CQDM invests $1.5 million in two collaborative projects within the Québec/Ontario Life Sciences Corridor
Toronto, December 6, 2011 — The Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM) is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding for two joint Québec/Ontario research projects in biomedical research.
The news was released today at the conference, Connecting Life Sciences Across the Ontario-Québec Corridor, which was held in Toronto.
“This investment provides an opportunity to strengthen biomedical research in Québec and Ontario by aligning scientific and business resources, said Max Fehlmann, president and CEO of CQDM.
Establishing this new pilot competition was made possible thanks to the collaboration of MaRS Discovery District and MaRS Innovation, two non-profit organizations that promote the commercialization of Ontario’s innovative research.
Better tools for a stronger biopharmaceutical research cluster
The selected projects will develop new tools to accelerate the discovery of more efficient and safer drugs.
An international panel of experts evaluated the projects for scientific excellence, innovation and impact on biopharmaceutical research. Each project will be funded with a $750,000 grant from CQDM.
The awarded investigators are:
- Andrei Yudin (Encycle Therapeutics, a MaRS Innovation spin-off company/University of Toronto) and Eric Marsault (Université de Sherbrooke) who will develop a new platform to rapidly product medium-sized macrocycles as protein-protein interaction probes.
- Ram Mishra (McMaster University), Joseph Gabriele (CRP40 Inc./McMaster University), Thérèse Di Paolo (Université Laval) and Pierre Blanchet (Université de Montréal) who will validate the use of Catecholamine Regulated Protein (CRP40) as a biomarker for diagnosing Parkinson’s Disease.
“Ontario and Québec are well recognized for the excellence of their research and their capacity to innovate. The collaboration between the two provinces will allow to capitalize on our strengths, to push biopharmaceutical research and to increase our international competitiveness,” said Diane Gosselin, vice-president Research and Business Development at CQDM.
“The Québec-Ontario Life Sciences Corridor is paving the way for new and unique opportunities for investment, partnership and collaboration in life sciences research, innovation and commercialization,” said Felmann. “CQDM intends to play a major role in this initiative and continue to foster innovation in life sciences by establishing a joint funding program in the following months.”
About the CQDM
The Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM) is a meeting ground for all stakeholders in biopharmaceutical research. Its principal mission is to fund research projects carried out in partnership between the academic and hospital milieus in the public sector and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the private sector. An innovative Canadian initiative, the CQDM has a two-fold goal: to accelerate the drug discovery process and to develop safer and more effective drugs. Project funding is made possible thorugh contributions from Pfizer Canada, AstraZeneca, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd. (Canada), GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly Canada Inc., the Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE), the Ministère du Développement Économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE) du Québec and the Fonds de recherché Québec-Santé (FRQS).