News

Ontario government announces over $400,000 for eQOL’s home dialysis technology

February 19, 2015
Susanne Staer
eQOL Inc.

SAULT STE. MARIE, February 13, 2015 — eQOL, a Sault Ste. Marie-based company working to enhance patient independence and a graduate of the second University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) incubator’s second cohort, has received $435,475 from the Ontario Government. David Orazietti, MPP for Sault Ste. Marie, made the announcement on February 13, 2015.

This announcement was covered by BetaKit, The Sault Star and SooToday.com.

The funding, which includes $415,000 through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) and $20,475 to hire an intern under the Northern Ontario Internship Program also through NOHFC, will allow eQOL to complete clinical studies using their Dialysis Platform for Communication, Assistance and Training (DiCAT) product.

David Orazetti and Binh Nguyan — MPP David Orazetti (left) and Binh Nguyan (centre), CEO of eQOL, at the Northern Ontario Internship Program announcement on February 13, 2014. Photo courtesy of SooToday.com.

“With this support from our government, eQOL is able to use their innovative new technology in clinical studies – the first step towards commercializing the technology,” said Orazietti. “This software will not only enhance the quality of life for dialysis patients, but will also benefit our health care system and community as it streamlines processes and alleviates strain on hospital resources.”

DiCAT, a mobile technology solution for independent/home dialysis, aims to simplify and reduce the intimidation that patients experience with this self-care process. Its iPad and web-based applications provide enhanced connectivity, access to resources, and process management, which will promote a shift from in-centre care to in-home care. Successfully completing the clinical study and implementing DiCAT will allow patients who live far away from healthcare centres to receive care at home without having to relocate, which will have a great impact in northern regions.

BioCentury features ScarX Therapeutics as emerging company

February 10, 2015
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

ScarX Therapeutics, a MaRS Innovation start-up company from the Hospital for Sick Children, was featured in “Scars Defaced,” a BioCentury emerging company profile by Michael J. Haas.

The profile is available to BioCentury subscribers on their website (paywall in place).

Here’s a short excerpt:

ScarX Corp. has reformulated a generic analgesic that is marketed primarily in Europe into a topical cream that patients can self-administer
after surgery to prevent scarring. The company expects cosmetic and reconstructive surgeons to be early adopters of its topical nefopam, and
thinks patients will pay out of pocket.

Nefopam is a non-opioid analgesic that is marketed in Europe, Australia and parts of Asia in oral or IV formulations to treat pain, but is not approved for use in North America. ScarX has exclusive rights from The Hospital for Sick Children to one issued patent and five patents pending covering the use of nefopam as an antiscarring agent, and its topical formulation.

CoursePeer and National Franchise Group partner to launch Franchise University

February 9, 2015
Susanne Staer
CoursePeer

Signarama Canada first global franchise group to rollout solution

TORONTO, January 29, 2015 — CoursePeer Inc. and National Franchise Group have partnered to launch Franchise University, a service offering global franchise groups a powerful cloud-based training and collaboration solution for their franchisees. Signarma Canada, the global sign industry leader ranked 28^th on Franchise Direct’s Top 100 Global Franchises list, is among the first brands to join.

CoursePeer, a University of Toronto and MaRS Innovation company that provides learning and collaboration solutions for enterprise and government, will begin a full rollout of Franchise University solution for Signarama in the first quarter of 2015.

“Training a new hire and retraining existing employees can be very difficult and a time-consuming task for a franchise operator. Cloud-based approved training allows staff to be trained and retrained without losing focus on the franchise’s daily operations,” said Ghassan Barazi, CEO of National Franchise Group.

CoursePeer’s platform allows organizations to design and upload advanced training curriculum for the various departments while leveraging its authoring tools. Additionally, off-the-shelf training courses are available in marketing, sales, customer service, project management, and other topics. CoursePeer was launched and incorporated through the University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology program (UTEST)’s first cohort; the company announced a partnership focused on increasing civic-engagement with municipal issues involving several Greater Toronto Area municipalities in 2014.

