Collaboration will advance early-stage technologies and identify high-potential opportunities related to human health

TORONTO, Nov. 25, 2013 – MaRS Innovation (MI), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, today announced a new collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and its affiliate Janssen, Inc., in Canada to advance early-stage technologies related to human health in therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics.

This announcement was covered by Biotechnology Focus and the Village Gamer blog.

Through the collaboration, MaRS Innovation and technical experts from the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston, Massachusetts will jointly identify and fund high-potential opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within MaRS Innovation’s 16 member institutions, which include the University of Toronto and its affiliated teaching hospitals.

“We are looking forward to working with Johnson & Johnson Innovation,” said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO, MaRS Innovation. “There are many high quality opportunities coming out of the Toronto research community, and these opportunities can benefit from our close collaboration.”

Through the agreement, Johnson & Johnson Innovation will provide funding over a three-year period to support promising individual projects based on joint due diligence, which will be leveraged with financial support from MaRS Innovation.

The fund will accelerate the development and validation of healthcare technologies within one of Canada’s highly innovative academic clusters.

This collaboration follows a co-funding agreement between MaRS Innovation and Johnson & Johnson to capitalize and accelerate the use of Toronto-based life sciences technologies during the early stages of pharmaceutical and medical device development.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, marketing and communication manager.