LifeSciences British Columbia 2012

Official publication

2012 <gdl^c\ 8VcVYVÉh 7^d":Xdcdbn

Ways of the West B.C.’s tax incentives, excellence in research

Mobile home Tech convergence in B.C.’s health care

Our own devices Pathways to the future

Genomics unbottled From mining remediation to cloning

Directory of corporate members

Published by

Merck recognizes the innovative science and synergy of collaboration in British Columbia, and has established life sciences partnerships in the province with Alectos Therapeutics, Cardiome Pharma, EnWave Corporation, Xenon Pharmaceuticals, and Zymeworks. Our goal is for our partners and us to work together to accelerate the successful development and commercialization of breakthrough products that can bring meaningful improvements to patients’ lives.

Not just healthcare.

At Merck, we work hard to keep the world well. How? By providing people all around the globe with innovative prescription medicines, vaccines, consumer care and animal health products. We also believe our responsibility includes making sure that our products reach people who need them. :H FRQWLQXH RQ RXU MRXUQH\ WR UHGH¿QH RXUVHOYHV WR EULQJ more hope to more people around the world.

See all we’re doing at merck.ca.

www.merck.ca ©2012 Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA. All rights reserved.

Life Sciences 2012.indd 2

3/19/12 8:48:42 PM

The research we’re doing in partnership with B.C. will improve today’s health care.

And tomorrow’s economy.

GÔq\i We do our most important work within the local communities we serve. Like right * here in British Columbia. Each year Pfizer contributes by investing millions of dollars into highly promising initiatives including research and basic science programs in partnership with the government, universities and the life sciences sector. We develop innovative medicines that improve patient care, but also believe that to be truly healthy, it takes more than medication. Because at Pfizer, we’re dedicated to giving back across a range of programs to help keep British Columbians healthy, and strong.

Life Sciences 2012.indd 3

3/19/12 8:48:42 PM

Official publication

2012

Features 10 13 15 17 19 20 23 25 28 29 32

B.C. attracts life sciences EMRs: here to stay The yearly forecast Film fare Mobile health in the making Innovation of our own devising Personalized medicine comes of age Mining embraces bioremediation BioPartnering North America What’s new, what’s doing Planning care: a discussion with the B.C. deputy minister of health

20

Departments 6 Chair’s message 8 President’s report 34 Year in review 38 List: Biggest life-science companies in B.C. 40 LifeSciences British Columbia members’ directory 45 LifeSciences British Columbia Awards

34

LifeSciences British Columbia Suite 900 – 1188 West Georgia Street Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4A2 Tel.: 604-669-9909, fax: 604-669-9912 Email: info@lifesciencesbc.ca www.lifesciencesbc.ca

LifeSciences British Columbia 2012 is published for LifeSciences British Columbia by BIV Magazines, a division of BIV Media Group, 102 Fourth Avenue East, Vancouver, B.C. V5T 1G2, tel. 604-688-2398, fax 604-688-1963, www.businessinvancouver.com Publisher: Paul Harris Managing publisher: Gail Clark Editor-in-chief: Naomi Wittes Reichstein Design director: Randy Pearsall Proofreader: Baila Lazarus Writers: Curt Cherewayko, Alison DePalma, Rebecca Edwards, Joel McKay, Peter Mitham, Andrew Topf Production manager: Don Schuetze Production: Carole Readman Sales manager: Joan McGrogan Advertising sales: Lori Borden, Corinne Tkachuk Administrator: Katherine Butler Sales assistant: Caroline Smith List research: Richard Chu Controller: Marlita Hodgens President, BIV Media Group: Paul Harris

Copyright 2012, BIV Magazines. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system without permission of BIV Magazines. The publishers are not responsible in whole or in part for any errors or omissions in this publication.

10

Published by

19

Photos (clockwise from top): Cameron Heryet, BC Cancer Agency; Martin Krzywinski; Dominic Schaefer Photography

Life Sciences 2012.indd 4

3/19/12 8:48:47 PM

SHARE YOUR DISCOVERIES WITH THE WORLD

British Columbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life science sector has earned a reputation for breakthrough discoveries and leading-edge research. Scientific and technological advances are nurtured by our world-class centres of excellence and by the more than $1.8 billion British Columbia has invested in research and innovation since 2001.

Our companies pioneer new ideas and applications in drug development, medical technology and healthcare delivery, and establish collaborative relationships with the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top biopharmaceutical brands to bring these innovations to communities all over the world.

READY TO JOIN HOME-GROWN COMPANIES ON THE WORLD STAGE? The Government of British Columbia supports life science companies to develop strategic partnerships that accelerate growth and commercialization.

Visit www.britishcolumbia.ca to learn more.

Life Sciences 2012.indd 5

3/19/12 8:48:48 PM

es

Chairâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s message Doug Janzen, LifeSciences British Columbia

I

n the current state of the global economy, we as life-science companies are continually challenged to expand our innovative thinking beyond the laboratory and into new business models that will support the development and commercialization of our research.

Government initiatives, new partnerships and alternate funding sources will allow our business to be sustainable in this tough economic environment.

The federal government is actively working on ways to improve the eďŹ&#x192;ciency of its research-and-development spend. Recommendations made in the 2011 Review of Federal Support to Research and Development â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Expert Panel Report Innovation Canada: A Call to Action have the potential to impact

signiďŹ cantly the way government supports our industry and not necessarily in a positive way. It will be extremely important for us to work closely with the government during the implementation of any of these recommendations to ensure that the intricacies of our sector are understood and considered. Our goal is to help maximize any potential positive impact that these changes may have on our access to capital either directly or through tax incentives.

The government of British Columbia has also made compelling eďŹ&#x20AC;orts to foster and encourage innovative research. The life sciences and advanced-energy clusters, for example, have been supported by government with a commitment to expand infrastructure in our top research

facilities. This has not only attracted worldclass talent but has also created a platform through which to showcase this talent to the rest of the world.

By focusing on the translation of earlystage research into commercially relevant ventures, the life-science industry in B.C. has attracted signiďŹ cant interest from global organizations. This was evidenced in 2011 by the increased number of earlystage research collaborations.

Moving forward in 2012, collaborations among academia, industry and government will be invaluable to the life sciences. Nevertheless, from concept to commercialization, optimism and creative, unbound thinking will continue to be the primary drivers of innovation and success in this industry. Ä&#x201E;

Perspective matters

6

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 6

!

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:48:49 PM

GENOMICS RESEARCH DELIVERS

A HEALTHY RETURN ON INVESTMENT

BREAKTHROUGHS .% . % 0" .%" +*.").& ' .* ,"0*'/.&*)&3" ( )2 -+" .- *# */, '&0"- &) '/!&)$ .%" 1 2 1" !& $)*-" )! .," . &'')"-- /( ) %" '.% #**! -/++'2 ")",$2 )! .%" ")0&,*)("). 5 '' *# .%"-" ," - ")"4. #,*( &))*0 .&0" $")*(& - -"! ,"-" , % #/)!"! 2 ")*("

")*(" +,*$, (- ," -/++*,."! 2 .%" ,*0&) & ' *0",)("). *# ,&.&-% *'/( & .%" *0",)("). *#

) ! .%,*/$% ")*(" ) ! )! "-.",) *)*(& &0",-&4 .&*) ) ! )! *.%", +/ '& )! +,&0 ." + ,.)",-

Visit www.genomebc.ca for current funding opportunities.

Life Sciences 2012.indd 7

3/19/12 8:48:49 PM

President’s report Don Enns, LifeSciences British Columbia

T

he concept of market certainty has greatly diminished since the crash of 2008, and one could argue that no sector has escaped unscathed. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that once the capital markets were thought to have stabilized, the sovereign debt crisis surfaced, leading to new measures of austerity. Market flux is no longer an anomaly; it is the norm. At the time I am writing this column, the Eurozone is assessing its ongoing viability, the Enbridge and Keystone pipeline proposals are attracting international attention, and Canada’s premiers are meeting in Victoria to determine the future of health care in the nation.

Interestingly, one of the outcomes of the first ministers’ session is that life sciences, particularly health care, must become more “innovative.” Admittedly, that word is overused; however, recent market pressures have provided the very impetus for the industry to redefine itself and explore business models that simply did not exist a few years ago. In this regard, I would highlight the following: Personalized medicine: This field is moving from a nebulous concept into focus by physicians on comprehensive diagnoses and individual treatment.

GOLDSPONSORS

Cardiome Pharma Corp.

Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP Genome British Columbia McCarthy Tétrault LLP Merck Canada Pfizer Canada Rx&D Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies

8

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 8

BIV Magazines

Convergence of technologies: Wireless, nanotechnology and digital media are being integrated with therapeutics in the delivery of health care.

Regenerative medicine: Stem-cell technologies are evolving, and the ability to create tissue and organs is moving from concept to reality.

Strategic partnerships: Given earlystage financing challenges, even relatively small biotech startups can enter into longstanding and productive relationships with large pharma.

Geographical shift: Emerging economies in countries that are positioning themselves as the “new” science powerhouses represent significant opportunities for the sector.

Virtual development: Bricks and mortar are being replaced by computer models and virtual companies that can adopt comprehensive outsourcing models.

Ironically, the development of technologies within the life-science space may well exceed the capacity and capability of public institutions to absorb them. Privacy, ethics and institutional restructuring must be addressed if the industry is to flourish and outcomes are to continue to improve.

For instance, which ministry within

SILVERSPONSORS

Amgen Business in Vancouver Discovery Parks GlaxoSmithKline Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. LifeScan Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Vision Group Vifor Pharma

British Columbia should be responsible for genomics: agriculture, environment, health, natural resources or all of the above? Or should government consider establishing a different type of body that deals with technologies that transcend existing structures?

Canada will spend about 200 billion on health care in 2012. B.C.’s expenditures are projected to be about 18 billion, or about 45 per cent of the provincial budget.

Although the life-science sector is in transition and there’s no panacea, it represents part of the solution to one of the most pressing issues governments face today: how to change the direction of the cost curve of delivering health care.

The response of LifeSciences British Columbia to this market dynamic has been one of enhanced dialogue with regulators, reaching out in to the broader community and establishing relationships with like-minded organizations, encouraging an ethos of national and international collaboration and helping to ensure positive outcomes for stakeholders.

To all of those partners and participants that have assisted and continue to assist in the effort, thank you! It should be quite a journey in 2012. Ą

BRONZESPONSORS Abbott Laboratories Airgas AstraZeneca Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Bristol-Myers Squibb The Centre for Drug Research and Development Eli Lilly Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP FortisBC Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. KPMG LLP Novartis PharmaNet QLT Inc. Sanofi Canada STEMCELL Technologies Inc. UBC University Liaison Office Vancouver Economic Development Commission

Photo: Dominic Schaefer Photography

3/20/12 6:56:47 PM

!

! ! " #

$ # %

"

%

!

&

! #

% '

! " # ! $% "

Life Sciences 2012.indd 9

( ! ) #

% *

+

,

3/19/12 8:48:51 PM

TRIUMF’s main cyclotron, the largest in the world

Come one, come all Life sciences benefit from low taxes that boost investment

BY PETER MITHAM

L

ow tax rates, ample tax credits and programs that encourage innovative research make British Columbia a competitive place to engage in life sciences.

Partnerships among universities, health-care institutions and industry are fuelled by financial incentives that attract talent and projects ranging from front-line research to clinical trials.

In its study Competitive Alternatives, KPMG LLP found in 2010 that Canada was 12.9 per cent more advantageous from a tax perspective than the United States. West Coast cities such as Vancouver and Prince George scored especially high, ranking first along North America’s Pacific Rim with scores

10

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 10

BIV Magazines

Photo: Courtesy of TRIUMF

3/19/12 8:48:53 PM

At the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) BELOW: Martin Gleave, chief executive officer, the Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development (PC-TRIADD)

of 94.9 and 94.3, respectively. (Scores of less than 100 indicated advantage relative to the U.S., scored at 100.)

The following incentives and programs help explain why life-science companies choose B.C. over less competitive jurisdictions.

B.C. shreds taxes The federal government’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Tax Incentive Program (popularly known as “shred”) supports research and development at life-science companies based in B.C. It provides Canadian-based companies operating in B.C. refundable tax credits for 35 per cent of eligible R&D expenditures up to 2 million annually, plus 20 per cent credits on other qualified expenditures. A foreign-incorporated company qualifies for a 20 per cent credit against taxes payable for eligible expenditures, but the credits are not refundable.

On top of this, B.C. will provide an additional refundable 10 per cent tax credit against provincial taxes for eligible R&D expenditures for a Canadian company.

Again, the province also extends the credit to R&D expenses racked up by a foreign company, but it is not refundable.

Photo (bottom): Fuseboxcomm.com

Life Sciences 2012.indd 11

Capital building B.C.’s Small Business Venture Capital Act provides resident and corporate investors participating in venture-capital funds or eligible small businesses with a tax credit of 30 per cent. The investments must be made through a financing pre-approved for eligibility by the provincial government. An individual investor is entitled to a maximum refundable credit of 60,000 per annum. Corporate credits aren’t refundable. An individual investor who leaves the province may not be able to claim the credit, however.

production equipment and machinery.

The savings provide companies with funds to reinvest in R&D activities.

Centres of attention B.C. has invested more than 1.6 billion in life-sciences R&D since 2001, anchoring a sector that has also attained a significant

Taking advantage Vancouver is the home of AdvantageBC International Business Centre. B.C. is North America’s first jurisdiction to provide a corporate tax refund based on revenue from life-science patents. B.C.’s International Business Activity Act allows incorporated Canadian companies with permanent establishments in B.C. to claim a refund of 75 per cent (up to 8 million) on corporate income tax paid on international income earned from the commercialization of life-science patents. Manufacturers may also be eligible for an exemption from the provincial portion of sales tax paid on BIV Magazines

LifeSciences/2012

11

3/19/12 8:49:03 PM

Computer and storage clusters at Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre

amount of federal funding.

The largest single tranche of life-science funding from Ottawa came in 2008, with a pledge to establish four new Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECRs) in the province, including Advanced Applied Physics Solutions Inc. (AAPS), the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), the Centre of Excellence for the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF) and the Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development (PC-TRIADD).

In addition, the National Research Council Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) provides various services to support small and medium-sized life-science companies. IRAP’s investment in B.C. in 2010–11 totalled approximately 31.8 million, which supported life-science projects ranging from the development and commercialization of nanocomposite cements by Vancouver’s Innovative BioCeramix, Inc., with application to dentistry, and research by Boreal Genomics to identify diseased DNA codes in blood and environmental samples.

12

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 12

BIV Magazines

National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) invested 148.4 million in B.C. in 2010–11, with approximately a fifth of industry funding supporting life sciences. The funds have helped finance the work of 1,494 professorships and 245 industrial partners. These include projects such as research by David Vocadlo of Simon Fraser University into the role played by sugars in Alzheimer’s disease. Vocadlo received 250,000 through an NSERC fellowship in 2011, with industry partners Alectos Therapeutics Inc. and Merck embracing his work. Ą Photos: Martin Krzywinski

3/19/12 8:49:11 PM

EMRs embraced Adoption rates of electronic medical records are highest among physicians in rural British Columbia

BY CURT CHEREWAYKO

E

lectronic medical records (EMRs) are key tools in the push to digitize and thereby improve the efficiency of health care. The primary governmental agency for driving adoption of EMRs in British Columbia is optimistic that its success to date will result in renewed funding when its first six-year mandate expires in spring 2012.

The Physician Information Technology Office (PITO), co-run by the province and the British Columbia Medical Association (BCMA), received 107.8 million from B.C. to use largely in incentives for doctors to replace their manila file folders with EMR software. By December 2011, 65 per cent of B.C.’s 8,000 physicians had made the transition to EMRs. Of these, 5,500 are eligible to receive reimbursement from PITO of up to 70 per cent of the costs of buying and implementing EMRs. “We are very optimistic based on what both the BCMA and the Ministry of Health have said to us about the importance of EMR in health care,” says Linda Bartz, senior communications manager, PITO. “We have lots of plans that we have initiated to step up adoption and implementation.”

Such plans include creating working groups of “super-users,” physicians who use EMR software to its fullest capabilities and who can help better train all doctors to use it.

Interestingly, EMR adoption rates are highest outside of Vancouver, Victoria and the Fraser Valley, bucking the usual trend of urban-first, rural-second when it comes to technology.

