MaRS Discovery District

Triphase signs collaboration and option agreement with Celgene Corporation, leading innovator of cancer therapies

MI portfolio company actively seeking additional products for licensing and development

TORONTO and SAN DIEGO, Jan. 9, 2014 — A unique collaboration of life science leaders, including the Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust, MaRS Innovation Ventures Trust and MaRS Phase II Investment Trust, have formed Triphase Accelerator Corporation, an oncology development accelerator.

Triphase Accelerator’s announcement was covered in Yonge Street Media, Bloomburg Businessweek and Global University Venturing.

Formed in 2010, Triphase Accelerator Corporation is a cancer-focused biotechnology development company that aims to reduce the time and expense between an investigational new drug application and “proof-of-concept” at Phase II.

Triphase, spun out of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), develops and advances late pre-clinical, Phase I or early Phase II potential products. Triphase and its founding investors are in a position to take advantage of the excellent research and development capabilities in the Toronto healthcare and innovation ecosystem.

The Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust (FACIT), MaRS Innovation Ventures Trust, and MaRS Phase II Investment Trust, are all Toronto-based equity investors in Triphase.

After company formation, Triphase entered into a strategic relationship with Celgene Corporation. Through this arrangement, Celgene obtained rights of first refusal on the first three oncology products Triphase advances to clinical proof-of-concept (POC), plus a right of first negotiation on three more future oncology products which may be acquired by Triphase.

MaRS Innovation’s 2013 Top 10 List

2013 was an exceptional year for MaRS Innovation. Here are the top 10 news stories from our commercialization portfolio. 1. MaRS Innovation secures a $15 million CECR funding extension In January,…

ChipCare, UTEST and MaRS Innovation profiled in Nature journal article on commercialization programs in Canada

Canadian commercialization and entrepreneurial programs helping scientists and researchers bring their products to market are the focus of a recent article in Nature Journal and on nature.com.

Posted online on October 2, 2013, the article explains how the Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR) programme, and specifically MaRS Innovation, develop research and put it into practice:

MaRS Innovation's commercialization process — MaRS Innovation’s commercialization process: Bridging the gap between brilliant research and successful start-up companies or licensable technologies.

“MARS Innovation and its sister organization MARS Discovery District are not-for-profit organizations that are tightly integrated in Canadian research commercialization. They are based in a heritage building that once belonged to the Toronto University Hospital, in the heart of the city’s ‘discovery district’ — the inner-city conglomeration of universities, institutes and hospitals which has a reputation as a research hotbed. “Here, all the different actors in the commercialization sphere come together in one space,” says Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of MARS Discovery District.

Dr. Hofstein’s Op-Ed for The Hill-Times, “Biotechnology research: A knowledge economy”

This op-ed on Canadian biotechnology and the knowledge economy appeared in The Hill-Times (subscription required), Canada’s politics and government newsweekly, September 9:

Obesity, cancer, heart disease and stroke, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, or the more general stresses of an aging population: no matter which area of concern holds our collective gaze from moment to moment, improving health outcomes and healthcare is the No. 1 challenge for the world’s economy.

Canada has the holistic approach and translational research necessary to address health care’s pervasive challenges, with particular strengths in biotechnology.

In 2007, the Government of Canada made advancing translational research a top priority through the Science and Technology Strategy, with emphasis on cancer, metabolic disorders and, most recently, neurology, as part of the government’s response to the burdensome realities of neurodegenerative disorders.

Scientific research has made significant progress in unraveling the underlying causes of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, but translating these findings into useful clinical treatments is the key to attaining meaningful accomplishments. Only clinical treatment successes will alleviate pressure on the economy.

Transformational research is the essential first step in this process, but even more importantly, it needs to be put in the hands of those who can translate it into realistic and useful outcomes for patients in particular and society in general.

Thanks to research analytics that capture publications, citations, and other significant metrics, we know Canadian researchers punch above their weight, particularly in medical research. Canada’s challenge is not the quality or quantity of our research ideas but our ability to commercialize those ideas and translate them into market-ready products.

Aware of and concerned by this gap between fundamental basic research and useful patient, social, and economic outcomes, the Canadian government established the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program in 2007. Part of the internationally-recognized Networks of Centres of Excellence suite of programs, the CECR program is a unique collaboration between the three federal granting agencies (the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council), along with Industry Canada, and Health Canada.

Designed to bridge the challenging gap between innovation and commercialization, the CECR program matches clusters of research expertise with the business community to share the knowledge and resources that bring innovations to market faster.

MaRS Innovation was among the first CECRs to be created in 2008, largely based on the founding belief of its members that Toronto is a fertile research land for precisely this kind of translational activity.

Dr. Raphael Hofstein’s MRI blog post: How Team Ontario’s biotechnology takes on the world

Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president & CEO, MaRS Innovation.

Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein is president and CEO of MaRS Innovation (MI) – the commercialization agent for an exceptional research discovery pipeline stemming from 16 leading Ontario academic institutions. As a single entry point to annual member research and development activity of $1B, MI provides a gateway for investors and licensees who wish to access Ontario’s technology assets.

During the 2012 BIO convention in Boston, Dr. Hofstein blogged about how CQDM of Montreal and MaRS Innovation of Toronto had teamed up to help “fill” the QC-Ontario corridor and why the corridor is good for business in both provinces.

In my previous blog post during BIO2012, I talked about how MaRS Innovation and CQDM had jointly collaborated to form Encycle Therapeutics, a startup that was created around disruptive technology, developed by Professor Andrei Yudin of the University of Toronto, involving the cyclization of biologically active peptides.

A year later, I’m pleased to report that Encycle is alive and kicking. The company has since recruited seasoned management, and its developing product line is drawing tremendous interest from global pharmaceutical groups. In the next few months, we expect Encycle to raise significant capital and establish meaningful ties with strategic allies.

Taking a wider look at the life sciences sector, this has been a vintage year for Ontario in general and MaRS Innovation’s ecosystem in particular.

MaRS Discovery District launches MaRS EXCITE to help breakthrough technologies reach patients faster

MI start-up ApneaDx Inc. among program’s first round of participants

The first three companies selected to participate in the MaRS EXCITE program aim to improve outcomes for breast cancer, sleep apnea and drug-resistant hypertension.

The Excellence in Clinical Innovation and Technology Evaluation (EXCITE) initiative helps companies accelerate the adoption and reimbursement of innovative health technologies through a single, harmonized, pre-market, evidence-based process.

EXCITE has selected ApneaDx Inc., Medtronic of Canada Ltd. and Rna Diagnostics Inc. as the program’s initial participants.

Canadian biotech sector makes strong showing at BIO2013

Every six weeks, MaRS Innovation’s marketing and communications manager writes a guest post for the MaRS Discovery District blog profiling MI’s activities or one of our start-up companies. You can read the original post on the MaRS blog.

Downtown Chicago skyline in late April — **Chicago**‘s famous downtown skyline during the 2013 BIO Convention.

Nearly 14,000 delegates—representing over 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centres and related organizations across the United States and more than 60 countries—attended the 2013 BIO International Convention from April 22 to 26, 2013.

The event drew biotechnologists, pharmaceutical industry executives and life sciences researchers, along with sector-based organizations and associations, to Chicago.

According to a press release issued by the conference organizers, BIO 2013 offered “a record number of partnering meetings and panel sessions on the latest science, policy issues and business opportunities and challenges facing the biotechnology industry.”

What does MaRS Innovation’s funding extension mean for Toronto’s academic entrepreneurs?

Every six weeks, MaRS Innovation’s marketing and communications manager writes a guest post for the MaRS Discovery District blog profiling MI’s activities or one of our start-up companies. You can read the original post on the MaRS blog.

Created in 2008, MaRS Innovation (MI) bridges the chasm between the early-stage technologies emerging from its 16 member institutions and successful startup companies and licensable technologies.

By offering early-stage funding in tandem with hands-on management, business development, mentorship and intellectual property protection strategy, MI acts as a commercialization agent for its members and researchers.

Earlier this year, the Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada awarded MI $14.95 million to continue its mandate as a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR), matched by $25 million from membership fees and private sector investments.

So what does that success mean for MI’s ability to serve the needs of academic entrepreneurs based in Toronto?

What should start-ups consider when forming a partnership?

**Dr. Raphael Hofstein**, president and CEO, MaRS Innovation.

Dr. Rafi Hofstein is among the experts featured in this month’s “One question, three experts” post on the MaRS Discovery District blog.

This regular feature addresses some of the challenges that start-ups face by asking three experts to respond to a different question each month — anything from marketing and financing guidance to advice on partnerships and mentors.

Here’s Hofstein’s response:

The first question to define is “partnership with whom?”

You will face very different issues when, for example, partnering with another founder to create a company together than you do when negotiating a relationship between a startup and a more established company.

MaRS Innovation awarded $15 million to further commercialize world-leading Canadian innovations

February 6, 2013
Susanne Staer
Awards

Networks of Centres of Excellence recognizes strength of partnership between MI and its 16 member institutions

TORONTO, February 5, 2013 — How do you make sure the brilliant ideas emerging from Toronto’s academic research community get the best possible chance to succeed?

MaRS Innovation (MI), created in 2008, bridges the chasm between these early-stage technologies and successful start-up companies and licensable technologies. By offering early-stage funding in tandem with hands-on management, mentorship and IP strategy protection, MI acts as a commercialization agent for its 16 member institutions.

This announcement was covered by TechVibes, Yonge Street Media and CanTech Letter.

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) has recognized the increasing strength of this novel partnership by awarding MI $14.95 million in funding through the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program.