Industry Partners

MaRS Innovation announces new strategic partnership with Pfizer

TORONTO, April 22, 2013 — MaRS Innovation, a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, today announced the formation of a strategic partnership with Pfizer Inc. to advance early-stage technologies related to human health in therapeutics and diagnostics.

Through this collaboration, MaRS Innovation and Pfizer will jointly identify investment opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within MaRS Innovation’s 16 member institutions, including the University of Toronto and its nine affiliated teaching hospitals.

“There’s growing consensus that transferring technologies from the university lab bench and into the market requires unique public-private partnerships,” said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation. “Partnering with MaRS Innovation gives Pfizer access to Toronto’s robust innovation pipeline and a close look at emerging IP from Canada. It signals both the strength and attractiveness of our commercialization model and Toronto-based research technologies to global industry players.”

“Our government is committed to making Ontario the best place to translate great ideas into innovative products that will gain demand around the world,” said the Honourable Reza Moridi, Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation. “Today’s announcement from MaRS Innovation is an exciting collaboration with Pfizer that will both advance healthcare technologies for Ontarians and help to strengthen our economy.”

Merck invests in pan-Canadian life sciences research innovation sector

A $4-million public-private partnership will promote research innovation involving three academic commercialization centres in Canada

CHICAGO, Illinois – April 22, 2013 – Merck Canada will be announcing today at the BIO International Convention that it is reinforcing its commitment to the Canadian life sciences research innovation sector.

Merck will provide $4 million in funding to the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer – Commercialization of Research (IRICoR) for future corridor projects developed in collaboration with two other Canadian Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECRs) based in Ontario and in British Columbia.

This partnership announcement was covered by PEHub.

IRICoR will work in conjunction with MaRS Innovation and the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) to identify, develop and commercialize technologies in healthcare. All three CECR institutions – identified as CECR in 2008 by the federal government – share a common objective: facilitating and accelerating the commercialization of research breakthroughs that will improve the quality of life of Canadians and others around the world.

Stem Cell Therapeutics licenses UHN’s Clinical Cancer Stem Cell Program

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp.

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. (TSX-V: SSS), a biopharmaceutical company developing cancer stem cell-related technologies, has signed a definitive license agreement with University Health Network (UHN), Toronto, Canada.

The agreement, developed in collaboration with MaRS Innovation, provides Stem Cell Therapeutics (SCT) with exclusive worldwide rights to an innovative clinical cancer stem cell program.

This announcement builds upon the existing stem cell program agreement between MI, Stem Cell Therapeutics and UHN, which was announced in November 2012.

The initial consideration of $1.6 million for the UHN License is to be satisfied by the issuance of 5,028,571 SCT common shares and 1,600,000 SCT common share purchase warrants to UHN and MaRS Innovation, each warrant allowing its holder to acquire one additional common share at an exercise price of $0.40 until March 15, 2018.

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.

DLVR: Using personalized medicine and nature’s cellular toolkit to target cancer tumours

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. This post coincided with World Cancer Day.

What if you could use a cancer tumour’s proteomic profile to make it easier to target and destroy?

Targeting specific proteins on the surface of individual tumours—or, more precisely, targeting a cell receptor that naturally allows substances to pass into a cell—would allow clinicians to more effectively deliver drugs designed to deactivate cancer-promoting genes within the tumour, while minimizing the addition of toxins to the patient’s body.

Personalized medicine research in Toronto also benefited from a recent $50 million donation to support Princess Margaret Hospital (part of the University Health Network). Read and watch the news announcement on BioTechnology Focus.

This is personalized medicine’s promise for cancer treatment: targeted therapies that stand a better chance of success, with reduced side effects, based on the unique profile of a patient’s tumour, either administered on their own or in combination with traditional chemotherapy.

Biotechnology Focus’ December issue covers MaRS Innovation projects and partnerships

January 10, 2013
Susanne Staer
Industry Partners

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp.

MaRS Innovation’s (MI) projects and partnerships earned three separate article mentions in the December 2012 issue of Biotechnology Focus, including:

MI and UHN’s partnership with Stem Cell Therapeutics was covered in the magazine’s Dealmakers subsection. Read the write-up on the Biotechnology Focus website.
Cellax, a licensable technology that may produce a nanotechonology-based cancer drug, was highlighted in the magazine’s Business Corner section (read the write-up). Cellax is a joint project between MI and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.
MaRS Innovation’s collaboration with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine was highlighted in a feature article, “Efforts to commercialize regenerative medicine in Canada growing steadily.”

Kaypok selects Zync to power its global “big data” technology brand

December 6, 2012
Susanne Staer
Industry Partners

Spin-off company based on founder Razieh Niazi’s research at York University

TORONTO, Dec. 6, 2012 — Kaypok Inc., a start-up company whose technology delivers insight into unstructured big data, today announced that it has selected Zync as its agency of record to create and launch Kaypok’s brand globally.

Kaypok Inc., which was spun off from York University research with support and funding from MaRS Innovation, filters, categorizes, identifies meaning and measures the root cause and emotions buried within unstructured text to understand what people are saying and feeling. Kaypok Inc. launched nationally at the iStrategy Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto on December 4, 2012.

Dr. Raphael Hofstein’s guest column posted on Biotechnology Focus

November 13, 2012
Susanne Staer
Industry Partners

Biotechnology Focus, a compendium of the Canadian life sciences industry, has published a guest column by MaRS Innovation President & CEO, Raphael Hofstein.

The article examines how to build a strong biotechnology cluster from an academic base in the midst of a global recession.

Here’s an excerpt:

Gone are the days of large-scale, well-funded, in-house departments with resources to liberally support academic and start-up collaborations. Financial pressures and the economic downturn have made it clear that the go-it-alone model is no longer sustainable, and industry players are recognizing that they don’t have a monopoly on research acumen and disruptive ideas. Simultaneously, industry has expressed less interest in investing in early-stage technologies that carry significant risk. They remain receptive to the research emerging from academic enterprise, but need a means of bridging the gap that technologies face as they move from the bench to the market.

Baxter and MaRS Innovation Form Strategic Partnership

Partnership to invest up to $1M in promising Canadian healthcare discoveries

Baxter Corporate Headquarters in Mississauga, ON

TORONTO, Ontario, October 4, 2012—Baxter International Inc. and MaRS Innovation, a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, have entered into a strategic partnership to commercialize early-stage technologies that present innovative methods in therapeutics and drug discovery technologies.

Information about Baxter and MaRS Innovation’s partnership is also available in French.

The partnership’s shared vision for delivering novel, transformative therapeutic technologies will benefit Canadians and others around the world. Baxter and MaRS Innovation will identify investment opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within MaRS Innovation’s 16 member institutions, including the University of Toronto and its nine affiliated teaching hospitals.

Baxter et MaRS Innovation forment un partenariat stratégique

Un partenariat visant à investir jusqu’à 1 M$ dans les découvertes canadiennes prometteuses en matière de soins de santé

TORONTO (Ontario), le 4 octobre 2012 – Baxter International Inc. et MaRS Innovation, un centre d’excellence en commercialisation et en recherche, ont établi un partenariat stratégique afin de commercialiser des technologies en phase de développement qui constituent des méthodes novatrices sur le plan des technologies thérapeutiques et de découverte de médicaments.

Information about MaRS Innovation and Baxter’s partnership is also available in English.