The Salmon Arm region has the provTelus is a major partner in deince’s highest adoption rate, with roughly 90 veloping B.C.’s tele-heath system, which per cent of physicians in the area using EMRs. includes videoconferencing for doctors, schedule-management and remote Bartz says that doctors in smaller patient-monitoring. communities usually work more closely together, sharing emergency-room, on-call “Different jurisdictions are at different and other duties. Efficient sharing of medplaces in their investment in terms of ical records is thus more necessary there. e-health,” says Glenn De Roy, viceMark Sudul, general manager of Sidney’s president of health delivery solutions at Osler Systems Management Inc., one of Telus Health Solutions. four PITO vendors that provide subsidized EMR software, says that the funding incentives are important but not the only factor driving adoption of EMRs. “There are a significant number of doctors who haven’t taken advantage of any of those incentives and still use EMRs,” he says.

Over approximately five years, Vancouver-based Telus Corp. has spent roughly a bilMedPalz, an interactive game from Telus, teaches lion dollars on information children with diabetes about exercise and nutrition technology related to health care, including 763 million on the acquisition of health and financial“One of the missing pieces of the services provider Emergis Inc. in early 2008. architecture to date is, How do you share In Newfoundland, Telus is helping information across all these different ordevelop a province-wide electronic drugganizations and do it in an effective and information system. timely way?”

It’s also piloting a personal health-care That’s where cloud computing comes platform that supports Alberta’s goal of in. It’s the idea of storing information rehelping consumers become more promotely where it can be shared, accessed active in managing their health. and distributed through various channels With doctors still getting a feel for new to multiple stakeholders. electronic systems, it is difficult to assess Says De Roy, “We see a need to deyet the impact of EMRs on the delivery of liver health-care solutions using that care. It’s clear that there is still room for cloud-based model to enable inforimprovement when it comes to the use of mation to be shared across the entire digital health-care tools. health-care continuum.” Ą BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 13

LifeSciences/2012

13

3/19/12 8:49:28 PM

f

C

e

+ '-, ' -%* "%%! %*' ' ( ' *( $ ) ' ' '( )% %$)' *) )% ) %##*$ )- $ %*) %, ") $ ( &'% ' #( $ "& -%* # ! 0 ' $ / $ %) -%*' ' ' $ ) ,%'" '%*$ -%* '$ #%'

", ! $,!

Life Sciences 2012.indd 14

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your career.

Get it right.

3/19/12 8:49:28 PM

“B.C. companies adapt.

It says good things about the technology and the people that we have in a difficult climate like this” – Ian Heine, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Bring cash Forecasts show how province’s biotechnology firms seek funds to succeed

BY PETER MITHAM

B.C.,

so the joke goes, doesn’t stand for British Columbia so much as for “Bring cash.”

The old joke has a grain of truth for the province’s life sciences, which led the nation in fundraising in 2010 but are also learning to do more with less.

Ernst & Young’s most recent report on global biotechnology pegs the sum of public and private financings garnered by Vancouver’s life science firms in 2010 at approximately 160 million, greater than what either Toronto’s or Montreal’s were able to raise.

Nationally, however, the sector is at its lowest ebb ever with investors, with

Photo: Dominic Schaefer Photography

Life Sciences 2012.indd 15

just 482 million raised in 2010 and with equally low prospects for 2011 and 2012.

The struggle to attract investment and the need for changes in tax policies to better support startups were key concerns in the most recent biennial survey

by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) of Canada’s life sciences.

“It’s kind of at that point now where unless stakeholders participate or take action, you might see the continued decline, unless something’s done,” says Ian Heine, who leads the B.C. life-sciences practice for PwC in Vancouver.

Heine expects 2012 to be “challenging.”

While the sector is capable of attracting significant sums – a 19-million round of

financing for MSI Methylation Sciences Inc. in September 2011 led by European venture-capital firm Inventages being a case in point – he feels that government has a role to play in making investments friendlier from a tax perspective.

Industry Canada’s review of federal support to research and development – the so-called Jenkins report, after review chair Tom Jenkins – contained a critique of the current system of Scientific Research and Experimental Development credits as too complex. It recommended a simpler system of federal tax credits and the appointment of a minister charged specifically with overseeing and encouraging innovation in Canada.

BIV Magazines

LifeSciences/2012

15

3/19/12 8:49:37 PM

Heine worries that greater governmental involvement may mitigate the market’s role in determining which companies are indeed innovative. He suggests that permitting flow-through shares for new life-science companies could be useful, noting that they’ve been successful in resource ventures, which have equally long paybacks on initial investments.

According to Canada Revenue Agency, flow-through shares allow companies to pass expenses directly to investors.

Companies secure financing, while investors can claim deductions for resource expenses renounced by eligible corporations and investment tax credits on qualifying expenses.

Yet direct financing may not be the answer, says Paul Karananoukian, Montreal-based Canadian life-sciences industry leader for Ernst & Young. While he too is cautious regarding the direction offered by the Jenkins report for the industry’s future development, he believes the sector needs a clear voice.

One area in which B.C. has shown leadership is in collaborative relationships, which Karananoukian believes are as important to industry as to the general public. He maintains that a strong

biotechnology sector able to support clinical trials and other activities that enhance local health care is vital to Canada’s future.

“B.C. has recognized the landscape – knows what needs to be done,” he says.

“We need to collaborate more on a national level, especially if we’re going to have success in sustaining our health-care costs going down the road.” He feels there must be “more of a national collaboration” if we are “to have a successful biotech or life-science sector.”

Collaboration has borne fruit in the establishment of the BC Clinical Research Infrastructure Network as well as in the fostering of international relationships with major pharmaceutical companies at the annual BioPartnering North America and other events.

“There’s a longer stage of collaboration, I would think, than in the past with universities and the BC Cancer Agency and organizations like CDRD [Centre for Drug Research and Development],” Heine says.

“Some companies are starting a relationship with the big pharma companies at a lot earlier stage, and they’re becoming a lot closer than they otherwise would have been in the past.”

Companies are also tackling projects that are closer to commercialization, shortening the timeline for investors between funding and payback. This helps explains why the province led the nation for financings in 2010, Heine says, with each new investment bearing out the fact there are companies worth investing in here if the value proposition is right. The financing is often international.

In June 2011, Richmond-based Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised US25 million from an investor list that saw Pfizer Venture Investments join Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Baker Brothers Investments and BC Advantage Funds. Similarly, Valocor Therapeutics, Inc. was acquired by California’s Dermira Inc. the same month as part of a US42-million financing deal.

“B.C. companies adapt,” Heine says of the dynamic playing out between local life-science firms and investors seeking a safe haven for their funds. “Some of them are finding funds, maybe not in Canada, but they’re finding funds elsewhere to move it forward. It says good things about the technology and the people that we have in a difficult climate like this.” Ą

Congratulations Dr. Neil Cashman – winner of the 2012 Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence!

BETTER ANSWERS TO

Treatment

Illness

NEW

Cures

VCH Research Institute is one of Canada’s top funded health science research centres with $83.1 million in total research funding for 2010/2011.

Quick facts DkZg +%% eg^cX^eVa ^ckZhi^\Vidgh VcY igV^cZZh ( *%!%%% hfjVgZ [ZZi d[ gZhZVgX] heVXZ WVhZY Vi K<=! J78 =dhe^iVa! VcY <; Higdc\ GZ]VW^a^iVi^dc 8ZcigZ ;dXjh dc i]Z hZVbaZhh igVchaVi^dc WZilZZc Y^hXdkZgn VcY XdbbZgX^Va^oVi^dc 8d"]dhi d[ ild cVi^dcVa 8ZcigZh d[ :mXZaaZcXZ [dg 8dbbZgX^Va^oVi^dc GZhZVgX] 8:8G VcY dcZ CVi^dcVa 8ZcigZ d[ :mXZaaZcXZ E VgicZgh]^eh l^i] cVi^dcVa Xa^c^XVa ig^Vah! gZhZVgX] cZildg`h!

VcY ^cYjhign ;djcY^c\ eVgicZg d[ i]Z 78 8a^c^XVa Ig^Vah >c[gVhigjXijgZ CZildg` 788G>C

For more information visit us at

16

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 16

www.vchri.ca

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:49:37 PM

David Murawsky won first prize for 18 Things You Should Know About Genetics in Gene Screen BC 2011

The a r t of science Gene Screen BC competition fuses fields in pursuit of education

BY ALISON DEPALMA

T

he British Columbia Clinical Genomics Network (BCCGN) was on the hunt for innovative ways of boosting the understanding of genomics among the province’s physicians. As principal investigator Michael Hayden explains, advances in genomics have brought great communication challenges.

“We have a responsibility to multiple sectors, from medicine to science to the general public, to educate about what we do [and] start a dialogue about the issues that are influencing and impacting us,” says Hayden, who is also director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia.

An answer came in the form of breaking down the barrier between art and science – in encouraging filmmakers and researchers to collaborate. And the Gene Screen BC short film competition was born.

BCCGN found a natural partner in Genome British Columbia, the non-profit dedicated to fuelling genomics research and offering high-school students science-based experiential learning. Through Gene Screen, the partners inform physicians, students and the public about genetics and its role in human health.

Photo: David Murawsky

Life Sciences 2012.indd 17

BIV Magazines

LifeSciences/2012

17

3/19/12 8:49:41 PM

LEFT: Roza Bidshahri, winner of the People’s

Choice award for The Greatest Drug in the World at Gene Screen BC 2011, chats with her collaborator and Michael Hayden, co-leader of the B.C. Clinical Genomics Network

ABOVE George Church, Harvard geneticist, and Rosalynn Gill, director of diagnostic products for SomaLogic, appear in Genome: The Future Is Now, by second-place winner Marilyn Ness (Gene Screen BC 2011) LEFT: The Gene Screen BC 2011 screening gala

The annual competition started in 2010, with filmmakers from Vancouver, from across Canada, from the United States and from Europe submitting in its rounds. Gene Screen offers a total of 8,000 in prizes, breaking down to 3,500 for first place, 2,500 for second and 1,000 for third, plus 1,000 to the People’s Choice winner. The 2011 judges included former Discovery Channel host Jay Ingram, filmmaker Penelope Buitenhuis and scientist and CBC personality Jennifer Gardy.

A total of 19 entries were received in the 2011 contest, with first place going to a solo project by David Murawsky of Vancouver.

A colourful animated short called 18 Things You Should Know About Genetics strums out playful facts about DNA and genetics.

Murawsky himself holds a bachelor of science in cell biology and genetics from UBC and a digital design diploma from the Vancouver Film School. He says, “I’m interested in bridging the gap between science 18

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 18

BIV Magazines

for scientists and science for everyone else.

My approach with this film was to present the concept of genetics in an approachable way, keeping things simple and showing that genetics can be fun.”

Other entries were typically more collaborative. The People’s Choice winner Roza Bidshahri, an industrial PhD candidate working with André Marziali at Boreal Genomics, met her film collaborators through the Gene Screen launch: an event hosted to enable such pairings between filmmakers and scientists. Her film, The Greatest Drug in the World, presents the controversial concept of personalized medicine, the customization of health care on the basis of genetic variations. This film and many other entries from the 2011 and 2010 competitions call attention to the need for discussion of the many social and ethical issues arising from this new field.

“People want to be part of that dialogue,” says Sally Greenwood, vicepresident of communications and

education at Genome BC. “Some of the high-school teachers using the films from the competition in their classrooms are finding them useful beyond the science class; they’re extending the discussions to touch on law, socials studies and beyond.”

Initially shown at the screening and awards event on September 26, 2011, in the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, at SFU Woodward’s, the films are now available for anyone to view through YouTube at www.genescreenbc.com/2011-videos.

The next Gene Screen competition is set to launch in spring 2012.

“We hope to keep this competition going and growing,” says Greenwood.

For Hayden, there are no limits to the opportunity the contest offers for mutual enrichment between art and science.

“The more we interact, the more we realize we have a lot to learn from each other,” he says, of the two fields.

“Through this collaboration, we are mutually enriched.” Ą

Photos (clockwise from top left): Brian Hawkes; Necessary Films (centre and right); Brian Hawkes

3/19/12 8:50:04 PM

What’s the frequency, doctor?

Wireless technologies are empowering a new generation of health-conscious Canadians

Gregg Sauter, founder of mHealth Connected, with the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor

BY CURT CHEREWAYKO

I

t was near the end of an eight-year career with Nokia that Gregg Sauter, having gained a firm knowledge of the wireless industry, started exploring opportunities in sectors that hadn’t “gone wireless.”

“Transportation was one, education was one, but health care just completely screamed out,” says Sauter, who after leaving Nokia in early 2011, founded mHealth Connected, a small Vancouverbased consultancy and reseller focused on wireless health care.

A November 23, 2011, report by ABI Research titled Mobile Devices and mHealth forecasted that the global market for sport and health-related wireless applications would hit US400 million in revenues by 2016, as compared to US120 million in 2010.

Wireless health apps are being adopted by a notable type of consumer: one who’s taking health care out of the hospital and into his or her own hands.

Sauter says more consumers are visiting doctors’ offices tablet in hand, ready digitally to retrieve health information that may help make the visits more productive.

“The push is really going to be from the bottom up,” he says. “And all of a sudden,

Photo: Dominic Schaefer Photography

Life Sciences 2012.indd 19

all of the health-care facilities will have to say, ‘Okay guys, we need to mobilize.’”

The growth of consumer-focused apps, according to ABI, will be driven by development and adoption of wearable devices such as vital-signs monitors that connect with software programs on smartphones and tablets.

Other consumer-oriented wireless health apps, like scheduling software that helps people keep track of exercise regimes, are more elementary but nonetheless finding markets.

Take Vancouver’s PortaLife Solutions, Inc. With the company’s new CarrotLines, consumers can use their smartphones to scan nutritional data from barcodes on food products and manage their diets.

The app is useful both for those generally health-conscious and for those needing managed diets, such as diabetics.

There are also the more technical, more specialized and more regulated wireless apps used by health-care professionals.

Vancouver-based ReFleX Wireless Inc. has developed a system that physicians can use to monitor a patient’s vital signs all at once. Bluetooth-enabled, it replaces all those toaster-sized, wired monitoring systems found beside the hospital bed.

It can also be set up at the home, with data about the patient sent wirelessly back to the doctor’s office.

ReFleX has largely avoided regulatory hurdles by targeting the extended and long-term health-care arena. Its technology merges existing biomedical monitoring systems with proven consumer-oriented and, importantly, low-cost wireless technologies.

Alan Swain is vice-president of technology and operations at Vancouver’s Wavefront, which helps companies (including PortaLife and ReFleX) commercialize their wireless technologies. He offers two recommendations for any wireless health-care company that faces high regulatory hurdles.

One, he says is to focus on creating products in developing countries that have less regulation but need major improvement in health care. The huge adoption rate of cell phones in some developing countries means untapped opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Alternatively, says Swain, an entrepreneur can enter into partnership with someone in health care who knows the regulatory system of a major established market, namely the United States. Ą BIV Magazines

LifeSciences/2012

19

3/19/12 8:50:06 PM

Our own devices Province’s companies at the forefront of their sector

BY REBECCA EDWARDS

B

ritish Columbia’s companies are changing medicine with innovative devices.

Ripe for competitions In 2011, its first year of business, Precision NanoSystems, Inc. made it to the finals of two prestigious entrepreneurship competitions.

The company reached the top five at the entrepreneurship awards given by the University of British Columbia, where it’s a spinoff, and it was a top-10 finalist in the BCIC-New Ventures competition.

According to James Taylor, chief executive officer, the microfluids technology developed by Precision NanoSystems produces small lipid nanoparticles that can be used to carry drugs to specific areas of the body.

Taylor says, “The area of nanoparticles is a very important field that will have a big impact on personalized medicine. A lot of researchers are working to understand the genomics of specific diseases, and these nanoparticles are going to help treat these diseases by getting the right drugs to the right tissues at the right time.”

He says that Precision NanoSystems’ technology produces particles measuring 20 to 50 nanometers: smaller than those produced by its competitors.

“Size plays a big part in where the 20

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 20

nanoparticles will reach in the body.

The smaller they are, the deeper into tissue they can access,” he says.

In 2012, the company is due to launch its technology into the research sector. It then plans to expand into the pharmaceutical market.

It’s got us under our skin “Any medical professional can use the Verisante Aura for early skin-cancer diagnosis,” even without knowing what cancerous lesions look like, says Thomas Braun, chief executive officer of Verisante Technology Inc. Originally developed for the BC Cancer Agency, the Aura is now being manufactured

by StarFish Medical in Victoria and will retail starting in mid-2012.

Its non-invasive laser excites and measures vibrations in skin molecules, which vibrate differently when cancerous.

It takes 15 minutes to scan the whole body, immediately identifying lesions as benign, as melanomas, as basal cell carcinomas or as squamous cell carcinomas.

Aura is seen as one solution to the shortage of dermatologists. A differently

The Verisante Aura

trained medical professional can triage most patients and refer the most complex cases to specialists. The Aura is already licensed for sale in Canada and the European Union, and Verisante will begin its registration in Australia and Brazil in 2012.

