MaRS Innovation today announced that Johnson & Johnson Innovation has expanded its collaboration with MaRS Innovation to identify and advance early-stage technologies of interest.
The announcement was made in advance of the 2015 BIO Convention, which takes place from June 15 to 18 in Philadelphia, PA. MaRS Innovation is participating as part of the Ontario delegation and will have kiosk space in the Ontario pavilion (#615).
This partnership was covered in BioCentury, GEN, PharmaBiz and FierceBiotech.
Earlier this year, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and MaRS Innovation announced their research partnership to advance three technologies focused on improving cardiac surgery outcomes, developing a blood test for depression, and identifying a diagnostic metabolite for both gestational and type 2 diabetes patients. The projects’ principal investigators are researchers from the University Health Network (Peter Munk Cardiac Centre), the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (with Indoc Research) and the University of Toronto.
“Johnson & Johnson Innovation is an excellent partner that understands exactly the kind of technology pipeline MaRS Innovation represents,” said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO. “Renewing their longstanding relationship signals the value they see in this partnership with MaRS Innovation, our members and researchers within our network.”
The collaboration dates back to 2010 with a co-managed funding agreement to support early-stage technology in therapeutics and medical devices, and has since expanded to include healthcare IT.
In 2013, Johnson & Johnson’s Innovation Centre in Boston expanded the partnership to include Janssen Inc., its Canadian affiliate, to advance early-stage technologies related to human health in therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics. That partnership has already resulted in a medical device that is being evaluated in a clinical trial; the device has the potential to improve patient outcomes following catheter ablation procedure.
“Johnson and Johnson Innovation’s team is actively engaged and strong collaborators in co-developing technologies of interest,” said Parimal Nathwani, vice-president of life sciences. “Their project teams diligently work with MaRS Innovation staff on each asset to shape strategy, outcomes and next steps. On behalf of all of our members, we are excited to continue our strong relationship.”