Funding call: MaRS Innovation Industry Access Program (MI-IAP) accepting applications to February 6

Researchers working in orphan indications, immuno-oncology, respiratory diseases, diabetes, and other key areas invited to submit a brief Statement of Interest

The commercialization process: Moving transformational ideas from the lab bench to the street — MaRS Innovation’s commercialization process helps inventors move their transformational ideas from the lab bench to the street.

The MaRS Innovation Industry Access Program (MI-IAP) is a simple, formalized process for marketing early-stage technologies to MI’s industry partners: Baxter, LifeLabs (formerly CML Healthcare), GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and IRICoR/Merck.

The program’s goal is to secure funding for researchers within MI’s membership through these collaborative, strategic R&D partnership programs.

The program is open to any researcher affiliated with MI’s 16 member institutions working on technologies in:

Orphan indications
Immuno-oncology
Respiratory system diseases (e.g., Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, lung cancer, etc.)
Diabetes
Neuroscience
Orthopaedics
General surgery

Successfully run in November 2013 and March 2014, the MI-IAP allows researchers to easily determine whether an industry partner is interested in co-developing their technologies. The application process is deliberately brief at the outset.

Onyx Motion to appear on NextGenDen, web-based Dragon’s Den CBC show for mobile and Internet companies

January 27, 2015
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

UTEST company Onyx Motion, makers of an Android wear app called Swish that provides digital coaching for sports like basketball, will appear on CBC's NextGenDen. UPDATED! You can watch the…

UTEST program bends career road for Granata Decision Systems’ founders

TORONTO (January 21, 2015) — MaRS Innovation and the University of Toronto (U of T) are pleased to announce that the founders of Granata Decision Systems Inc., a graduate of the University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) start-up incubator program, have joined Google Inc.

This story was covered in TechVibes.

Dr. Craig Boutilier is a professor in U of T’s Department of Computer Science. He and Tyler Lu, a graduating PhD student in the same department, co-founded Granata Decision Systems in 2012 to develop their advanced decision-support technologies. Granata’s software platform provided real-time optimization and scenario analysis capabilities for large-scale, data-driven marketing problems and group/organizational decision-making. The company was part of the UTEST program’s first cohort.

“This is a significant milestone for the UTEST program and the wider MaRS Innovation portfolio,” said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO. “We co-created the UTEST program with U of T to foster entrepreneurship in a meaningful way while encouraging students and professors to translate their academic ideas into commercial realities. We hope Craig and Tyler’s success will motivate other researchers and students to consider working with MI and participate in UTEST and our other commercialization programs.”

MaRS Innovation collaborating with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Janssen to advance Cardiac, Diabetes and Depression technologies

January 12, 2015
Susanne Staer
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

TORONTO, Jan. 12, 2015 — MaRS Innovation, the commercialization agent for Ontario’s 15 leading academic institutions, today announced that it has formed a research collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LLC and its Canadian affiliate, Janssen Inc., to advance three technologies focused on cardiac, diabetes and depression, respectively.

This announcement was covered in Lab Product News.

“These three projects reflect the quality of innovation present in Toronto’s research community for our industry partners, and Toronto’s progress in addressing healthcare issues of international concern,” said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation. “Johnson & Johnson Innovation is a long-term strategic partner of MaRS Innovation and of our members; our collaboration reflects the benefits to accessing our members’ deal flow through MaRS Innovation. Through these deals and other scientific exchanges, we see increased interest in Toronto’s innovation and entrepreneurship community.”

The projects’ principal investigators are researchers from the University Health Network (UHN), the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the University of Toronto. This announcement follows Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s December 2013 commitment to collaborate on early-stage drug development projects.

Baycrest’s “My Virtual Dream” brain exhibit at Ontario Science Centre Jan 17-18, 2015

MaRS Innovation is a My Virtual Dream event sponsor and commercialization partner

Toronto, ON (January 12, 2015) – Baycrest Health Sciences’ dazzling brain science exhibit from 2013 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche will be on show at the Ontario Science Centre’s BRAINFest, Jan. 17-18.

My Virtual Dream is an innovative and interactive live performance experience at the intersection of science, art and music. The installation will enable participants to use their brain waves to communicate with each other through an immersive audio and visual expression that will be projected onto video screens.