Through a key clinical study conducted by the University of British Columbia, the Aura was used to scan approximately 1,000

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:07 PM

At McKesson Enterprise Medical Imaging, based in Richmond

lesions at Vancouver General Hospital over a six-year period. Results showed that the Aura had a very high rate of 99 per cent in accurately differentiating all major skin cancers from benign lesions and that it could reduce unnecessary biopsies by 50 to 100 per cent. The results showed strong benefits of using the Aura to assist medical professionals in diagnosing skin cancer.

The company is also developing the Core device, expecting to start clinical trials in 2012. It would cost less than 5,000 and use multi-spectrum imaging technology to aid in the diagnosis of skin and oral cancers.

Verisante has also purchased lung, colorectal and cervical cancer-detection patents for technologies from Perceptronix Medical Inc., also in Vancouver, that can be used alone or to enhance the Core.

Ample samples Diagnosis of cancer in the future could be as simple as giving blood, says Nitin Sood, chief executive officer at Boreal Genomics.

Formed in 2007, the company in 2011 launched the Aurora nucleic acid purification system, which extracts DNA from

incomplete or contaminated samples. It’s been proven to work on samples from the Atacama Desert, from the Antarctic tundra, from sea sediments, from the oilsands and from stool.

Boreal is now focusing on secondgeneration technology that could extract traces of cancer DNA in blood samples, opening new possibilities for non-invasive, early detection.

“Our vision is that you go to the doctor for a yearly medical, give a blood sample and find out if you have cancer, what type it is and what stage,” says Sood.

“There is no invasive biopsy procedure, and cancer patients can also be tested regularly to see if their treatment is working to reduce the cancer life in the body.”

In 2012, Boreal expects to begin clinical trials of the technology and plans to apply for FDA regulatory approval in 2013 or 2014.

The company employs 30 persons in Vancouver and California.

Picture this Digital technology allows a British Columbian imaging company to support medical professionals around the world

“The area of nanoparticles is a very important field that will have a big impact on personalized medicine” – James Taylor, chief executive officer, Precision NanoSystems Inc.

from headquarters in Richmond.

McKesson Enterprise Medical Imaging, a subsidiary of McKesson Provider Technologies, was originally established as A.L.I. Technologies Inc. in 1986.

In 1988, McKesson introduced one of the world’s first ultrasound picturearchiving and storage systems using personal computer technology.

Today, the company employs more than 700 persons to design, manufacture and support image-management solutions for radiology and cardiology professionals, including ultrasound, CT, mammography, radiology imaging, nuclear medicine and orthopedic templating.

BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 21

LifeSciences/2012

21

3/19/12 8:50:08 PM

At Boreal Genomics, researchers prepare samples on the company’s recently launched Aurora system

McKesson supports reporting and scheduling with access any time, anywhere, to the patient’s complete record.

Digital solutions streamline diagnosis, from ordering a procedure to sending the report to a referring physician.

McKesson provides medical imaging for radiology and cardiology professionals throughout B.C.’s Interior Health region, allowing 32 medical facilities within the Okanagan, East Kootenay and Kootenay Boundary areas to share information.

McKesson also serves Quebec’s two largest hospital networks (RUIS McGill and RUIS Université de Montréal) and hospital facilities in the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Israel and Australia. Ą

Transforming Clinical Trials through…

Our People - Innovation - Transparency A leading global CRO, PRA provides personalized service customized to the unique requirements of each study.

^ƚĂƌƚ ƚŚĞ ƚƌĂŶƐĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶ ŶŽǁ͗ clearlypra.com 22 LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 22

BIV Magazines

Photo: Boreal Genomics

3/19/12 8:50:09 PM

Especially for you Personalized medicine pinpoints best treatment given a patient’s genetic makeup

“

BY REBECCA EDWARDS

T

hirty years from now, we will each carry our personal genomic blueprint in our wallet on an electronic chip,” predicts Brad Popovich, chief scientific officer of Genome British Columbia, which funds research in molecular biology.

Brad Popovich, CSO, Genome British Columbia

Photo: Dominic Schaefer Photography

Life Sciences 2012.indd 23

BIV Magazines

LifeSciences/2012

23

3/19/12 8:50:10 PM

“Not only will it tell us the diseases we are genetically predisposed to, but it will tell us how to manage our health better, and it will tell our doctor the most efficient treatments for our genomic makeup.”

Personalized medicine entails studying a patient’s genes so that the most effec tive, least risky therapies can be chosen for that person.

Bruce McManus, director, Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF) Centre of Excellence, University of British Columbia, has developed a series of blood tests to predict which transplant patients would be likeliest to reject new organs.

Currently under clinical trial in B.C., the tests aim to indicate the presence of biomarkers commonly seen in rejections.

Post-transplant, the tests replace painful and costly biopsies currently used to check for rejection.

At the department of biochemistry and molecular biology, UBC, Pieter Cullis uses lipid nanoparticles to deliver small interfering RNA that “turn off” genes causing liver and prostate cancer.

Meanwhile, Michael Hayden and Bruce Carleton of the Child & Family Research Institute are co-leads of the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety, looking for genomic biomarkers that predict adverse drug reactions in patients, estimated to be the fifth-leading cause of death in North America.

They’re working to identify which genes influence how patients process narcotics and opiates. The goal: to ensure that patients receive the right levels of pain control without harmful side effects.

Currently under scrutiny are Cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug that can cause hearing loss in patients, and anthracyclines, a class of drugs most commonly used against children’s cancer that can cause heart damage.

Genomic tests will identify the patients likeliest to experience reactions and point 24

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 24

physicians toward less risky or more effective therapies.

Carleton says this will be particularly useful in the treatment of young children, who aren’t usually participants in drug trials and aren’t always able to communicate the side effects they suffer.

Hayden won the 2011 Canada Gairdner Wightman Award for work that includes creating a predictive test for Huntington’s disease.

He says, “At the moment, we blindly take a shot at choosing the right treatment, which leads to massive costs because more than 50 per cent of prescribed drugs don’t work on the person they were prescribed for and may lead to adverse side effects.

In the long term, personalized medicine will make the cost of health care more affordable, but it is going to cost more as we move to the new approach, so B.C. needs visionary leadership to allow us to make the transition.”

Popovich comments that B.C health care benefits from a “strong core” of scientists, researchers and world-class facilities. The province’s single-payer health system makes it easier for clinicians to adopt new procedures.

In 2011, Cullis was joined by David Huntsman, associate professor at the UBC faculty of medicine; Michael Hayden; Bruce McManus; and Michael Burgess, professor at the UBC department of medical genetics, to set up the BC Personalized Medicine Initiative, led by operations officer Rob Fraser. Its purpose: to act as a bridge among the provincial health-care system, patients and the technology community.

Cullis says the province must invest in personalized medicine soon to continue to compete on the world stage.

“We know that the Beijing Genomics Institute has a budget of 1.5 billion, and Ontario has invested 950 million in its personalized medicine program.”Ą

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:12 PM

2012

Corporate ProďŹ les A supplement to LifeSciences British Columbia

Featuring: BLG Vancouver BRI Biopharmaceutical Research The Centre for Drug Research and Development Genome British Columbia GlaxoSmithKline Michael Smith Foundation MPI Research Seed IP Sirona Biochem Stemcell Technologies Tees Consulting Verisante

The B.C. life sciences industry is ranked among the smartest and fastest-growing research communities in the world

Published by

Sponsored by

STAYING AHEAD BY STAYING INVESTED IN THE HEALTH OF CANADIANS.

As one of Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading research-based pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline understands that scientists require commitment and resources to discover the next medical breakthrough. This is why we invested more than $141 million in Canadian research and development in 2010 alone. At GSK, we stay ahead by putting the health of Canadians before anything else.

Discover more at GSK.ca

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 2

2/7/12 2:06:12 PM

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 3

2/7/12 2:06:12 PM

Supplied by

GENOME BRITISH COLUMBIA

www.genomebc.ca

Spreading the value of genomics ... means translating research findings into real world results. Results that can make a real difference to our province, like practical tools for protecting our natural resources, new ways of diagnosing and treating disease, and better methods for developing alternative sources of clean energy.

Genomics research is delivering these benefits all over British Columbia. Ask the cancer patient whose early diagnosis saved her from a ‘lifetime of worry’ ... or the beekeepers who are closer to knowing the causes of honeybee colony collapse ... or the forest managers who are able to determine which tree species are better suited to a changing climate ... or the international research team that is using genomics to improve the management of salmon fisheries and aquaculture.

Genome British Columbia delivers results by investing in, managing and enabling large-scale genomics and proteomics research projects and technology platforms.

Over the past decade the organization has invested over $550 million in research that has made impacts in areas of strategic and economic importance to British Columbia, Canada and the world, including human health, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, bioenergy, mining and the environment. In addition, a critical element of responsible genomics research is to provide a forum through which accompanying environmental, ethical, economic, legal and social issues can be explored so that the context for scientific research remains focussed and relevant to society.

A snapshot of Genome BC’s diverse genomics research portfolio:

Reducing diagnosis time for hereditary breast cancer If a woman inherits a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, her lifetime risk to develop both breast and ovarian cancer is greatly increased over that of other women in the general population.

Genome BC is supporting researchers at the BC Cancer Agency who are implementing a genomics-based technology to dramatically speed up the testing for these mutations. The sooner a woman knows she may be at risk, the sooner she and other family members can take preventative action.

Helping honeybee breeders out of a sticky situation The real buzz about honeybees is that the pollination efforts of honeybees are estimated to contribute in excess of $2.2 billion to Canada’s agricultural economy each year. In BC, honeybee pollination is responsible for nearly $500 million in agricultural production every year. However in BC almost 10,000 honeybee

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 4

colonies were either dead or unproductive after wintering last year and cold weather was not the only cause. These losses threaten not only our honey production, but our food supply. Genome BC is supporting the development of technology to breed a more resistant honeybee — and hopefully improve the survival rates of the colonies.

It’s a critical tool for ensuring the future health and viability of our honeybees — our tiny, yet mighty, pollinators.

Environmental canaries in a coal mine Animals have been used as early warning systems to protect human health since at least the early 1900s, when coal miners began taking canaries into the mines to monitor the presence of toxic gases. More recently, animals such as frogs and mussels have been studied as ‘bioindicators’ for monitoring the health of an environment or ecosystem, such as a coastal area or watershed. Genomics is taking this type of environmental monitoring to a whole new level. Effects from pollutants or other environmental stressors often manifest themselves first at the molecular level, well before the animals show obvious physical signs. Scientists are using genomics tools to detect these effects sooner, help identify possible causes and measure impacts on the environment as well as human health.

Atlantic salmon swim to the forefront of science The International Cooperation to Sequence the Atlantic Salmon Genome (ICSASG) is a multi-phase research initiative formed to chart new knowledge about this salmonid species. The challenges facing fisheries and aquaculture in BC are not limited to only our region — other regions in the world face similar challenges.

Therefore, Genome BC is collaborating with international partners in Chile and Norway to collectively conduct research which is expected to generate a high-quality resource for those responsible for the management of wild salmon stocks and the salmon aquaculture industry, as well as providing a reference genome for work with other salmonids.

Genome BC’s research portfolio is funded by the Province of British Columbia, the Government of Canada through both Genome Canada and Western Economic Diversification and over 100 end-user, industry and international partners.

Contact: Richard Howlett Email: rhowlett@genomebc.ca Tel: 604-637-4379

2/7/12 2:06:13 PM

Supplied by

BORDEN LADNER GERVAIS LLP

www.blg.com

World-class service, local expertise The life sciences industry

K

he current global economic environment poses one of the largest challenges ever facing the life sciences industry. Despite this turmoil, there remains tremendous opportunities for companies in the life sciences industry to deliver true innovation and value. !LONG THIS JOURNEY WHETHER IT BE LOOKING for ďŹ nancing or liquidity to extend your runway, growing your pipeline through in-licensing, acquisition or carrying out your own research development, protecting, asserting or defending your inventions, conducting clinical trials, navigating regulatory hurdles or helping you execute on your exit strategy or strategic alliance, Borden Ladner GerVAIS ,,0 ",' WILL BE WITH YOU EVERY step of the way.

BLGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world-class service BLG has the depth and breadth of expertise and experience to advise companies of all sizes, from start-ups to established pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, through all stages of a technologyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s or productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life cycle, from innovation to commercialization. !T ",' WE UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGES FACED BY LIFE SCIENCES COMpanies. Our national life sciences team is entrepreneurial, business-minded, and has strong scientiďŹ c and technical backgrounds. ! NUMBER OF OUR PROFESSIONALS WHETHER THEY BE LAWYERS OR PATENT agents, have worked in in-house positions or have served as external general counsel to Canadian and multi-national companies that give them a unique perspective when working with clients.

Our clients work with a team of professionals, knowledgeable of the industry and focused on delivering client-centred service.

In building a team for the client, we draw on professionals from across the country who offer a balance of expertise, experience and local contact. In particular, BLG has lawyers and patent agents with substantial experience in pharmaceutical litigation and medicine-pricing regulatory issues.

It is with that same pioneering vision that the life sciences professionals at our western ofďŹ ces have built their practices.

The Western Life Sciences Group at BLG has the bench strength to help you mitigate risk, navigate and compete in an everchanging economic environment.

Serving companies from across Canada and around the globe, our Vancouver and Calgary offices offer unparalleled local support. Partners of BLGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Western Life Science Group each have more than 10 years of experience working in the life sciences sector. s ! LAKA #HATTERJEE LAWYER AND patent agent) s *ASON (OWG CORPORATE COMMERCIAL and IP lawyer and patent and trademark agent) s 7ARREN ,EARMONTH SECURITIES LAWYER s ! NDREW ,OH CORPORATE COMMERCIAL and regulatory lawyer) s "RAD 0IERCE SECURITIES LAWYER s %RIN 0ISKO PATENT AGENT With clients ranging from publicly traded and privately held corporations, universities, and research institutions, operating in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, and vaccines, BLG has one of Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading life sciences practices.

Partnering for success BLG is committed to providing not only world-class legal advice and services, but also excellent value as fee arrangements other than billing at an hourly rate are also available where appropriate.

We look forward to being part of your team, and being with you every step of the way.

Contact !NDREW ,OH Email: aloh@blg.com Tel: 604-640-4069 Tel: 416-367-6142

*ASON (OWG Email: JHOWG BLG COM Tel: 403-232-9415

BLGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Western Life Sciences Group Western Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation for breakthrough discoveries, world-class research and development are highly sought after in Canada and around the globe. Combined, British Columbia AND !LBERTA HAVE SIGNIlCANT STRENGTH TO COVER A BROAD SPECTRUM of innovation.

