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Posts Tagged: Merck

Encycle Therapeutics raises $2.85 million to advance macrocycle platform and pipeline

TORONTO, ON (September 30, 2015) — Encycle Therapeutics, Inc., a University of Toronto spin-off company created in partnership with MaRS Innovation, announced today that it has completed a $2.85 million (CAD) financing led by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. through its venture capital arm, Takeda Ventures, Inc., with Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator, BDC Capital and MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund. This news was covered in PEHub, BetaKit and TechVibes. The funding will support ongoing development of Encycle’s unique nacellin platform chemistry and advance the company’s ... Read more

Encycle Therapeutics working with major pharmaceutical companies to design rules for drugs meant to be swallowed

CQDM and MaRS Innovation investing in new Encycle project to determine rules for making peptide drugs orally bioavailable PHILADELPHIA (June 16, 2015) — FiercePharma has predicted that the pharmaceutical industry stands to lose $44 billion in drugs going off patent in 2015. The industry is searching for new therapeutics to replenish their pipelines while tackling existing and new drug receptor targets within the cell, improve patient care and lower administrative costs. In this context, drugs that can be orally swallowed, known as ... Read more

Dr. Raphael Hofstein in Biotechnology Focus: It’s time to declare an end to Canada’s two research solitudes

Biotechnology Focus, a compendium of the Canadian life sciences industry, has published a guest column by Dr. Raphael Hofstein, MaRS Innovation's president & CEO, and Elizabeth Monier-Williams, director of marketing and communications. The article explores the way research focused on discovery and commercialization are often viewed or positioned as competitors within the funding ecosystem and the need to align their goals: The time of Canada’s French and English solitudes may be past, as Governor General Michaëlle Jean notably stated when she took office ... Read more

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 ... Read more

Encycle Therapeutics developing lead molecule to tackle inflammatory bowel disease

Company's collaborative partnership with IRICoR, Université de Montréal and MaRS Innovation, funded by Merck Canada, to advance macrocycle drug TORONTO and MONTREAL, Nov. 10, 2014 — Encycle Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology start-up founded by Dr. Andrei Yudin of the University of Toronto in partnership with MaRS Innovation, is developing its lead orally-bioavailable macrocycle drug to target integrin a4b7, which is involved in the inflammatory process in a number of diseases, most notably for inflammatory bowel disease. This announcement was covered in SciBX, Drug Discovery ... Read more

BioCentury features Encycle Therapeutics

Encycle Therapeutics, a MaRS Innovation start-up company from the University of Toronto, was featured in a BioCentury emerging company profile by Michael J. Haas. The company is currently raising a Series A financing round and employs eight people. Haas' profile, "Encycle: Oral Macrocycles," is available behind a pay wall on the BioCentury website. Here's a short excerpt: Macrocycle therapies can block protein-protein interactions that are undruggable with small molecules; however, oral availability and cell penetration remain key challenges. Encycle Therapeutics Inc.’s chemistry platform generates drug-like ... Read more

MaRS Innovation Industry Access Program (MI-IAP) accepting applications until April 10

Researchers working in orphan indications, drug delivery devices, big data and other key areas invited to submit a brief Statement of Interest 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 Merck. The program's goal is to secure funding for researchers within MI's membership through these collaborative, strategic R&D partnership programs. First run in November 2013, the MI-IAP allows researchers to easily ... Read more

MaRS Innovation launches streamlined funding program

Applications invited for MI’s Industry Access Program, which matches early-stage, high-potential technologies to partners and funding MaRS Innovation (MI) has launched a unique funding program to match researchers with industry partners while advancing early stage technologies: the MaRS Innovation Industry Access Program (MI-IAP). This program provides a simple mechanism to connect researchers with MI’s industry partners. The process and application form are intentionally brief to save researchers time and allow MI's partners to review a wide range of remarkable technologies within the Toronto academic ... Read more

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

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 ... Read more

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. 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, ... Read more
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