“Participating at BRAINFest is a great way to share Baycrest’s renowned strengths in cognitive neuroscience in a highly artistic and interactive way with the public,” says Dr. Randy McIntosh, vice-president of Research and Director of Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute. “Baycrest wishes to thank the Ontario Brain Institute for bringing My Virtual Dream into the Ontario Science Centre and to MaRS Innovation as our key collaborative partner.”

The concept for My Virtual Dream is inspired by an ongoing international project led by Dr. McIntosh and the Rotman to build a virtual, functional brain – a research and diagnostic tool that could one day revolutionize brain healthcare.

The installation, created by Baycrest and the University of Toronto for Nuit Blanche 2013, was a huge hit with fans of the festival. It also represented an extraordinary neuroscience experiment that explored how people can collectively synchronize their brain waves to co-create a multi-sensory environment that merges art, science and technology. In a single night, Rotman researchers collected brain data from over 500 people who signed on to be research subjects.

MaRS Innovation’s top 10 portfolio stories for 2014

December 15, 2014
Susanne Staer
Acquisitions

MaRS Innovation enjoyed an exceptional year in 2014. Our team continues to collaborate with researchers within our membership to help bridge the commercialization gap between their world-leading research and creating successful start-up companies or licenses.

Here are our picks for the top 10 news stories from MaRS Innovation’s portfolio.

1. Triphase Accelerator Corporation, in which MaRS Innovation is an investor, started the year with a bang by signing a collaboration and option agreement with Celgene Corporation. In October, Triphase initiated a Phase I clinical study to evaluate marizomib in Glioblastoma (GBM) with Celgene, signed an agreement to provide Celgene with an option to acquire a new bi-specific antibody (licensed by Triphase from PharmAbcine) and closed the year by announcing that Triphase’s proteasome inhibitor, marizomib, demonstrates potent synergistic anti-multiple myeloma activity in combination with pomalidomide.

2. Flybits Inc., spun out of Ryerson University, announced a $3.75 million Series A financing with Robert Bosch Venture Capital to advance its context-aware mobile experience platform. The company was also named a Red Herring Top 100 North America winner.

3. XLV Diagnostics Inc., spun out from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute, secured a $3 million Series A investment round with Boston-based Bernard M. Gordon Unitrust. XLV’s product will provide mammography image quality equivalent to top-of-the-line mammography machines currently in use, and will do so at a fraction of the cost of current generation systems. The funding will support continued product development and regulatory approval.

SciBX covers Encycle’s partnership with IRICoR, MaRS Innovation and Merck

“The first disclosed grant under Merck & Co. Inc.’s Canadian translational initiative will bolster the ability of macrocycle-based Encycle Therapeutics Inc. to conduct lead optimization of its integrin [a₄b₇,] inhibitors for inflammatory bowel disease,” writes Michael J. Haas in SciBX’s feature on the partnership, “Merck Encycles through Canada.” The article appears in the publication’s December 4, 2014 issue.

Read the Encycle press release that prompted this article.

The article explores the current grant partnership between Merck, Encycle Therapeutics, MaRS Innovation, the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer–Commercialization of Research (IRICoR), and the Université de Montréal’s Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), and takes an inside look at the company’s progress to date.

Here’s an excerpt:

Encycle is a spinout from the University of Toronto founded in 2012 to solve the primary challenges of macrocycle drugs–poor cell penetration and low oral availability.

According to Parimal Nathwani, the company was selected by MaRS Innovation and IRICoR (Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer–Commercialization of Research), two of the three agencies originally tasked with disbursement and management of the Merck fund, because it was a good match with IRIC’s competencies. The third agency, The Centre for Drug Research and Development, is not involved in this deal. IRICoR is the commercialization arm of IRIC.

“Encycle has a good chemistry platform and nice early discovery work on its integrin [a₄b₇,] inhibitor program, which is now at the point where it needs to move through lead optimization,” said Nathwani. “IRIC scientists have strong expertise in medicinal chemistry and have worked with industry on optimization, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and other preclinical studies, so they can provide Encycle with pharma-grade optimization.”