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 5

2/7/12 2:06:14 PM

Supplied by

THE CENTRE FOR DRUG RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ď&#x161;ŽCDRDď&#x161;Ż

www.cdrd.ca

Transforming discovery into opportunity

K

h e C e nt r e f o r D r u g Resea rch a nd Development (CDR D) is a national not-for-proďŹ t drug development and commercialization centre that deRISKS DISCOVERIES STEMMING from publicly-funded health research, and transforms them into viable investment opportunities for the private sector â&#x20AC;&#x201C; thereby bridging the commercialization gap between academia and INDUSTRY We do this by collaboratING WITH OUR NETWORK OF OVER PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS FROM 20+ affiliated research institutions across Canada and select international centres to identify commercially promising projects, and then providing the state-of-the-art specialized drug development facilities, scientific and business expertise, and professional project management needed to advance the techNOLOGIES TO A STAGE WHERE THEY ARE SUFlCIENTLY DE RISKED FOR PRIVATE SECTOR CONSIDERATION CDRDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team collaborates with principal investigators to UNDERTAKE PROJECTS WITH THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF COMMERCIAL POTENtial, screened against rigorous scientiďŹ c and business criteria to OPTIMALLY DESIGN THEM FOR COMMERCIAL SUCCESS -ILESTONE DRIVEN

outcomes-focused drug development under professional project MANAGEMENT IS THEN UNDERTAKEN AS THE PROJECTS ARE CARRIED OUT according to industry practices with strictly deďŹ ned experiments, BUDGETS TIMELINES AND REPORTING To support the projects, CDRD facilitates the leveraging of external funding via granting agencies, and through funds raised VIA #$2$ S ESTABLISHED PARTNERSHIPS WITH INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRY 4HIS STRUCTURE ENABLES #$2$ TO CARRY OUT KEY EXPERIMENTS ON A NUMBER OF PROJECTS PER YEAR ENHANCING THEIR DATA PACKAGES TO identify those showing therapeutic and commercialization potenTIAL AND MAKING THEM INCREASINGLY ATTRACTIVE TO POTENTIAL COMMERCIALIZATION PARTNERS /UR COMMERCIAL ARM #$2$ 6ENTURES )NC #6) ACTS AS THE INTERFACE BETWEEN #$2$ AND INDUSTRY #6) IN LICENSES SELECTED intellectual property generated from CDRD projects directly from the afďŹ liated institution or inventor, and forms strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to FURTHER DEVELOP AND COMMERCIALIZE TECHNOLOGIES 0ROlTS FROM #6) mOW BACK TO #$2$ TO SUPPORT FURTHER ONGOING DRUG DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 6

Si nce becomi ng f u l ly operational just four years ago, CDR D has ex pa nded from a provincial to a national organization, been recognized as a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) by the Federal Government, and emerged as one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading drug development and commercialization organizations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; while successfully achieving all our original objectives: s )NCREASING 2 $ CAPACITY in British Columbia by building a full pre-clinical drug development platform with 85 full-time highly qualiďŹ ed staff; s -AKING RESEARCH DISCOVERIES MORE ATTRACTIVE FOR CLINICAL DEVELopment and commercialization by successfully advancing 40 technologies toward commercialization; s 0ROVIDING A NEW RESEARCH AND TRAINING MODEL FOR BUILDING THE pool of highly-qualified personnel by training 83 post-docs, co-op students and interns; and s &UELING AND STRENGTHENING THE REPUTATION OF "# S LIFE SCIENCES community and attracting investment by becoming internationally recognized as a leading model and organization, establishing afďŹ liations with academic Centres of Excellence on four continents, and developing partnerships and attracting investment from the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top global pharmaceutical companies INCLUDING 2OCHE 0lZER AND *OHNSON AND *OHNSON 5LTIMATELY THROUGH THE WORK OF #$2$ HEALTH RESEARCH DISCOVeries have a much greater prospect of being developed into new medicines; the life sciences industry is fuelled with a robust pipeline of new pre-validated technologies; and the societal returns on PUBLIC RESEARCH INVESTMENT ARE MAXIMIZED Contact: For more information on The Centre for Drug Research AND $EVELOPMENT PLEASE VISIT WWW CDRD CA

2/7/12 2:06:16 PM

Supplied by

SIRONA BIOCHEM

www.sironabiochem.com

Portfolio of enhanced carbohydrate compounds

J

irona Biochem is a biotechnology company specializing in carbohydrate-based chemistry. With our subsidiary TFChem, we are applying a proprietary chemistry technology towards the development of an SGLT inhibitor for diabetes, a cancer vaccine antigen, depigmenting and anti-aging agents for cosmetic use, adjuvants for biological material preservation and inducers for recombinant protein production.

Therapeutics – SGLT inhibitor for type 2 diabetes & cancer vaccine antigen Preclinical studies continue for Sirona Biochem’s SGLT inhibitor program for diabetes. Preliminary studies in rodents demonstrated that the company’s compound eliminated glucose through the urine in a dose-dependent manner. The compound also reduced blood glucose excursions following a glucose challenge against untreated groups. Ancillary pharmacology studies such as in vitro ADME, toxicology and safety profiles have been completed. The most recent study of diabetic rats treated with Sirona’s compound showed a reduction in glycemia similar to control lean rats. There were strong correlations between the decrease in blood glucose level and the excretion of urinary glucose. A preclinical package is expected to be ready by the end of 2012. A patent was filed in 2008 for a first family of new chemical entities. Another application was filed in 2011 to protect a second family of compounds.

Sirona Biochem is also developing a stable Tn Antigen towards the development of a new anti-TACA cancer vaccine. A patent has been filed in 2010 and converted to PCT in 2011 in order to protect the technology.

In addition to the skin depigmenting agent, Sirona Biochem’s cosmeceutical portfolio also includes compounds that maintain the viability of skin fibroblasts under stress conditions. Studies are being undertaken to further evaluate this new family of compounds as anti-aging agents.

Biological ingredients – inducers & adjuvants Sirona Biochem is also producing biological inducers to initiate protein expression in E.coli more efficiently than currently marketed inducers. These enhanced and more stable inducers will contribute to improve production and product margins of recombinant proteins. In a recent study, Sirona Biochem’s inducer compound induced synthesis of a soluble recombinant protein in E.coli for up to 24 hours.

In addition, Sirona Biochem’s compound produced more protein compared to a commercially available inducer at the same concentration and demonstrated a longer duration of effect. Studies also demonstrate that our inducer can induce expression at a concentration far below the commercially available inducer. A second phase of testing will be performed on two additional, more challenging proteins to express. The studies are expected to be completed in the 2nd quarter of 2012. A patent was filed in 2011 and further expansion of the patent is planned for 2012.

Sirona Biochem’s Biological Ingredients program also includes adjuvants for organ, tissue and cell preservation destined for culture or transplant. A new series of glycopeptides has been identified for this purpose and studies are underway to further evaluate their preservation properties.

Commercialization strategy Cosmeceuticals – skin depigmenting & anti-aging agents for cosmetic application Sirona Biochem’s subsidiary, TFChem, is developing depigmenting agents as skin lighteners for cosmetic use. These agents are mimetics of arbutin and will be evaluated to determine their ability to inhibit melanin synthesis on skin explants. Toxicity studies will also be conducted to test the compounds for irritation, sensitization, phototoxicity, ocular tolerability, genotoxicity and skin microbial toxicity on cell culture and skin explants. In November 2011, TFChem received a major funding grant from the French government to advance its depigmenting agent program to a commercially-ready stage. A patent was filed in 2011 to protect the structure, chemical process and applications of this family of compounds.

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 7

Sirona Biochem Corp. plans to develop its programs to completion of preclinical studies. It will seek a partner for clinical and commercial development of its programs. The company is prepared to begin partnering discussions on three programs – SGLT inhibitor for diabetes, biological inducer for recombinant protein production and the skin depigmenting agent to be used as a skin lightener for cosmetics. The company is publicly-traded on the TSX-Venture Exchange in Canada under the stock symbol SBM and company continues to raise capital through private placements and seek non-dilutive funding through grants.

Contact: Sean Cunliffe, Chief Business Officer Email: scunliffe@sironabiochem.com Tel: 604-282-6062

2/7/12 2:06:16 PM

Supplied by

STEMCELL TECHNOLOGIES INC

www.stemcell.com

STEMCELL Technologies Inc – BC’s largest biotech company STEMCELL Technologies Inc. is a global leader in the rapidly growing healthcare research sector. The company develops and manufactures high quality standardized tissue culture media, cell separation reagents and instruments and distributes them to customers in over 70 countries. Our products support leading edge scientific research in stem cell biology, immunology, cell therapy, regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and drug discovery.

STEMCELL is an international firm with over 400 science-oriented employees in 10 countries, including: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Australia, Singapore and China. Our head office, research and manufacturing activities are all located in our Vancouver facilities. Founded in 1993, STEMCELL remains privately held, with profits re-invested to spur greater product innovation and to support growth which averages over 20% per annum.

Award winning specialized media products: 2011 Breakthrough Product in Stem Cell Research Our scientists are constantly developing novel, cutting-edge media that support academic and industrial stem cell researchers. These efforts were recognized at the 2011 Life Science Industry Awards® with STEMCELL winning the 2011 award for Breakthrough Product in Stem Cell Research. The 2011 Life Science Industry Awards were selected by 6,082 life scientists, drawn from all regions of the world, who nominated and voted for the best performing supplier in 29 distinct product categories. These awards provide a unique venue allowing scientists to recognize the quality and innovation of their suppliers upon whose products the success of their research depends.

Cell separation products STEMCELL has also developed novel cell separation products which allow researchers to isolate virtually any cell type, including immune, hematopoietic, mammary, mesenchymal and tumour cells. The platforms used to isolate cells include EasySep™ – an immunomagnetic approach, and RosetteSep™ – an immunodensity approach.

Research robotics In addition to development of media and cell separation kits, STEMCELL has also developed a number of instruments to automate life science research. RoboSep™ is a fully automated system for cell separation, designed to save technicians time and to standardize cell separation procedures. STEMvision™ was recently launched to automate the identification and counting of hematopoietic colony-forming cell assays required in bone marrow research, cord blood banks and transplantation labs. Our new ClonaCell™ EasyP-

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 8

ick, developed in collaboration with Hamilton Robotics, accelerates cell line development by automating clone selection.

A global exporter with ISO certification STEMCELL Technologies has solid manufacturing capabilities in our headquarters in the Lower Mainland. We are proud to have earned ISO 13485:2003 certification for our research, manufacturing and shipping facilities in Canada, the US and France. Our processes incorporate rigorous selection of raw materials and exacting quality control processes that have made STEMCELL a symbol for quality in life science research.

Helping scientists locally and globally STEMCELL is committed to working together with scientists to develop new products that will help perform their experiments quickly and reliably. Where needed, our team is able to discuss specific experimental requirements with researchers, and design and manufacture customized reagents tailored to their needs. STEMCELL’s Contract Assay Service also works with pharma and biotech scientists to develop and perform f lexible custom-designed experiments. In addition, STEMCELL supports all customers in achieving consistent research results by offering personalized training courses and access to timely and effective technical assistance.

Committed to science and scientists STEMCELL’s teams have participated in more than 200 collaborative projects in 18 different countries. With over $3.5 million dollars in contributions to the Canadian Stem Cell Network and over forty local research group collaborations, STEMCELL is actively driving Canadian research. Locally, STEMCELL has collaborated with and helped fund over forty research groups.

Come grow with us We have a number of positions currently open for both lab-based and business roles in our Research and Development, Manufacturing, Quality Control, Microbiology, Marketing and Sales departments.

We advertise new positions often – check our website regularly.

STEMCELL is constantly looking for talented scientists in a variety of departments. If you have a PhD or MSc in a relevant field and would like to be considered for an upcoming position, please visit our website at stemcell.com and submit your resume through job posting “Future Positions.” Please be sure to indicate the department(s) that are of interest to you.

Contact: For more information about STEMCELL Technologies, please visit www.stemcell.com.

2/7/12 2:06:18 PM

Supplied by

MICHAEL SMITH FOUNDATION FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

www.msfhr.org

Investing in a healthier BC

@

n 1993, UBC researcher Dr. Michael porting discovery, our awards have a proven Smith became British Columbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first multiplier effect, improving researchersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Nobel Laureate, earning international ability to engage teams and attract additionacclaim for his groundbreaking advances in al funding to advance knowledge on critigenetic studies. For Dr. Smith, a humble and cal health issues. We also fund systems and gregarious molecular biologist, the Nobel networks to share resources across the provPrize was the culmination of a brilliant ince, including BC BioLibrary, BC Clinical Genomics Network, BC Proteomics Network, career. For BC, it was a milestone pointCentre for Drug Research and Development, ing to the provinceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential as a leader in and Population Data BC. health research. )NSPIRED BY $R 3MITH S LIFELONG COMmitment to supporting BC researchers, Solutions for BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health system the Michael Smith Foundation for Health MSFHR plays a vital role in mobilizing 2ESEARCH -3&(2 WAS FOUNDED IN BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health research community to identify with a mandate to enhance the provinceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urgent priorities and fast-track the developCAPACITY FOR WORLD CLASS RESEARCH /VER THE ment of solutions. As a respected non-parpast decade, we have partnered with the tisan facilitator, we bring together people MSFHR is named for Nobel Laureate, Dr. provincial government to invest more than as part of collaborative networks and platMichael Smith (1932 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2000), a pre-eminent MILLION IN NURTURING TALENT AND BUILDforms that put research knowledge to use in BC scientist whose commitment to excellence ing infrastructure across all areas of health improving health care. Among the projects positioned BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health research community on research. The result has been a remarkable we have funded and managed are: the world stage. transformation of BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health research landscape. s "# .URSING 2ESEARCH )NITIATIVE n SUPPORTING RESEARCH ON NURSING At the time of MSFHRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founding, BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health research enterpractice and policy prise was at a crossroads. Despite the success of Dr. Smith and s -ONITORING %VALUATION AND ,EARNING 3YSTEM -%,3 n EVALUATother research leaders, the province was under-performing in its ing health system change initiatives ability to attract federal grant funding and faced the loss of top s "# %THICS (ARMONIZATION )NITIATIVE n STREAMLINING THE ETHICS scientists to other jurisdictions. MSFHR has played a central role review process for multi-centre research studies in reversing this trend and creating a vibrant research community s 2APID RESPONSE RESEARCH n ADDRESSING URGENT HEALTH ISSUES SUCH that is now recognized worldwide. We have funded more than as SARS and H1N1 1,800 research-related positions and promoted connections and MSFHR is a provincial leader in knowledge translation and collaboration across sectors. frequently convenes forums and workshops to promote the effecAs BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s provincial health research support agency, MSFHR tive application of research evidence by scientists and end-users. takes a province-wide view of health research gaps and opportu- We also bring together universities, health authorities, charitable nities with a focus on two priorities: investments in people and organizations, and government stakeholders for health research resources, and solutions for BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health system. planning and action.

As we enter our second decade under the leadership of new PresIDENT #%/ $R $IANE &INEGOOD -3&(2 WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT Investments in people and resources MSFHR funding programs build BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research capacity by recruit- our best and brightest to discover, connect and engage to improve ing and retaining top scientists, helping them build strong research the health of individuals across BC and around the world. programs, and supporting the mentorship of up-and-coming invesTIGATORS /UR AWARD COMPETITIONS HAVE FUNDED MORE THAN Contact: Bev Holmes, PhD, Vice-President, %XTERNAL 2ELATIONS "USINESS 3TRATEGY RESEARCHERS n FROM STUDENTS TO SENIOR INVESTIGATORS n AND RESEARCH TEAMS 4HESE RESEARCHERS ARE ACTIVE ACROSS THE PROVINCE EXAMINING E-mail: bholmes@msfhr.org everything from cells and genes to treatments and cures, disease Tel: 604-714-6600 prevention and health system improvements.

MSFHR funding has supported numerous discoveries and â&#x20AC;&#x153;world ďŹ rstsâ&#x20AC;? that have improved health and saved lives. Among these breakthroughs are better protection for the brains of newborns, improved detection of autism in children and new approachES TO THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF CANCER )N ADDITION TO SUP-

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 9

2/7/12 2:06:19 PM

Supplied by

BRI BIOPHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH

www.bripharm.com

BRI ...your drug development specialist “We strive to earn your trust and confidence”

=

or more t ha n t wo decades, BRI has assisted hundreds of biotech and pharmaceutical companies on their pre-clinical and clinical development programs.

Being one of the few privately owned CRO with capabilities in bioanalytical, in-vivo and in-vitro DMPK and xenograf t animal models in Western Canada, BRI’s uncompromising study protocols, stringent quality control measures, and relevant study design allows them to build trusted and long-lasting partnerships with their highly valued clients.

The success stories In 2004 and 2007, two virtual biotech companies located in San Francisco and Los Angeles engaged BRI for development of bioanalytical assays in support of their IND-enabling and clinical program. In 2009, both companies licensed their drug candidates to big pharmaceutical companies for $700 million and $900 million, respectively.

A Seattle biotech company approached BRI in 2008 for a series of in-vivo and in-vitro DMPK and mechanistic studies. This biotech company was acquired for $600 million in 2011.

BRI’s successful track record in providing accurate and quality data while adhering to the strict guidelines of GLP, cGMP, and FDA regulations has played an important role in these companies’ success.

GLP accreditation by Standard Council of Canada BRI is accredited by Standard Council of Canada for its GLP compliance while holding a current GMP Establishment Licence through Health Canada. All IND enabling studies and clinical bioanalytical studies performed at BRI follow the following regulations and guidelines. This allows data generated at BRI to be submitted to USA, Canada, Japan and all OECD countries. s 5NITED 3TATES &OOD $RUG !DMINISTRATION &$!

21 CFR Part 58 s *APANESE -INISTRY OF (EALTH ,ABOR AND 7ELFARE -(,7

Ordinance No. 21 s /RGANIZATION FOR %CONOMIC #OOPERATION AND $EVELOPMENT (OECD), Series on Principles of Good Laboratory Practice and Compliance Monitoring Monograph #1 to 15 14

metabolism studies including metabolic stability, inhibition, induction and ADMET related plasma protein binding studies are often performed at BRI to define druglike properties.

AAALAC accredited animal facility with cytotoxic drugs handling capability BRI’s rodent facility is accredited by AAALAC and has performed numerous dose range finding, PK, bioavailability, metabolite excretion and mass balance studies.

Dried blood spot assay technique is used to allow serial blood collection in small rodents to reduce variability of PK data.

With Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) and cytotoxic compound handling capabilities, cell-based and patient-derived xenograft models for oncology drug efficiency screening are offered at BRI. Their cell repository contains over 100 cancer cell lines, providing a wide selection and flexibility to its clients.

