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Vasculotide: sanofi-aventis, Sunnybrook and MI – Article in the Globe and Mail

A discovery that could help millions of diabetics worldwide is the subject of a lucrative pharmaceutical deal that will enrich the Toronto hospital that created it – part of a growing trend of selling science to help shore up Canada’s troubled health-care system.

Tuesday’s agreement between Sanofi-Aventis and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre on a wound-healing molecule demonstrates how entrepreneurial hospitals can become when the very sustainability of medicare is in question.

But the licensing deal with one of the world’s biggest drug companies is also savvy medically. Until recently, some hospitals were reticent to capitalize on their discoveries, seeing commercialization as unsavoury, but now many believe it’s one of the quickest ways to get a drug to their patients.

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Wound Healing Technology Exclusive Rights Deal with Cardium Therapeutics

TORONTO
 (October
 14,
 2010)
 –
 Of
 the
 approximately
 300
 million
 people
 around
 the
 world
 who
 are
 diabetics,
 45
 million
 of
 them
 develop 
foot
 ulcers 
that 
bleed
 – 
and 
the 
infection
 from
 those 
ulcers
 can 
spread.

University of Toronto
University of Toronto

Working
 to
 halt
 this
 is
 Dr.
 Ping
 Lee,
 a
 professor
 at
 the
 University
 of
 Toronto’s (U of T)
 Leslie
 Dan
 Faculty
 of
 Pharmacy and
 GlaxoSmithKline chair
 in
 Pharmaceutics
 and 
Drug 
Delivery.
 He 
and 
his
 team
 have 
created 
a 
new 
sustained‐release
 form
 of
 nitric 
oxide 
(NO) 
that
 can
 not
 only
 stop 
the 
infections 
at
 wound
sites, 
but
 also
 has
 the
 potential 
to
speed
 up
 wound‐healing.

Still,
 the
 technology
 may
 have
 stayed
 on
 the
 shelf,
 even
 with
 three
 years
 worth
 of
 data
 demonstrating
 therapeutic
 relevance.
 The
 ultimate
 success
 of
 the
 technology
 is
 due
 to
 an
 effective
 collaboration
 between
 Dr.
 Lee,
 the
 Innovations
 and
 Partnerships
 Office
 (IPO)
 at
 U
 of
 T
 and
 MaRS
 Innovation (MI).
 Lee
 worked
 with
 IPO
 and
 MI to
 formulate
 a
 development
 plan
 in
 consultation
 with 
numerous 
industry
 advisors.

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Federal and Provincial Proof of Principle Programs Support Translational Technology Development

Ontario Centres of Excellence--Where Next HappensTORONTO (August 16, 2010) – MaRS Innovation (MI) is pleased to announce that translational funding to support product development for early-stage technologies from its members has been successfully deployed from federal and provincial sources. At the federal level, three of MI’s commercialization projects have recently received notification of funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Proof of Principle (PoP) program, amounting to approximately $470,000.

Moreover, MI has successfully deployed about $1 million in proof of principle funding received from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) through the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). This provincial program was previously managed by the MI founding commercialization partners in the life and physical sciences, BioDiscovery Toronto (BDT) and Technology Transfer Toronto (TTT). MI is grateful that these organizations laid the foundation for provincial proof of principle funding and looks forward to continuing a successful provincial PoP program.

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MaRS Innovation establishes co-managed fund with Johnson & Johnson

MaRS Innovation (MI) has signed a co-funding agreement with the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology to capitalize and accelerate the use of Toronto-based life sciences technologies during the early stages of pharmaceutical and medical device development.

The Translational Innovation Partnership Program (TIPP) is the first co-funding agreement of its kind for MI.

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MaRS Innovation and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Partner to Develop Four Exciting Medical Discoveries

TORONTO (March 23, 2010) — MaRS Innovation and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have entered into their first set of agreements to collaboratively commercialize a novel therapeutic technology and three advances in medical imaging. These four technologies will impact diagnosis and care for epidemic chronic illnesses and have clear and broad commercial potential. MI will shepherd these opportunities through the next stages of the commercialization process.

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

“We are coming out of the gate vigorously in identifying this group of Sunnybrook technologies as commercialization opportunities,” said Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein, president and CEO of MI. “MaRS Innovation sits with academic institutions at the hub of a major North American cluster in medical devices and biomedical engineering. This agreement will enable MaRS Innovation to leverage our resources with Sunnybrook’s and generate attractive investment packages.”

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MaRS Innovation and CDRD Announce Strategic Collaboration

TORONTO, ON and VANCOUVER, BC (November 30, 2009) – MaRS Innovation (MI) and the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) are pleased to announce that they have entered into an agreement to collaborate on projects of mutual interest with a goal to advance and commercialize early-stage health-related discoveries.

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

“We are excited about our partnership with the CDRD as it provides an opportunity for the two organizations to augment each other’s strengths, and leverage resources to generate attractive packages for potential partners, thereby supporting both of our organizations’ mandates of commercializing promising academic research. By entering into this innovative agreement, we believe the commercial potential of select projects in our pipeline will be enhanced,” said Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein, president and CEO of MI.

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Physicist pairs with pharmaceutical scientist to design nano-particles for cancer imaging

MaRS Innovation logo
MaRS Innovation logo

TORONTO (November 19, 2009) – In the drive to improve early detection and treatment of cancer, a pair of Toronto scientists has developed a unique technology that combines contrast agents with targeted, long-lasting nano-particles for use in multiple medical imaging platforms.

While contrast agents are routinely injected into patients to enhance the quality of medical images, different agents are currently required for various imaging modes (e.g. MRI, CT, PET) each with inherent strengths and limitations. By combining more than one contrast agent into a nano-particle for use in multiple types of imaging, not only are physicians and researchers able to use lower doses of contrast agents (with lower toxicity) but the nano-particle also enables targeted delivery to, and retention by, specific tumours.

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