partnerships with industry

Business Without Borders highlights ScarX Therapeutics’ Chinese co-development partnership

September 27, 2012
Susanne Staer
Industry Partners

ScarX Therapeutics, a spin-off company created by MaRS Innovation and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), was profiled by Business Without Borders on September 25, 2012.

Sean Fine‘s article examines the strategic funding partnership MI pursued with NovoTek Therapeutics Inc. (NovoTek) in China to develop the anti-scarring cream, which was discovered by researchers at SickKids.

A multibillion-dollar market may await ScarX, a Toronto biomedical start-up, but first it had to figure out how to finance the development of its unique cream that reduces scarring after surgery.

Its answer to the shortage of Canadian venture capital in life sciences turned out to be a partnership with a drug company in China.

CML HealthCare Inc. and MaRS Innovation Enter into Strategic Partnership

September 23, 2012
Susanne Staer
Industry Partners

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, September 18, 2012 – CML HealthCare Inc. (TSX: CLC) (the “Company” or “CML”) and MaRS Innovation (MI), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, have entered into a strategic partnership to commercialize early-stage technologies that present innovative methods in medical diagnostics.

This story was covered in the Globe and Mail, Canadian Business, 680 News, Reuters, Sympatico.ca, the Huffington Post Canada, Technology Trasnfer Tactics, and the Winnipeg Free Press, among others. It was distributed via Yahoo! Finance, Healthcare Global.com, marketwire and Digital Journal.

Encycle Therapeutics Launches Ground-Breaking Chemistry Platform

Platform for cyclizing peptides promises to increase efficiency of early-stage drug discovery

BOSTON, June 18, 2012 – Encycle Therapeutics, a MaRS Innovation spin-off company, has created a ground-breaking chemistry platform for cyclizing peptides that promises to increase the efficiency of the early-stage drug discovery process.

Peptides have long been sought after as therapeutics due to their high specificity — they can hit specific cellular targets, especially complex protein-protein interaction targets implicated in cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders.

MaRS Innovation Forms Strategic Drug-Development Partnership with NovoTek Therapeutics Inc. in China

MaRS Innovation (MI), The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and NovoTek Therapeutics Inc. (NovoTek) have announced a strategic partnership to co‐develop, and bring to the Chinese market, a novel therapeutic cream aimed at reducing scar formation post surgery.

This project was covered in The Globe and Mail on May 7, 2012.

MaRS Innovation and GlaxoSmithKline Announce Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Translational Research in Health Sciences

TORONTO (May 31, 2011) — MaRS Innovation (MI) and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (GSK) today announced a new development fund — the GSK-MaRS Innovation Fund — that will support and fast-track the commercialization of some of the country’s most promising translational research coming from 16 leading academic health sciences centres, hospitals and universities derived from MI’s member institutions.

**Raphael Hofstein**, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation.

“From the discovery of insulin in 1922 to the discovery of stem cells, Ontario has a rich, proud history of world-class medical and scientific breakthroughs,” said Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation. “Our partnership with GSK Canada furthers Ontario’s position as a major international research hub by providing much needed capital to fund exciting drug discovery and development technologies and bridging the gap to successful commercialization.

“Launching this development fund is also part of a global trend where government, researchers and industry are partnering at the early stage of translational research with an eye to achieving global impact and improving patient care,” Hofstein added.

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.

MaRS Innovation and CDRD Announce Strategic Collaboration

November 30, 2009
Susanne Staer
Industry Partners

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, 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.