Thermo Watson™ LIMS data management system To support IND-enabling animal TK/PK or clinical PK, the use of Thermo Watson™ LIMS for sample and data management is a plus. BRI’s bar code system enables BRI to store and manage thousands of samples and process its data effectively and efficiently.

To handle multiple site clinical studies, bar-coded labeled sample vials, customized sample collection kits, ultra low temperature freezer, IATA and TDG specified shipping container, pre-filled waybills and commercial invoices are just a few solutions that BRI offers to allow a smooth sailing of their clients’ clinical studies.

Stand out from the crowd The clients of BRI benefit from a wide range of services including LC/MS/MS bioanalytical assay, ELISA assay, hybridization assay, in-vivo and in-vitro DMPK and efficacy xenograft models.

These services are delivered by highly experienced scientists with specializations in the development of synthetic small molecules, microRNAs, RNAs, nucleotides and peptides drugs.

BRI is known for providing “fit-for-purpose” research in integrated drug development with competitive pricing. It has an outstanding record of client satisfaction and dedication to meet the highest standards in scientific “best-practices,” integrity of data, timeliness and professional service.

C nuclear substance licence

With 14C nuclear substance licence, BRI can efficiently identify metabolites and determine tissue distribution using 14C-labeled compounds.

In additional to metabolite identification, other in-vitro

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 10

Contact: Ms. Clara Faan, VP Business Development Phone: 604-432-9237 x224

2/7/12 2:06:20 PM

Supplied by

TEES CONSULTING CORP

www.teesconsulting.com

Fun with patents Private corporation since May 2008 Location: Vancouver, B.C. Sales in 2011: about $190K

Business Provision of patent-related services, namely patent procurement, patent portfolio building and maintenance, patent or portfolio assessments for IP licensing or purchase, and the preparation of freedom to operate opinions

Personnel Three: Susan Tees, B.Sc., Registered Patent Agent, one part-time accountant, one parttime office assistant.

History Susan fell in love with patents when she was introduced to a filing cabinet full of them in 1987, while she was a young microbiology undergrad working for a company called Quadra Logic Technologies (now QLT Inc.). Asked to catalogue the contents of the cabinet, she became fascinated by the pattern of application, objection and arguments that formed patent prosecution.

Many years have passed since 1987, and Susan has worked for a number of Vancouver companies to provide each with their own filing cabinets full of patents. She wrote the patent bar exams in the United States (1999), and Canada (2004) and became a registered patent agent. When Susan opened Tees Consulting in 2008, she traded dealing with filing cabinets for dealing directly with people.

“The people who start businesses believe in their dreams, and are courageous enough to bet their livelihoods on making them come true. It is a thrill to be able to help them achieve their goals.”

Susan’s patent practice falls into three categories: set up and ongoing support for clients with existing patent families, diligence for venture capital financing, and patent procurement for independent inventors.

Susan is not a lawyer, but a patent agent authorized to perform patent prosecution and offer patent-related opinions and services.

Competition There are good patent law firms in town, and in the United States, that Susan has to compete against for clients. These other firms offer quality work, but Susan has some advantages over them. Without a pool of support staff or a downtown office to pay for, she can afford to keep her rates low. Without hundreds of clients including large corporations, Susan is unlikely to be conflicted out of providing defensive services when a smaller client needs them.

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 11

Process When Susan meets prospective clients, she helps them determine whether filing a patent is truly in their interest, and what it will do for their businesses. For example, spending $150,000 on patenting something internationally, when sales will not exceed $5,000 and the market is only North America, is a poor strategy!

Before an inventor engages a patent agent to secure his invention as a patent application (prior to discussing it with others, for example), he should be aware of what alternatives are available to any potential buyer, and really put himself in the buyer’s shoes. Does the invention solve a problem, reduce costs or improve performance? Can the effect of the invention be achieved without the invention?

If filing a patent application still makes sense, does the proposed “invention” qualify for a patent? The general rules of novelty, inventiveness and usefulness are fairly universal across borders. The invention must not have been discussed, shown publically, or sold.

Clients should understand how much patenting will cost before they begin. Drafting and filing a patent application is not the only cost involved in obtaining and keeping a patent, although at $3,000 to $8,000, it is certainly a large one. Over the next three to five years, Susan will advocate for the patent application before the patent office in order to have it granted. The work this will take can only be estimated, but may be a few thousand dollars more. Some countries, including Canada, charge annuities for every year a patent is pending, and for every year after grant until expiry (20 years after filing). It is definitely a “user pay” system.

Challenges Tees revenues depend on many variables over which Susan has no control. Her clients are all people she has worked for before, or people referred to her, and their businesses change over time. She also has a small network of colleagues with similar but not identical practices with whom she trades leads. “However, we eat from the same table, and the recession has made everyone a little hungrier these days.” To get and keep clients, one has to be very competitive.

“There are patent attorneys in the United States charging $1,000 per hour, and to spend $20,000 on a single over-drafted patent application was common. Now, there is seems to be a healthy appetite for straightforward quality at a more reasonable fee.”

Contact: Susan Tees Email: stees@teesconsulting.com Phone: 604-839-4284

2/7/12 2:06:21 PM

Supplied by

MPI RESEARCH

www.mpiresearch.com

Leading the way in early drug and device development

D

PI Research is a f ull-ser v ice Contract Research Organization that partners with biopharmaceutical, medical device, animal health, and chemical companies in meeting their preclinical research and development needs. Scientific knowledge and experience, integrity, trust, teamwork, and dedication to strong and enduring sponsor relationships are the defining attributes that characterize us as a highperformance, high-quality organization committed to bringing safer and more effective products to the world.

Our open and responsive culture is evident in the collegial, collaborative atmosphere where we conduct thousands of drug safety, discovery, bioanalytical, and analytical studies each year.

MPI Research, with global headquarters in Mattawan, Michigan, takes pride in being selected by companies who want a CRO partner on the leading edge of drug development.

Committed to excellence in quality across all services and at all levels, MPI Research operates in full compliance with international, federal, and state regulatory agencies. Our regulatory and quality assurance programs include s !!!,!# )NTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION s #OMPLIANCE WITH &$! %0!

53$! %-%! /%#$ )#( AND *-(7 GUIDANCES AND REGULATIONS s $EDICATED 1UALITY !SSURANCE WITH REGISTERED 1! PROFESSIONALS 21!0 ',0 s #ONTINUOUS OPERATIONAL AUDITING INCLUDING SUBCONTRACTORS s /NGOING CUSTOMIZED INSPECTION OF ',0 STUDIES AND REPORTS s ,EAN 3IX 3IGMA Our sponsors not only benefit from our familiarity with regulatory agencies worldwide, but are also able to take full advantage of our state-of-the-art facilities, robust infrastructure, and cuttingedge technology in which we have heavily invested.

Our human resources are especially important to us, since it is impossible to deliver unsurpassed service quality if the staff is not first-rate as well. MPI Research has developed a rigorous selection and training process at all levels of the organization that has produced one of the lowest staff turnover rates in our industry.

The recently completed $65 million growth initiative added 370,000 square feet of capacity to the Mattawan facility, which now totals over one million square feet. It includes large, integrated, environmentally controlled animal rooms, special-purpose laboratories, and resource facilities located throughout the complex to accommodate virtually any type of sponsor need. Our capacity and resources are the reasons we can assure our sponsors of timely study starts and report delivery, to keep their studies moving forward so that research milestones are achieved.

At MPI Research, our dedication to being a solutions-oriented partner goes beyond the modern facilities, innovative procedures, and scientific expertise. Our team of nearly 1,300 employees, ranging from technicians to veterinarians, pathologists, and senior-level scientists, is there for our sponsors to ensure all their needs are met. We are proud of our long-term relationships with our existing sponsors and are equally excited about building partnerships with new ones. Most important, we are committed to the success of all our sponsors, ensuring each the same level of scientific excellence, technical quality, and passion for their success, irrespective of the size and/or number of studies we conduct for them.

Contact: MPI Research Phone: 269-668-3336 Email: info@mpiresearch.com

The quality and integrity of our services are paramount, and we realize that is why so many of our sponsors do repeat business with us. Careful consideration is given to each strategic growth initiative so that these factors are not compromised. Any expansion of facilities is accompanied by proactive growth initiatives for staffing, technology, and equipment.

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 12

2/7/12 2:06:21 PM

Core LifeSciences BC Members

U U

enGene, Inc.

U

U

U

iCo Therapeutics Inc.

U

Indel Therapeutics Inc.

U

iProgen Biotech

U

Kinexus Bioinformatics Corp.

U

MRM Proteomics Inc.

U

MSI Methylation Sciences Inc.

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U U

U

U

Neurological diseases

Metabolic diseases

InďŹ&#x201A;ammatory diseases U

U

U

U U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

PaciďŹ c Rim Laboratories U

Phyton Biotech LLC U

QLT Inc. U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

ReplicCel Life Sciences

U

U

U U

U

STEMSOFT Software Inc

U

U U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

STEMCELL Technologies Inc

U

U

U

Sirius Genomics Inc Sirona Biochem Corp

U

U

U

Qu Biologics Inc.

U

U

U

OncoGenex Technologies Inc.

Protox Therapeutics

U

U U

U

U

U

U

Neurodyn Inc.

Ondine Biopharma Corporation

U

U

U U

U U

U

U

Network Immunology Inc.

U

U

U

U

MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc.

U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

GenomeDx Biosciences

Inimex Pharmaceuticals Inc.

U

U

U

U

Boreal Genomics Cardiome Pharma Corp.

U

U U

U

BioMark Technologies Inc.

Infectious diseases

U

U

Cardiovascular diseases

Augurex

U

Cancer

U

Autoimmune diseases

U

Proteomics

U

Lab reagents

U

Diseases High-throughput screening

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Genomics

U

Gene therapy

U

U

Drug delivery

U

U

Bio-processing

U

U

Tools

Vaccines

U

U

Therapeutics

U

Amgen British Columbia Inc.

Environmental

Allon Therapeutics Inc

Diagnostics

U

Bioinformatics

U

Fields of study

Bio-products

Alectos Therapeutics

On market

Phase 3 clinical studies

Pre-clinical studies

Phase 2 clinical studies

Organizations

Drug discovery

Phase 1 clinical studies

Stage of development

U

U

U U

U

U

U

U

Valocor Therapeutics Inc.

U

U

U

U

Xenon Pharmaceutials Inc.

U

U

U

U

Zalicus Pharmaceuticals Ltd

U

U

U

U

Zymeworks Inc.

U

U

U

U

U

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Vifor Pharma

U

U

U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U

U U

U U

U U

U

U U

U

Please refer to www.lifesciencesbc.ca for further information on these companies.

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 13

2/7/12 2:19:37 PM

Contract Research Organizations

U

Aurora Biomed Inc. BC Cancer Agency's Investigational Drug Program (IDP)

U

U

U

U

BC Preclinical Research Consortium (BC PRC) BRI Biopharmaceutical Research Inc.

Strategic consulting

Regulatory

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

Maxxam Analytics MPI Research, Inc.

U

Northern Lipids Inc.

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U

U

U

U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

Wax-it Histology Services

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

U

U U

Syreon Corp.

Viva Pharmaceutical Inc.

U

U

U

U

U

U

Please refer to www.lifesciencesbc.ca for further information on these companies.

PharmEng Technology U

U

U

U

U U

U

PBR Laboratories Inc.

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 14

U

U U

Lifebank Cryogenics Corp.

SBW LTD

U

U

Globe Laboratories Inc.

PharmaNet/i3

U

U

CanReg Inc.

Healthmetrx (CEQAL)

U

Teaching and training

Data management and statistics

U

Quality assurance

Study monitoring and reporting

U

cGMP/GLP compliance

Phase IV clinical studies

U

Product development

Phase III Clinical studies

U

Contract manufacturing

Phase II clinical studies

ASKA Research

General Services

Phase I clinical studies

Clinical Services

Toxicology

Pathology services

Analytical services

Bioanalytical services

Bioinformatics

Organizations

Drug discovery

Preclinical Services

U

U

2/7/12 2:20:01 PM

Medical Devices

Arbutus Dental Centre Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

U

Biolux Research Ltd. Arbutus Dental Centre

U U

bioLytical Laboratories, Inc. Biolux Research Ltd.

U

U

U

U

Rapid diagnostic device U U U

U U U

Heart Medical Inc. Inc. EmergoForce Canada Consulting

U

Innovatek Medical Inc. Evasc Medical Systems

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U U U

U

U U U

Sorin Group Canada Inc., Neoteric Technology Limited Mitroflow Division

U U

Neovasc Medical Inc. StarFish

U

U

U U

U

U

U U

U

Progressive Health Innovations Inc. / AFX

U

Manufacturer

Developer

Distributor

U U U

U

U

U

U U

U

U U

U U

U U

U U U U

U U U

Starfish Medical

U

U

U U

Implantable Transvascular, Stimulation

U

U U

U

Contract manufacturing (Diabetes)

U

U U

(Transfusion) Cardiovascular

U

U

U U U

U

Blood management Cardiac software

U

U U

U U

U

U Contract manufacturing

U

U

U

U

Airway management Photodisinfection

U

U

U U

Cancer

U

U

U U

U Sports Med, Rehab, Athletic Training

U

U

U U

U

Cardiac

U

U

(Contract Manufacturing)

U

U

Ultrasonix U

U

U

U

U

U

U

U

Women’s healthcare U

U U

Transfusion

Romich Medical Fund Sorin Group

U U

U

U U U

U

U

U

Verisante Premier Diagnostic Health Services Inc

U U

Diabetes

U

Neovasc Inc. LifeScan Canada Ltd. Pyng Medical Corp.

LightIntegra Response Biomedical Corp.

U

U

U U U

U U U

UÊ

U U

U

U

Kardium Inc. Lungpacer Medical, Inc.

Urodynamix Technologies Ltd.

Risk management, softwareNames V&V– Product SimpliClear & ASTICS

U

(Regulatory Consultant)

Innovatek Medical Inc. LightIntegra Technology

Verathon Medical (Canada) ULC Ondine Biomedical Inc.

U

U

Heart Force Medical LifeScan Canada Ltd.

LED Medical Diagnostics

Dental service OEM Dental Service

Daan Diagnostics Farabloc Development Corp.

Kardium Farabloc Development Corp.

LED Medical Diagnostics

Other U

Critical Systems Labs Inc. BioMers Products, LLC Evasc Medical Systems

Company type

Device design

Imaging

Testing instruments

Medical supplies

Dental Device

Organizations

Medical equipment

Fields of study

U

U U

U U

U

U

Please refer to www.lifesciencesbc.ca for further information on these companies.

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 15

2/7/12 2:20:16 PM

Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC

Custom Crafted Intellectual Property Solutions â&#x20AC;Ś Since 1962.

Founded in 1962, Seed IP Law Group is celebrating its 50th anniversary of providing custom crafted intellectual property solutions, including patenting biotechnology advancements. With expertise in immunology, biochemistry and pharmacology, Seed IPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Biotechnology & Chemistry Team consists of a group of scientists who also understand the legal and business side of biotechnology.

206.622.4900

Corporate Profiles 2012.indd 16

www.SeedIP.com

701 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104

2/7/12 2:06:30 PM

Germs of an idea

Researchers and heavy industry in partnership to develop microbes that can remove toxic metals from mining wastewater

By Joel McKay ey players in British Columbia’s mining industry have teamed up with bacteria researchers to design the environmentally friendly mines of the future.

For decades, metal mines throughout the province have been forced to use chemicals and complex pumping systems to remediate tailings ponds contaminated with heavy metals.

Yet a researcher at the University of British Columbia backed by Genome British Columbia and two large mining companies believes that a “passive” system that relies on the earth’s natural filters and bacterial microbes could do a better job of cleaning up the environment.

“The potential is really toward sustainability,” explains Susan Baldwin, an associate professor with UBC’s department of chemical and biological engineering.

“With mining, it’s imperative that the environment be protected … and that’s what we’re aiming to do; that’s our overall goal. If we can do that properly, the mining industry can flourish.”

Baldwin describes her research as harnessing natural systems to return heavy metals to the environment without

K

contaminating the soil or water.

The system she envisions takes contaminated tailings water and uses gravity to pump it through a series of ponds that contain microbes, or biological components, that remove the heavy metals from the water.

She’s specifically focused on the microbes in the ponds, learning which ones work best to remove metals from contaminated water and return them to the environment in insoluble form.

“In nature, everything occurs in a cycle … and all we’re doing is closing the cycle, putting the metals … in their mineral form back in the ground, and in every step in that process microbes are involved in some form,” she says.

Called bioremediation, the project deploys genomics to help researchers understand how the earth’s natural filtration systems interact with heavy metals.

Genome BC, a publicly funded nonprofit organization, started researching the use of microbes to improve environmental remediation several years ago.

