimulate new opportunities?
J.B.: CIHR gave us one of the special genomics grants at the turn of the century. That special genomics grant allowed us to develop a strategy for proteomics that we called the Cell Map Strategy. Caprion was able to take that strategy and patent the name as CellCarta.
N.W.: I'll be honest, when I started as CEO at Viron, I had been working outside of the country for a number of years, so, CIHR was an unknown to me. Having become established here, however, I now totally realize the role played by CIHR. If it weren't for CIHR's funding support, these ideas would never have been generated in the first place. Basic research ideas help build results in the lab and lead to new opportunities for companies.
T.S.: There's a whole lot of basic research that went into cloning the N-type channel, finding out where it's localized in the nervous system, showing that it's in the proper spot in the nervous system to contribute to pain signalling, defining how it mediates pain transmission, and then dissecting the molecular components of how the channel couples through opiate receptors. Without all of that basic science, there would have been no rationale to develop a drug that blocked it.
J.B.: We are right now at a state where we understand, to some degree of detail, 10 per cent of the make-up of the proteins in our body. Most of our drugs, certainly all of them from big pharma, are directed against those 10 percent. There's 90 percent of unexplored territory out there . That's what CIHR supports.
Technology transfer and commercialization is a hot topic right now - is it being done right? How can the system be improved? What are some of your thoughts on this subject and best way of moving from an idea to a commercially viable technology?
N.W.: There is an important link between the academic world and companies. For the most part, academia is the source of groundbreaking research, which is a necessity for companies. However, there is a real challenge in finding the right vehicle that can take the research beyond the lab.
J.B.: When I was doing proteomics, I let companies know what I was doing. I felt it was my responsibility because I knew it would be something commercially important, and I believed that companies would develop this if they wanted to. I went around talking to various companies and Caprion happened to be one of them. They happened to have such a strong management team, that they took the burden off of my shoulders in terms of having to do a lot of this set-up stuff.
T.S.: From the outset a connection between the unique and exciting scientific idea has to be linked to commercial viability. One of the things that faculty need to realize is that, just because you have a good idea, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's commercially viable. The venture capital community has become quite sensitized, given the fact that a lot of companies that were spun off in the late 90s and the early parts of this decade didn't make it.. Some of those ideas that were spun off into companies probably shouldn't have been spun off as stand-alone companies. Some of them just weren't commercially viable, even though they were good ideas. Some of them probably have commercial potential - but just weren't stand alone as bona fide biotechnology companies.
N.W.: Canada needs to improve its commercialization process. The first step is to have a scientist who really understands the commercial potential of their IP and who is willing to be entrepreneurial, with one foot in the door of the lab and the other in the door of the company. The tech transfer offices also need to know the correct terms that will motivate their scientist to disclose their invention in the first place. I also think that universities sometimes go too far in demanding too much ownership. They want the big win, but it's preferable to take less equity and get more companies going.
J.B.: If you're going to go public, people who are investing in you want to make money. Of course, they're going to hold the company's feet to the fire and want to see that commercialization is actually working and drive that company into a direction that will maximize the money-making potential for the shareholders.
What's next? What will be the future impact of new technologies being developed?
T.S.: I think if you use the example of Neuromed and look at the potential downstream benefits, from the patient perspective, it's huge. There are currently no drugs that adequately treat chronic or neuropathic pain. You've got the opiates, like morphine, but they have huge problems. They're used to treat severe pain, but you can't give them long-term to chronic pain sufferers because of the addiction and tolerance issues. People have to take larger and larger doses. These doses lead to more and more side effects . The opportunity is there to address a patient population that is completely underserved with regard to current therapies and in need of a new strategy. The N-type channel comes out of a basic science research program and offers a new therapeutic strategy. Coming along in the future, through initially CIHR-funded research is the development of three new T-type calcium channel targets for the treatment of epilepsy, hypertension and a number of mood disorders. The potential for these markets and the treatment of unmet patients needs is tremendous.
J.B.: That whole mapping of the communication barrier between the outside of the cell and the inside of the cell has been mapped for the first time by Caprion - very exhaustively and very comprehensibly. That's the way they've been able to identify all of the important proteins that change during these cancers and targeting them usually has an impact on those cancers.
N.W.: Right now, we're focused on 2-3 drug candidates. We recently secured the financing to allow us to complete our Phase II trial and advance 1-2 additional compounds into the clinic. Beyond that, we're interested in finding partnerships for other products in the pipeline.
As CIHR's commercialization strategy matures, we are sure to see continuing growth in the life sciences sector of our economy. The input of these researchers, who have been "in the trenches" of commercialization, provides important insights into barriers, obstacles, opportunities and solutions.
Next Month in the August Research Profile - The Sounds of School
It seems like just yesterday that the kids flew out of school for summer holidays, the clanging of bells and squeaks of pencils quickly becoming but a distant memory. And yet, seemingly overnight, the evenings are getting cooler, the newspapers and TV are full of back-to-school ads, and the grocery stores are trumpeting easy solutions for school lunches.
It's that time again.
Every week this month, we will feature a different CIHR-funded health researcher. The link? They're all conducting research that ultimately affects school-aged children - what they eat, whether they're active enough, and how to protect them from injury. Check in every Monday to find out what's new.
