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Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein joins Quebec’s CQDM Board of Directors

Dr. Raphael Hofstein
Dr. Raphael Hofstein has joined the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM) Board of Directors.

MaRS Innovation’s President and CEO, Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein, was appointed to the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM) Board of Directors on February 18.

CQDM is a Quebec-based not-for profit that funds and supports joint projects in private and biopharmaceutical sectors.

Here’s an excerpt from CQDM’s announcement:

Dr. Hofstein, actively involved in the field of biotechnology, partnerships and technology transfer for over 30 years, greatly contributed to defining Israel as a world leader in biotechnology. In Israel, Dr. Hofstein held various positions including R & D Manager and Chief of Immunochemistry with the International Genetic Scientific Partnership, Scientific Director at Biotechnological Applications Ltd., Scientific Director and Vice-President, Business Development at Ecogen Inc., prior to becoming President of Mindsense Biosystems Ltd., and then founder, President and CEO, and chairman of the Board of Hadasit Ltd.

CQDM

Dr. Hofstein was also president of BIOMED, the annual biomedical conference of Israel for many years. He was also co-founder and member of the Israeli Life Sciences Industry Organization and co-founder and executive of Israel’s Tech Transfer Network. Dr. Hofstein now serves on various boards, including Life Sciences Ontario, Clinical Trials Ontario as well as the Organizing Committee of the Public Policy Forum on venture capital and innovation. Dr. Hofstein holds a Ph.D. in the life sciences and chemistry, and completed his postdoctoral studies at the Harvard Medical School.

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MI’s Rafi Hofstein featured in Biotechnology Focus

Dr. Raphael Hofstein (left), the Honourable Minister Reza Moridi (centre) and Dr. Mark
MI’s Dr. Raphael Hofstein (left), the Honourable Minister Reza Moridi (centre) and Dr. Mark Poznansky of the Ontario Genome Institute on the January 2014 cover of Biotechnology Focus.

In a January 24, 2014 Biotechnology Focus cover article, author Shawn Lawrence discusses MaRS Innovation President and CEO Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein‘s recent visit to learn more of the emerging science and technology markets in Singapore and Japan.

The trip allowed Hofstein to discuss current MI projects, specifically start-ups XLV Diagnostics Inc. and DVLR Therapeutics Inc., whose products could benefit from Singapore’s proximity to medical technology markets in India and China.

Hofstein joined other delegates from Canada, including Dr. Mark Poznansky, president and CEO of the Ontario Genome Institute (OGI).

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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

Triphase-logo-WebTORONTO 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.

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Johnson & Johnson Innovation Announces Collaborations with Two Canadian Early-Stage Drug Technology Development Centers

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 market.

Johnson & Johnson Innovation and its affiliate Janssen Inc. in Canada announced new collaborations with two Canadian early-stage drug technology development centres, Montreal-based NEOMED and Toronto-based MaRS Innovation, to identify and advance promising bio/pharmaceutical technologies that have the potential to impact human health.

Read the original release via The National Post or in French. MaRS Innovation’s November 25 announcement about the partnership is also available.

This story was covered by GEN: Genetic Engineering Biotechnology News.

Through these collaborations, technical experts from the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston, Massachusetts will work with NEOMED and MaRS Innovation to identify investment opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within their communities of academic institutions and biotechnology companies.

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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.

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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.”

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Raphael Hofstein gives guest lecture on biotechnology commercialization at Stanford

Raphael Hofstein
Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation

Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation, delivered a guest lecture on February 1,2013 at the Revitalizing Medical BioTechnology Commercialization symposium, hosted by Stanford University‘s NIH Graduate Training Program in Biotechnology.

The one-day event brought academic, venture capital and industry thought leaders together to reflect on the challenges facing technology transfer processes across the biotech industry.

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Xconomy names Xagenic to 2012’s Biotech Startup Class

MI spin-off company one of 30 listed in North America and the United Kingdom

Xconomy, a U.S.-based business news website, named Xagenic to its 2012 Biotech Startup Class.

Luke Timmerman‘s article, published December 3, 2012, sited Xagenic as one of only 30 “exciting biotech startups” to raise significant venture capital (at least $5 million) in the life sciences sector.

Xagenic, founded by Drs. Shana Kelley and Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto,  was also the only Canadian company named to the list.

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Biotechnology Focus’ December issue covers MaRS Innovation projects and partnerships

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. logo
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:

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Stem Cell Therapeutics, UHN and MaRS Innovation Announce Novel, Clinical-Stage, Cancer Stem Cell Program Agreement

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. logo
Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp.

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. (TSX VENTURE:SSS), a life sciences company developing stem cell-related technologies, today announced the signing of an agreement with University Health Network (UHN), through its commercialization agent MaRS Innovation (MI), both of Toronto.

The agreement provides Stem Cell Therapeutics (“SCT”) with an option to an exclusive world-wide license to an innovative cancer stem cell program.

This agreement produced a license for a UHN technology on April 17, 2013.

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