It kicked in 630,000 and entered into partnership with industry leaders such as Teck Resources Ltd., Imperial Metals Corp.

BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 25

LifeSciences/2012

25

3/19/12 8:50:13 PM

Mine wastewater, as shown at the Mount Polley mine, owned by Imperial Metals in northern B.C., can be cleaned up with microbes that filter heavy metals

“Together We Can Stop HIV and AIDS.” — Dr. Julio Montaner

The British Columbia Centre for E xcel lence i n HI V/A IDS (BC-Cf E) is Canada’s largest HIV/AIDS research, treatment, and education facility.

Over the past 20 years, the BCCf E has pioneered many lifesaving innovations, like the groundbreaking Treatment as Prevention strategy. This madein-BC approach has been endorsed by international organizations like UNAIDS and WHO, and called the “scientific breathrough of the year” for 2011.

Now HIV-positive people who are medically eligible and engaged earlier in treatment can expect to live decades of healthy, productive lives. Furthermore, HIV treatment can dramatically decrease the likelihood of transmission.

To find out more about how the BC-CfE is leading the fight against HIV and AIDS visit:

www.cfe.ubc.ca facebook.com/bccfe twitter.com/bccfe

26

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 26

and Nature Works Remediation Corp. to fund a 1.5-million program to improve the mining sector’s clean-up capabilities.

“Genomics in this context is just a slice of what [mining companies] have to do, but each slice or gain is going to make the industry more competitive, and that’s good for B.C.,” says Richard Howlett, director of business development at Genome BC. He explains that bioremediation systems in the past have generated positive environmental results for mining companies but that scientists still struggled to understand how they worked and how to optimize performance.

“It was a black box,” says Al Mattes, owner of Nature Works, in Rossland, B.C. “You built a box, filled it full of [wood] chips [and] pumped water containing sulphate and dissolved metals in one end, and it [came] out the other end clean.

“What’s going on [on] the inside? We knew bacteria were involved, but we didn’t know which bacteria and how many there were.”

Today, Baldwin’s job is to determine which bacteria are involved and how to maximize their ability to treat contamination.

Meanwhile, mining companies such as Teck and Imperial provide hands-on expertise in designing and testing these passive systems.

And this, suggests Mattes, represents a change.

“The real problem is we have met with resistance from the mining industry because it’s not a tried and true technology,” says Mattes.

Yet at least one other regional company has found success using biology to treat contaminated water.

Vancouver-based BioteQ Environmental Technologies has built 14 plants around the world that convert wastewater into a useful resource.

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:17 PM

BioteQ Environmental Technologies uses sulphides to recover dissolved metals from wastewater and transform them into a saleable product

“With mining, it’s imperative that the environment be protected … . If we can do that properly, the mining industry can flourish” – Susan Baldwin, associate professor, department of chemical and biological engineering, University of British Columbia

Although its plants don’t use passive, gravity-fed systems such as those Baldwin is researching, BioteQ relies on anaerobic bioreactors generating sulphide reagents that selectively remove heavy metals from contaminated water.

“It would be like reversing sugar dissolved in coffee,” says Tanja McQueen, Bioteq’s vice-president corporate development. “They’re coming out of being dissolved and precipitating back into a solid.”

In addition to cleaning up the wastewater, BioteQ’s system can also produce a resource that can then be sold to the market, generating another revenue

stream for mining companies.

Baldwin hopes her research might also one day result in a water-treatment system that generates additional revenue for mining companies.

Howlett believes it could also be used to clean up abandoned mine sites throughout the province, but he, like Baldwin, recognizes that as fascinating as bioremediation is, the science behind it is still a ways off from everyday use.

He comments, “We want people to know about it. … It does have long-term applications, but this isn’t something that’s going to have field trials next year.” Ą BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 27

LifeSciences/2012

27

3/19/12 8:50:18 PM

Global biotech converges in Vancouver Tenth annual BioPartnering North America conference fosters international strategic networking

I

n February 2012, Vancouver hosted BioPartnering North America (BPN), one of the the continent’s largest life-science conferences. Delegates from 422 companies and 28 countries converged to learn about the latest advances in biotechnology, from new discoveries and developments of

28

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 28

biopharmaceuticals to treat infectious diseases to promising early-stage technologies for medical devices. BPN also provided an opportunity for companies to network and develop strategic partnerships.

“BPN was a tremendous occasion to become familiar with British Columbia’s

leading biotech companies,” says George Hoffmann, president and chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Network Immunology Inc. Reflecting on the value of his meetings for his company as a startup, he says they “allowed for potential collaboration with pharmaceutical companies in the future. And the underlying theme of the conference became very apparent, which was that all those who attended were somehow involved in contributing to the improvement of quality of life.”

BPN was also important for the international delegations, with several companies from France attending.

“This year, the French Trade Commission UBifrance Canada brought 15 delegates from biotech companies, making France the most important European delegation,” says Marine Bougeard, trade attaché (life sciences), UBifrance Canada. “During the conference, the delegates made the most of the B2B meetings and networking events to develop and increase their international business relations. In addition, the French delegates had the opportunity to visit local research centres and meet with biotech companies, which is a strong asset in attracting the delegation to Vancouver because they’re always eager to learn more about the industry in British Columbia.”

The fact that many strategic partnerships were developed in Vancouver at BPN will have served to enhance the position of B.C. as a global leader in life sciences. Ą

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:21 PM

Stars of B.C.

Partnerships are key to a constellation of companies

iCo Therapeutics president and CEO Andrew Rae has his eye on a treatment for diabetic macular edema

BY PETER MITHAM

B

ritish Columbia’s life-science companies forge partnerships with well-known international investors.

BioPartnering North America and similar opportunities help the sector garner the support it needs to pursue world-class research into a wide range of conditions, therapies and other areas.

Here are some of today’s highlights.

What’s in the works Zymeworks Inc. develops antibody and protein-based therapies for the treatment of cancers, autoimmune disorders and inflammatory diseases using a

proprietary development platform. Since its incorporation in 2003, Zymeworks has focussed on collaborative arrangements. Its partners have included the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, as well as Xoma Ltd. of California and Koninklijke DSM N.V. of the Netherlands. Merck & Co., Inc. recently formed a partnership with Zymeworks to develop bispecific antibodies.

These relationships have paid off for Zymeworks in the form of 8.1 million in funding from private shareholders, CTI Life Sciences Fund L.P. and Advanced Biotechnologies Venture Fund.

Neil Klompas, chief financial officer,

says the funding will “provide planning certainty and will allow us to maximize shareholder value as we advance our biotherapeutics technology platforms into subsequent commercial collaborations.”

Molecular money Nancy Harrison’s track record with such B.C. success stories as Oncogenex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is helping another star to shine. MSI Methylation Sciences Inc., which Harrison co-founded in 2007 with Barry Guld, raised 19 million in September 2011. The financing, led by international biotech investor Inventages, provides MSI the cash needed to support BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 29

LifeSciences/2012

29

3/19/12 8:50:26 PM

LEFT: Michael Abrams, a

director of Indel: developing tools to combat microbial resistance to antibiotics

BELOW: Proteomics – the study of proteins – is one of the bright lights in Victoria’s life-science sector, with a lab at the University of Victoria dedicated to its pursuit

clinical development of its lead molecule.

MSI uses its molecules as the bases of dietary supplements and other pharmaceuticals. Past financing has been provided by the Working Opportunity Fund (EVCC) Ltd., managed by GrowthWorks, BC Advantage Funds and angel investors.

Trial time Since its founding in 2008, Indel Therapeutics Inc. has raised a total of 1.9 million in private financing to support its development of small-molecule-based drugs to fight microbes increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics.

Co-founders Neil Reiner and veteran venture capitalist Malcolm Kendall have attracted support from AnorMed Inc. cofounder Michael Abrams and Xenon cofounder Simon Pimstone, who serve as directors of Indel. This expertise puts the company in good stead as it advances several of its antibiotics through animal testing and seeks development partners among major pharmaceutical companies.

Brain gain Backed by approximately 70 million in financing since 2004, Allon Therapeutics Inc. is proceeding with stage-2/3 clinical trials aimed at fighting forms of cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. Its lead drug, davunetide, is a so-called orphan 30 LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 30

BIV Magazines

pharmaceutical that Allon has found to have significant impact on memory and performance of daily activities. It is also a biomarker of brain-cell function and integrity.

The latest round of financing is a 5.4-million investment led by GMP Securities LP. It will support clinical trials and administrative expenses associated with testing on patients with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rapidly progressing and fatal movement disorder with dementia that is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

Far-sighted A million-dollar infusion is fuelling clinical trials of drugs targeting sightrelated diseases by iCo Therapeutics Inc. Since its formation as a UBC spinoff in 2007, the company has identified three pharmaceuticals for reformulation and commercialization. August 2011 saw iCo announce a physician-sponsored Phase 2 clinical investigation in the United States

of iCo-007, one of the drugs it thinks has potential in the treatment of diabetic macular edema. ICo is also pursuing a research-collaboration agreement with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation regarding prevention, treatment and cure of type-1 diabetes.

Wedded to it B.C. is a powerhouse of genome sequencing.

Now, thanks to 2.2 million from Western Economic Diversification Canada (WEDC), Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre has purchased three genome sequencers that boost its sequencing capacity and lower costs. This helps ensure affordable access to the technology and gives Photo (top): Dominic Schaefer Photography

3/19/12 8:50:31 PM

New Illumina DNA sequencers boost the research capacity of Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre thanks to funding from Western Economic Diversification Canada

a competitive advantage to researchers engaged in more than 60 projects whose aggregate value totals more than 3 million.

Gene Victoria Proteomics is one of Victoria’s brightest lights. WEDC recently spent 663,000 on two new mass spectrometers. Housed at the Genome BC Proteomics Centre at the University of Victoria, they’re key to efficient, accurate analysis of blood and other tissues for the protein biomarkers helpful in the early detection and diagnosis of cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, among other diseases. The spectrometers also make Victoria a centre for proteomics, giving it the highest concentration of such equipment at any Canadian university and one of the highest in North America.

Centre stage Since becoming fully operational in 2008, the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) has played a critical role in filling the commercialization gap between academia and industry.

CDRD has cultivated partnerships with universities throughout Canada and in Europe as well as in Japan and Australia to identify and develop 80 commercially promising health-research projects.

With initial support from the provincial and federal governments, CDRD has also attracted investment from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson Inc. and the Roche Group to help ultimately to bring these new technologies to market.

CDRD is designated a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) by the federal government. Ą

Doing the wave Vancouver company’s dehydration technology EnWave Corp. announced that it has signed a research-evaluation agreement with Merck & Co., Inc., through a subsidiary. According to the agreement, Merck will conduct a field test to determine the feasibility of radiant energy vacuum (“REV”) technology using EnWave’s new multi-vial pilot-scale equipment. In addition, EnWave has granted Merck an exclusive research licence to use the technology and licensed patents for the duration of the evaluation and an option to obtain an exclusive commercial worldwide licence to EnWave’s portfolio.

EnWave’s dehydration-technology portfolio for pharmaceuticals and biomaterials includes freezeREV, powderREV and bioREV. Each employs a combination of microwave energy with a low-pressure environment to achieve rapid, highly controlled dehydration of live or active biological materials stored in sterile vials or in bulk powder, with the goal of significantly reducing the process time and cost of dehydration.

EnWave is a Vancouver-based company developing commercial applications for its proprietary dehydration technology. In collaboration with an expanding list of multinational partners, including Nestlé, Kellogg’s, Grupo Bimbo, Grimmway Farms, Ocean Spray, Hormel Foods Corp., Bonduelle and Merck, EnWave is introducing REV as a new dehydration standard in the food and biological material sectors.

From compounds to collaboration Xenon and Genentech strategize against pain Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced a strategic alliance with Genentech, Inc., a member of the Roche Group, to discover and develop compounds and companion diagnostics for the potential treatment of pain.

“We are delighted to be collaborating with Genentech,” said Simon Pimstone, president and chief executive officer of Xenon, at the time of the announcement. “Genentech is among the world’s leading biotech companies and an ideal strategic partner for Xenon as we share a common emphasis on using human genetics for drug development. Further, this collaboration allows Xenon to both deepen and broaden our pipeline of novel medicines in development.”

Xenon and Genentech will collaborate on the discovery of new therapeutic approaches for treating pain.

Genentech has an exclusive licence to compounds and a non-exclusive licence to diagnostics from Xenon for development and commercialization of products. Xenon will receive an undisclosed up-front payment and research funding and is eligible to receive research, development and commercialization milestone payments totalling up to 646 million for multiple products and indications. In addition, Xenon will receive royalties on sales of products resulting from the collaboration.

Michael Hayden, chief scientific officer of Xenon, added, “This new alliance, which represents our sixth partnership with a major pharmaceutical company to date, once again highlights the keen interest in Xenon’s unique genetics approach and in our translational R&D capabilities.”

Xenon is a privately owned, clinical genetics-based drug-discovery and development company engaged in developing small-molecule therapies based on the genetic causes of select metabolic, neurological and cardiovascular diseases.

BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 31

LifeSciences/2012

31

3/19/12 8:50:38 PM

The way ahead A discussion with the deputy minister of health reveals British Columbia’s approaches to care Graham Whitmash, deputy minister of health, Province of British Columbia

I

n January 2012, LifeSciences British Columbia interviewed Graham Whitmarsh, deputy minister of health, Province of British Columbia, regarding the ministry’s vision for health care and its delivery in the near and longer terms.

delivery of all health services.

Implementing this plan to improve services and stabilize costs is our highest priority. More detail about ministry plans over the next few years can be found in our annual Service Plan.

will change the face of health care as it further expands the reach of the health-care delivery network both in geography and in scope. The most exciting part of this transformation is that it put citizens right in the centre of managing their own care.

What are the BC Ministry of Health’s top priorities over the next two years?

Our population in British Columbia is generally considered the healthiest in Canada, and our health system is delivering some of the best health outcomes in the country. However, as in many jurisdictions, we are faced with the challenge of delivering services to an aging population with changing health needs, while also managing continually rising costs for health care.

To meet this challenge, we’re implementing a comprehensive plan to reshape the system so it meets these changing dynamics. We also need to ensure the sustainability of our publicly funded system. Our Innovation and Change Agenda is intended to create fundamental, system-level change through a set of medium to long-term strategies, which we’ve organized into three main areas: health promotion, prevention and self-management; primary and community-based health care and support services; and hospital care services. Underpinning efforts in these areas are strategies directed at improving innovation, productivity and efficiency in the

How do you envision that the delivery of health care will be impacted, given the advances in technology over the last few years and the convergence thereof (e.g., wireless health, digital imaging)?

There is no question that most aspects of our lives are increasingly technologyenabled. Not only is this driving citizen expectations for online and mobile service delivery, but it is also blurring the lines of geography and providing opportunities to deliver services in new and exciting ways.

If we can harness the potential of technology, we have tremendous opportunity to make real advances on some of our most pressing health-care challenges.

More recently, the ministry launched a new mobile app – the BC Health Service Locator – available free for download on iTunes. With this app, users can do a number of things, including mapping B.C.’s walk-in clinics, hospitals, emergency rooms, immunization locations and afterhours pharmacies; signing up for health alerts; and connecting directly to 8-1-1, the ministry’s health information and services.

An advance like the mobile app is just the beginning. Technology convergence

The ministry has stated that it is working on an eHealth initiative.

Can you provide comment or update on the status of this undertaking?

The eHealth transformation remains a high priority for the ministry. We are making progress toward our vision of an integrated system where health-care information is accessible, when and where it is needed, to support both health outcomes and health-system sustainability.

Our current priority is to complete and deploy a provincial electronic health record that will provide authorized users access to lab-test results, medication profiles, diagnostic images and immunization history. Over time, the system will expand to include more physician EHRs and greater access to a wider range of clinical information.

In the shorter term, we’re focused on deploying a provincial data repository to store lab results; upgrading the existing PharmaNet system so it will support ePrescribing; enabling integration of physician electronic medical records with the provincial EHR systems; and deploying an eHealth Viewer so health authorities can access lab results and diagnostic images.

32

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 32

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:40 PM

Some jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom have revised their policies around the use of healthrelated databases in an effort to improve patient outcomes and potentially reduce the cost of healthcare delivery. Can you comment on the ministryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to how our provincial data might be used proactively?

We recognize the importance and value of health data as a strategic asset, and we take the stewardship of this information very seriously. We are currently looking to expand access to some of this data on a number of fronts.

First, we are looking to enable authorized health-care providers in any care setting to access health information available in provincial EHR repositories directly through their point-of-care systems.

Second, we see potential to further streamline the process to access data sets currently made available for academic research through Population Data BC. Third, we are exploring opportunities to support more access to depersonalized health information by industry.

Finally, consistent with governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s priority to be more open, transparent and accessible, we are cataloguing our data holdings. Where data is not personally identiďŹ able or conďŹ dential, or its release would not contravene legislation, we are determining what data might be made available for public release.

It is our understanding that the ministry and the various health authorities are establishing a process for assessing innovative health technologies. Can you comment on this process?

Over the past year, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been working with the health authorities to develop an open and transparent process for coordinated, evidence-informed coverage decisions about non-drug health technologies. By â&#x20AC;&#x153;non-drug health technologies,â&#x20AC;? we mean tools, devices, diagnostics and procedures. Drugs and information technology are out of scope. The Health Technology Review (HTR) process will apply to technologies meeting a cost threshold of ď&#x2122;&#x201C;25,000 per unit or ď&#x2122;&#x201C;1,000,000 across the province.

Iotron understands the critical importance of risk reduction in the production of sterile goods. We provide Medical Device, Labware and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers the reliable, cost effective and quick sterilization service required to manage risk.

To support the evaluation and coverage decisions, an assessment framework is currently under development and will be made publicly available. Health authorities will sponsor business cases for review and evaluation by a committee bringing together expertise in the ministry, the health authorities and fields such as healthtechnology assessment, economics and the direct provision of health care. Final coverage decisions will rest with the ministryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leadership council (consisting of health-authority CEOs and ministry executive). Stakeholders will also be given the opportunity to provide feedback for consideration.

We are targeting implementation of the HTR in early 2012 and anticipate that the timeline from when a completed business case is submitted until a decision is made will be six months.

The ministry and health authorities are confident that the HTR process will result in recommendations that will improve the health outcomes of British Columbians and help ensure sustainability of the health system. Ä&#x201E;

CONTRACT STERILIZATION MEDICAL / LABWARE / PHARMA

Reliable: s YEARS OF STERILIZATION EXPERIENCE s /PERATIONALLY REDUNDANT FACILITIES s 5SES ELECTRICAL POWER n NO RADIOISOTOPES CHEMICAL RESIDUES #OST %FFECTIVE s 3TRATEGIC LOCATIONS TO ENSURE TRANSPORT SAVINGS s #ONSULTATION TO ENSURE PROCESS OPTIMIZATION s #OMPETITIVE PRICING &AST s (IGH THROUGHPUT )-0%,!Â&#x161; ELECTRON BEAM ACCELERATOR MINIMIZES TURNAROUND TIME s &ULL PENETRATION THROUGH PRODUCT SIMILAR TO 8 RAY RENDERING PRODUCT STERILE s #ONSULTATION TO PROVIDE IMMEDIATE AND VERSATILE SOLUTIONS 7HERE OTHER METHODS WERE ONCE THE ONLY OPTIONS AVAILABLE )OTRON S )-0%,!Â&#x161; %LECTRON "EAM 3TERILIZATION PROCESS PROVIDES THE NEW COMPETITIVE ALTERNATIVE

IOTRON Industries Canada/USA Inc. +EBET 7AY 0ORT #OQUITLAM "# #ANADA 6 # , 4ELEPHONE &ACSIMILE %MAIL IOTRON IOTRON COM www.iotron.com

BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 33

LifeSciences/2012

33

3/19/12 8:50:40 PM

The year in review Advances in life sciences give British Columbia a distinguished place on the world stage

COMPILED BY ANDREW TOPF

February 4, 2011: UBC Okanagan

clones its first gene

Soheil Mahmoud, assistant professor in the department of biology, and his team of graduate researchers, PhD student Zerihun Demissie and M.Sc. student Lukman Sarker, cloned University of British Columbia Okanagan’s first gene. The gene produces beta-phellandrene, one of the compounds found in the essential oil of some lavender species.

February 5, 2011: B.C. spends $260,000

on forest research at TRU

The provincial government is providing 260,000 to further research at Thompson Rivers University into parasitic plants that attack coniferous forests in British Columbia. Provided through the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, the funding is being used to acquire an advanced scanning electron microscope for research dedicated to controlling 34

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 34

BIV Magazines

dwarf mistletoe, a plant parasite that infects trees and makes lodgepole pine more susceptible to pine-beetle infestations.

created devices and systems that help anesthesiologists monitor patients’ vital signs more effectively during operations.

February 28, 2011: BPN sets

February 15, 2011: Vancouver scientist

attendance record

A new strain of wine yeast developed at UBC helps reduce amines: chemicals in red wine and Chardonnay that trigger headaches. Food biotechnologist Hennie van Vuuren spent eight years in research and another seven years to test this genetically modified yeast.

BioPartnering North America opened at the Vancouver Convention Centre. More than 800 delegates from 500 companies and 27 countries gathered at the ninth annual event, setting an attendance record. Barbara Yanni, vice-president and chief licensing officer for Merck, served as the keynote speaker.

February 15, 2011: $250,000 for UBC

March 8, 2011: LifeSciences

takes the headache out of red wine

work with anesthesiological devices

Guy Dumont, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Mark Ansermino, director of pediatric anesthesia research, both at UBC, received the 2010 Brockhouse Canada Prize, conveying a 250,000 team research grant. The pair

BC Awards announced

Michael Hayden, director and senior scientist at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, UBC, won the Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence; André Marziali, president and chief scientific officer of Boreal Genomics and director Photo: Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd.

3/19/12 8:50:41 PM

ABOVE: Research at the BC Cancer Research Centre ranges from basic

molecular and genetic studies to epidemiological and clinical research on prevention, early diagnosis, molecular characteristics of the cancer process and new treatments with drugs and radiotherapy

ABOVE AND RIGHT: The new

Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre

of engineering physics, UBC, won the Innovation & Achievement Award; Paul Geyer, chief executive officer of LightIntegra Technology Inc., received the Leadership Award; StarFish Medical was named Medical Device Company of the Year; and Judith Hall, professor emerita in the departments of medical genetics and pediatrics, UBC, won the Dr. Don Rix Award for Lifetime Achievement.

March 23, 2011: Scientists target enzyme

to halt spread of breast cancer

BC Cancer Agency scientists revealed a significant connection between a natural enzyme (CA9) and the spread of breast

cancer. The research proved CA9 to be a major biomarker in tumour survival, growth and metastasis in over 50 per cent of the deadliest forms of breast cancer and in 16 per cent of all breast cancers.

Vancouver to learn how to implement the process, called HIV V3 genotyping, in their own countries.

March 30, 2011: Made-in-B.C.

Sirona Biochem Corp., which specializes in therapeutics for diabetes and obesity, acquired French company TFChem S.A.S. for approximately 1.9 million.

acquires TFChem HIV test used worldwide

Vancouver HIV/AIDS experts developed a new lab test, now being used around the world, to eliminate trial and error in medication, thereby saving lives and costs. The test involves genetic sequencing of the virus in HIV patients, which helps predict which drugs will work best. Experts in lab medicine came to

Photos: (top) Cameron Heryet, BC Cancer Agency; (bottom) Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd.

Life Sciences 2012.indd 35

March 31, 2011: Sirona Biochem

April 4, 2011: Centre for Brain Health

receives gift of $15 million

A Vancouver philanthropist donated 15 million for a new facility integrating brain research and patient care. In honour of his BIV Magazines

LifeSciences/2012

35

3/19/12 8:50:43 PM

generosity – the largest gift to date to the UBC Faculty of Medicine – the facility will be named the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. Representing a partnership between UBC and Vancouver Coastal Health, it’s scheduled to open in 2013.

April 21, 2011: Student wins prize for

research into effects of ethanol

A 17-year-old Coquitlam student found a way to observe the effects of ethanol on early brain development. Vincent Ye from Dr. Charles Best Secondary School placed first in the 2011 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge.

May 9, 2011: RepliCel acquires

TrichoScience Innovations

Vancouver-based RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. completed a share purchase deal with TrichoScience Innovations Inc. TrichoScience is developing a hair-cell replication technology with potential to provide a solution to pattern baldness and general hair loss in men and women.

May 11, 2011: UBC lab seeking to

convert greenhouse gases into fuel

UBC scientists are working to harness the sun’s energy to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) into a useful fuel.

David Wilkinson, executive director of the Clean Energy Research Centre at UBC, said concentrated CO2 emissions from power plants combined with water could be converted to methane, methanol, formic acid and other fuels suitable for combustion or electric cells via known chemical processes.

May 20, 2011: Final concrete pours

at Cancer Centre for the North

The BC Cancer Agency Centre for the North reached a key construction milestone as final concrete poured for the linear accelerator vaults. The new centre will include two linear accelerators used in the delivery of radiation therapy. The facility will also include a computerizedtomography (CT) simulator, a chemotherapy treatment unit, a pharmacy and general outpatient clinics. The centre expects to open in late 2012.

May 30, 2011: Jim Pattison outpatient

centre officially opens

The 237-million Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre officially opened, the first in B.C. to provide additional health-care capacity for Lower Mainland communities. The centre offers day surgery, 36

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 36

diagnostic procedures such as lab, X-ray, CT and MRI scans, biopsies and specialized health programs, all within one building.

June 6, 2011: Scientists capture

antimatter atoms in a bottle

July 28, 2011: Cell-phone invention among

global winners for maternal health

A pair of Canadian proposals aimed at reducing death rates of mothers and newborns in developing nations are selected for funding from among 77 finalists in a global challenge. Among the winners: a UBC invention that turns a cell phone (common even in the world’s poorest parts) into a portable blood-oxygen tester.

In a paper that appeared in the journal Nature Physics, lead author Makoto Fujiwara and his colleagues said they succeeded in storing antimatter atoms for more than 16 minutes: virtually an eternity for a rare substance that scientists have struggled to keep intact for more than a few fractions of a second. “It’s a kind of game-changer,” said Fujiwara, who is both a research scientist at TRIUMF: Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics and an adjunct assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary.

A B.C. pharmacist has been recognized nationally for his contribution to pharmacy in Canada. Derek Desrosiers, a Vancouver resident and active member of the British Columbia Pharmacy Association, received the 2011 Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy Pillar of Pharmacy Award.

June 14, 2011: UBC researchers

August 17, 2011: B.C. scientists

discover molecular mechanism for anti-arrhythmia drugs

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, shed light on why anti-arrhythmic drugs (AADs) have different effects on the heart’s behaviour and why the same drug can be beneficial in some instances and fatal in others. The discovery could lead to better treatments for the condition, a leading cause of stroke.

June 28, 2011: B.C. companies

shine on world biotech stage

B.C.’s life-science innovators won all three of BIOTECanada’s Gold Leaf Company-ofthe-Year awards, which were presented at BIO 2011, the world’s largest biotechnology convention. LifeSciences British Columbia (LSBC) also signed an agreement that will see North Germany and B.C. pool their expertise. Team BC, a delegation of about 100 life-science experts from 40-plus companies and research agencies, is being led

by LSBC and Moira Stilwell, parliamentary secretary for industry, research and innovation to the minister of jobs, tourism and innovation.

August 15, 2011: B.C. pharmacist

recognized nationally

trying to breed a better bee

Genetic scientists in B.C. are trying to breed a bee that can survive a mysterious new phenomenon that is wiping out colonies across North America. The provincial government gave Genome BC 25 million to continue research on a variety of projects including over 2 million to try to understand the root causes of so-called Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees.

November 10, 2011: Brain boost

A Vancouver researcher says that treatment to stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease may be on the horizon, thanks to the backing of his breakthrough work by a leading Canadian biopharmaceutical company. Cangene Corp. signed a collaborative research agreement with UBC under which it will develop the work of Neil Cashman, scientific director of PrioNet Canada, Canada research chair in neurodegeneration and protein misfolding at UBC and a scientist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

November 8, 2011: HIV “seek-and-

treat” program launched July 25, 2011: $8 million for clean tech

Victoria is injecting another 8 million into B.C.’s clean-tech industry. The province announced that 12 new projects will receive funding through its Innovative Clean Energy fund, to support an array of small projects, including a solar-power plant, a tidal-energy converter and a commercialscale torrefaction plant for converting pine-beetle-killed wood into fuel pellets.

If you’re an adult living in Vancouver or Prince George who’s had sex, chances are very good that you’ll be asked to take an HIV-detection test at your next lab, hospital or medical-clinic visit under Canada’s first such pilot project. Under a four-year, 48-million program funded by the provincial government, family doctors are being urged to add HIV testing for all adult patients sent for other types of blood tests.

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:44 PM

The new BC Cancer Agency Centre for the North, opening in Prince George this year

November 29, 2011: Funding for genome

science and technology centres

Two B.C. Science and Technology Innovation Centres (STICs) have been awarded funding through Genome Canada’s 2010 Science & Technology Innovation Centre (STIC) Operations Support Competition. Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre will receive up to 6.6 million, and the University of Victoria Genome BC Proteomics Centre will receive up to 3.4 million.

December 1, 2011: $2.8-million grant

toward prevention of sepis

Researchers from the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI, UBC) and BC Children’s Hospital have won a 2.8-million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to improve the survival of Bangladeshi mothers, newborns and young children through prevention of sepsis, a lifethreatening infection in which bacteria overwhelm the bloodstream.

January 5, 2012: UBC researchers

identify new hepatitis C therapy

January 18, 2012: UBC researchers to

sequence Chardonnay genome

Researchers at UBC have found a new way to block infection from the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the liver that could lead to new therapies for those affected by HCV and other infectious diseases. HCV is spread by blood-toblood contact, and there is no vaccine to prevent it.

UBC’s Wine Research Centre has launched an international collaboration with the Australian Wine Research Institute to sequence the Chardonnay grape genome. A team of Canadian and Australian scientists will explore the genomics of the world’s most planted grape variety.

January 10, 2012: MedGenesis raises

January 30, 2012: Advinus Therapeutics,

$5 million to treat Parkinson’s

MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on treatments for neurological disease, has raised 5 million to support the Phase 2 clinical development of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor protein (GDNF) in Parkinson’s disease.

GDNF is a naturally occurring growth factor capable of protecting and promoting the survival of dopamineproducing nerve cells.

SignalChem collaborate against cancer

Advinus Therapeutics and SignalChem Pharmaceuticals have signed a multi-year collaboration to develop several drugs to treat cancer based on SignalChem’s proprietary platform. SignalChem has developed a technology that focuses on cancer relapse and metastasis (the spread of cancer to different parts of the body) using a group of proteins called kinases. The companies will also develop biological markers for personalized treatment of patients. Ą BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 37

LifeSciences/2012

37

3/19/12 8:50:44 PM

Biggest life-science companies in B.C. Source: Business in Vancouver

!*63.- +A 6=5+.: 7/ ! .5847A..; 26 758*6A

#78 47,*4 .@.,=<2>.

"# #.,1674702.; 6,

,.' .k_ 8m\ N Jl`k\ +''# MXeZflm\i M,Q (9* G1-'+$/..$'.(* =1 -'+$-.,$./*' ??? ;<.5,.44 ,75

# 6,

//. >i\Xk Efik_\ie NXp Jl`k\ ('(# MXeZflm\i M,K +K, G1-'+$.'.$.''' =1 -'+$.'.$.''( ??? 94<26, ,75

:.*; 7/ :.;.*:,1

?6.:;128

(.*: 7 ;<*// 7 7 ! /7=6-.- 047+*44A ;<*// ;<*//

Jk\d Z\cc Y`fcf^p ]fZlj\[ fe _\dXkfcf^p# `ddlefcf^p# Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ (00* e\lifY`fcf^p# Yi\Xjk# gifjkXk\# gXeZi\Xj\# i\^\e\iXk`m\ 8cc\e <Xm\j d\[`Z`e\ Xe[ k`jjl\ \e^`e\\i`e^ !7+.:< =<,17/;3A# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ FZlcXi EXj[Xh1HCK@# KJO1HCK (0/( :<F N`[\cp _\c[

*00

*)* ).-

))+

(.,

(+' (*+

.0

(00)

/'

.0 /.

.,

(00)

.0

.0 /,

-*

(0/'

(.#'''

-, -,

,'

44.6 *>.;# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

#.352:* 1*:5*,.=<2,*4; 7:8

*:3 =::*A# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

*:-275. 1*:5* 7:8

50.6 :2<2;1 74=5+2* 6,

:Xi[`fd\ `j X i\j\XiZ_$YXj\[ Y`fg_XidXZ\lk`ZXc ZfdgXep n`k_ [\dfejkiXYc\ \og\ik`j\ `e [`jZfm\ip i\j\XiZ_ kf Zc`e`ZXc [\m\cfgd\ek 716 .4*6.A# [`i\Zkfi f] i\j\XiZ_ 8ek`Yf[p k_\iXg\lk`Zj ]fi k_\ ki\Xkd\ek f] feZfcf^p# `e]cXddXk`fe Xe[ `e]\Zk`flj [`j\Xj\j

'.676 1*:5*,.=<2,*4; 6,

"2576 25;<76.# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

D\kXYfc`Z# e\lifcf^`ZXc Xe[ ZXi[`fmXjZlcXi

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

(00-

-

-.,

,(

*:-2=5 6,

7=0 7.:<B.6# :<F

:Xi[`fmXjZlcXi

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

)''.

+.

+. *-

*'

6027<.,1 1*:5*,.=<2,*4; 6,

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

(00)

(#'*'

., (''

+,

)A5.?7:3; 6,

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

)''*

*.

*. )/

),

$4<:*;762@ .-2,*4 7:8

#175*; *24.A# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F Ki\Xkd\ek jfclk`fej ]fi [`j\Xj\j&Zfdgc`ZXk`fej XjjfZ`Xk\[ n`k_ d\[`ZXc [\m`Z\ `dgcXekj# jli^`ZXc `ek\im\ek`fej# XZlk\ `ealip 42 #.1:*62# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F 8ek`Yf[p Xe[ gifk\`e k_\iXg\lk`Zj [\m\cfgd\ek ]fi feZfcf^p# Xlkf`ddle`kp Xe[ Xek`$`e]cXddXk`fe Xggc`ZXk`fej *=:.6< .42;;2.:# ]fle[\i Xe[ :<F LckiXjfle[

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

)'''

(,'

/, .,

),

9=267@ 1*:5*,.=<2,*4; 6,

*>2- *26# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

Efm\c kXi^\k\[ jdXcc dfc\Zlc\ k_\iXg\lk`Zj ]fi k_\ ki\Xkd\ek f] `e]cXddXkfip [`j\Xj\

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

)''-

).

). ).

)(

)*42,=; 1*:5*,.=<2,*4; <-

*:3 7::20*6# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

K_\iXg\lk`Zj ]fi gX`e# _pg\ik\ej`fe Xe[ \g`c\gjp

EXj[Xh1:IOO

EG

EG

EG (/

(-

26.@=; 2726/7:5*<2,; 7:8

"<.>.6 .4.,1# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :JF

Gifk\fd`Zj Xe[ Y`f`e]fidXk`Zj gif[lZkj Xe[ j\im`Z\j

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ ;i% Jk\m\e G\c\Z_

(000

(/

(/ (/

(,

.7>* #.,1674702.; 6,

!=/267 ..# gi\j`[\ek

(0/)

((+

,) EG

()

.7>*;, 6,

)'''

+0

+. +.

/

6,7 .6.@ 1*:5*,.=<2,*4;

)'''

)-

(' ('

0

4476 #1.:*8.=<2,; 6,

7:-76 , *=4.A# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

)''(

)'

)' )'

/

"2:2=; .6752,; 6,

1:2; &*06.:# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

.<1A4*<276 ",2.6,.; 6,

.4*<7: 1*:5*,.=<2,*4;

+2 *;2; #.,1674702.; 6,

625.@ 1*:5*,.=<2,*4; 6,

.6 .6. 6,

.<?7:3 55=67470A 6,

IE8 `ek\i]\i\eZ\ IE8` k_\iXg\lk`Zj

/0'' >c\ecpfe Gbnp Jl`k\ (''# 9lieXYp M,A ,A/ G1-'+$+(0$*)'' =1 -'+$+(0$*)'( ??? <.352:*81*:5 ,75 7=0 *6B.6# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F

-(0' 8^ifefdp I[ Jl`k\ -''# MXeZflm\i M-K (Q* G1-'+$-..$-0', =1 -'+$-..$-0(, ??? ,*:-275. ,75 .00' <ek\igi`j\ Jk# 9lieXYp M,8 (M. G1-'+$-.-$/*'' =1 -'+$-.-$/*+0 ??? *50.6 ,75 *-,' >`cdfi\ NXp# 9lieXYp M,> +N/ G1-'+$+/+$**'' =1 -'+$+/+$*+,' ??? @.676 81*:5* ,75

KJO1KBD2 EXj[Xh1KBDI N`[\cp _\c[ KJO1:FD2 EXj[Xh1:ID< N`[\cp _\c[ EXj[Xh18D>E 8d^\e @eZ

()/,( IfnXe Gc Jl`k\ (''# I`Z_dfe[ M-M )B, G1-'+$)+/$//0( =1 -'+$*'+$*+./ ??? 3*:-2=5 ,75 (-(/ JkXk`fe Jk# MXeZflm\i M-8 (9G1-'+$))($.-.- =1 -'+$))($)**' ??? *6027<.,1 ,75 (*/, /k_ 8m\ N Jl`k\ ,+'# MXeZflm\i M-? *M0 G1-'+$-./$(*// =1 -'+$.*.$.'.. ??? BA5.?7:3; ,75

+*(( M`b`e^ NXp Jl`k\ (*'# I`Z_dfe[ M-M )B0 G1-'+$).0$/,,' =1 -'+$).0$/,,0 ??? =4<:*;762@ ,75 ,-'' GXibnff[ NXp Jl`k\ +*'# I`Z_dfe[ M-M )D) G1-'+$-)0$0))* =1 -'+$)0,$+.+/ ??? *9@81*:5* ,75 )*/0 ?\Xck_ JZ`\eZ\j DXcc Jl`k\ *'(# MXeZflm\i M-K (Q* G1-'+$0'0$),*' =1 -'+$0'0$),*/ ??? B*42,=; ,75 /.,, 8j_ Jk Jl`k\ (# MXeZflm\i M-G -K* G1-'+$*)*$),+. =1 -'+$*)*$),+/ ??? 326.@=; ,* *()() G\Xi[fem`cc\ I[# 8YYfkj]fi[ M)K -B/ G1-'+$,'+$'-0, =1 -'+$/,0$)-.0 ??? 6.7>*<.,1 ,75 (*.'' DXp]`\c[ Gc Jl`k\ )(*,# I`Z_dfe[ M-M )<+ G1-'+$).'$+*++ =1 -'+$).'$+*/+ ??? 6.7>*;, ,75 (''( 9ifX[nXp N Jl`k\ +''# MXeZflm\i M-? +9( G1-'+$.*-$*-./ =1 -'+$.*-$*-/. ??? 76,70.6.@ ,75 ((-/ ?Xd`ckfe Jk Jl`k\ ,'-# MXeZflm\i M-9 )J) G1-'+$.+)$),+* =1 -'+$.*-$(-(- ??? *4476<1.:*8.=<2,; ,75

;fnejki\Xd gifk\`e gli`]`ZXk`fe ]fi ]ff[# Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ elkiXZ\lk`ZXcj# g_XidXZ\lk`ZXcj2 gifk\`e Zfeal^Xk`fej2 Y`fgifk\Zk`fe ]ff[ gifk\Zk`fe# _ldXe Xe[ Xe`dXc _\Xck_ 4.@.2 *:37# :<F ;\m\cfgj# dXel]XZkli\j Xe[ dXib\kj `eefmXk`m\ KJO$M1EM: mXjZlcXi [\m`Z\j f]]\i`e^ g\i`ZXi[`Xc k`jjl\ gifZ\jj`e^# mXjZlcXi gif[lZk [\m\cfgd\ek# [\j`^e Xe[ dXel]XZkli`e^ jfclk`fej kf `e[ljkip gXik\ie\ij ",7<< 7:5*,3# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F ;\m\cfgd\ek f] efm\c k_\iXg\lk`Zj k_Xk X[[i\jj EXj[Xh1F>O@ ki\Xkd\ek$i\j`jkXek Xe[ d\kXjkXk`Z ZXeZ\i ;\d\ek`X1 8cq_\`d\i j [`j\Xj\# GXib`ejfe j [`j\Xj\# jZ_`qfg_i\e`X# e\lif[\^\e\iXk`m\ Zfe[`k`fej Xe[ e\lifgifk\Zk`fe ;il^ i\gif]`c`e^ ZfdgXep2 ]fZlj fe g_XidXZf^\efd`Z [`X^efjk`Zj

KJO1EG: KJO1EG:

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ )''( 9: 8[mXekX^\ =le[j

('

(' 0

.

*::A =4-# :<F

;\gi\jj`fe

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ =fle[\ij

)''.

EG

EG 0

-

*?:.6,. *A.:# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ _\X[ f] i\j\XiZ_ *>2- &77!7+ =<,12;76# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F *>2- 4*:3# :=F Xe[ [`i\Zkfi =01 *, *=01<# <MG 2,1*.4 +:*5;# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F 716 7:<1# :FF 6<176A 1.=60# `ek\i`d :<F Xe[ Zf$]fle[\i

:XeZ\i k_\iXg`\j

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ m\ekli\ ZXg`kXc

)'''

(.

0 (0

(,

)''-

EG

EG EG

,

)''(

(.

(+

((), ?fn\ Jk Jl`k\ -'*# MXeZflm\i M-Q )B/ G1-'+$+/+$.(0, =1 -'+$+/+$.(0' ??? ;2:2=;0.6752,; ,75 ++., NXpYlie\ ;i Le`k ('/# 9lieXYp M,> +O+ G1-'+$+*,$,(,, =1 -'+$+*,$,((' ??? 5.<1A4*<276;,2.6,.; ,75 (..0 .,k_ 8m\ N# MXeZflm\i M-G -G) G1-'+$.'/$,/,/ =1 -'+$.'/$,//* ??? ,.4*<7:81*:5* ,75 (*/, /k_ 8m\ N Jl`k\ -''# MXeZflm\i M-? *M0 G1../$*/*$*)/' =1 -'+$)(,$''0( ??? +27*;2; ,* /,+' 9Xok\i Gc# 9lieXYp M,8 +K/ G1-'+$)),$)),( =1 -'+$)),$)),. ??? 2625.@81*:5* ,75

;\m\cfgd\ek Xe[ Zfdd\iZ`Xc`qXk`fe f] X [`X^efjk`Z ]fi GlYc`Zcp _\c[ 8cq_\`d\i j [`j\Xj\ Xe[ f] k_\iXg\lk`Z [\c`m\ip jpjk\dj KJO$M19K@ i\cXk\[ kf e\lifcf^`ZXc [`j\Xj\j ;il^ [\m\cfgd\ek ]fi `e]\Zk`flj [`j\Xj\ Xe[ Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ `e]cXddXk`fe Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

(000

,

, ('

0

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[ ;i% >\f]]i\p N% ?f]]dXee KJO$M1N9@

)''*

EG

EG 0

+

&.42,1.5 27<.,1 6,

;\c`m\ip f] Y`fcf^`Zj kf k_\ `ek\jk`e\ kf ki\Xk Xlkf`ddle\ `e]cXddXkfip Yfn\c [`j\Xj\ Xe[ d\kXYfc`Z [`j\Xj\j [`XY\k\j .7:0. 7//5*66# Zf$]fle[\i Xe[ Gi\m\ek`m\ ?@M k\Z_efcf^`\j% Fi^Xe kiXejgcXekXk`fe :<F ]XZ`c`kXk`fe k\Z_efcf^`\j% K\Z_efcf^`\j YXj\[ fe E\knfib K_\fip Xj Xggc`\[ kf k_\ `ddle\ jpjk\d 2:.6 #*60# :<F ;\m\cfg`e^ Xek`$`e]cXddXkfip [`j\Xj\j Xe[ ZXeZ\ij

(000

,

, -

.

! .-2,*4 .>2,.; 6,

1:2; "8:260*<.# gi\j`[\ek Xe[ :<F Jli^`ZXc X[_\j`fe [`j\Xj\

Gi`mXk\cp _\c[

)'('

*

* *

(

"2:76* 27,1.5 7:8

7?*:- %.::2,7# :<F

KJO$M1J9D

)''-

(*

-

(

)*/- <Xjk DXcc Jl`k\ (((# MXeZflm\i M-K (Q* G1-'+$))($+*-) =1 -'+$))($+*-0 ??? .60.6.26, ,75 **(( Hl\je\c ;i# MXeZflm\i M-J (Q. G1-'+$.*+$.,)( =1 -'+$.*($(/), ??? 6.<?7:3255=67470A26, ,75 ++., NXpYlie\ ;i Jl`k\ *(-# 9lieXYp M,> *C( G1-'+$+*)$(.'* =1 -'+$+*)$(.'+ ??? ?.42,1.5 ,75 )*/- <Xjk DXcc Jl`k\ (')# MXeZflm\i M-K (Q* G1-'+$)))$0,.. =1 -'+$)))$0,./ ??? *:,5.-2,*4-.>2,.; ,75 ./0 G\e[\i Jk N Jl`k\ 0,,# MXeZflm\i M-: (?)

G1-'+$-+($++-- =1 -'+$-'/$,+.( ??? ;2:76*+27,1.5 ,75

JfliZ\j1 @ek\im`\nj n`k_ i\gi\j\ekXk`m\j f] k_\ XYfm\ Y`fk\Z_ ]`idj Xe[

i\j\XiZ_% EI Efk iXeb\[ EG Efk gifm`[\[ \jk`dXk\ 8Zhl`i\[ Yp [\Yk _fc[\ij X]k\i ]`c`e^ Zi\[`kfi gifk\Zk`fe `e AXelXip )'(( ]fid\icp :=F E\lifd\[ d\i^\[ n`k_ DXjjXZ_lj\kkj$YXj\[ :fdY`eXkfIO @eZ i\eXd\[ QXc`Zlj `e )'(' `e X [\Xc nfik_ ifl^_cp LJ )/ d`cc`fe `e ;\Z\dY\i )''0 )'(' ]`^li\ )''0 ]`^li\

38

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 38

;`XY\k\j Xe[ fY\j`kp k_\iXg\lk`Zj# ZXeZ\i mXZZ`e\ Xek`^\e# Zfjd\Z\lk`ZXcj# Y`fcf^`ZXc `e^i\[`\ekj

Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in the List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

Researched by Richard Chu , 604-608-5114.

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:45 PM

Life Sciences 2012.indd 39

3/19/12 8:50:45 PM

D\dY\ijË [`i\Zkfip

Academic and research institutions BC Cancer Agency 600 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6 604-877-6000 www.bccancer.bc.ca BC Preclinical Research Consortium (BCPRC) 4145 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1W5 604-827-4369 www.bcprc.ca BCIT Biotechnology Program SW9-208 3700 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5G 3H2 604-434-5734 www.health.bcit.ca/biotech The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) Suite 364-2259 Lower Mall, UBC, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 604-221-7750 www.cdrd.ca

SFU Innovation Office Multi-Tenant Facility, Room 230 Discovery Park, 8900 Nelson Way, Burnaby, BC V5A 4W9 778-782-7970 www.sfu.ca/io SFU Joint Major in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Business Administration Room SSB 8166, 888 University Drive SFU, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 604-291-5630 www.sfu.ca SFU Management of Technology Program 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3 778-782-5000 www.sfu.ca Trinity Western University 7600 Glover Road, Langley, BC V2Y 1Y1 604-888 7511 www.twu.ca

The iCAPTURE Centre #166-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6 604-806-8346 www.icapture.ca

UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences 2146 East Mall, Cunningham Bldg., Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-822-2343 www.ubcpharmacy.org UBC Life Sciences Institute 2350 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-827-3935 www.lsi.ubc.ca

Providence Health Care Research Institute St. Paul’s Hospital, 1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6 604-806-9090 www.providencehealthcare.org Rick Hansen Institute 6th Floor, Blusson Spinal Cord Centre 6400 – 818 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9 604-707-2100 www.rickhanseninstitute.org

40

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 40

Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute Rm 100 – Willow Chest Centre 2647 Willow Street, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3P1 604-875-4372 www.vchri.ca

ACETECH 900-1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 604-683-5852 www.acetech.org TRIUMF 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A3 604-222-1047 www.triumf.ca

PROOF Centre of Excellence Room 166 Burrard Building, 1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6 604-806-8934 www.proofcentre.ca

University of Victoria P.O. Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2 250-721-7211 www.uvic.ca

Associations

International Collaboration on Research Discoveries (ICORD) 818 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9 604-675-8800 www.icord.org Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation 80 Aberdeen St. Suite 100, Ottawa, ON K1S 5R5 613-828-6274 www.ocri.ca

University of Northern BC 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9 250-960-5555 www.unbc.ca

Advantage BC Suite 3093, Three Bentall Centre 595 Burrard Street P. O. Box 49067, Vancouver, BC V7X 1C4 604-683-6626 www.advantagebc.ca Ag-West Bio Inc. 101-111 Research Drive, Saskatoon, SK S72 3R2 306-975-1939 www.agwest.sk.ca BC Technology Industry Association 900 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 604-683-6159 www.bctia.org

UBC MRI Research Centre M10 Purdy Pavilion – 2221 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2B5 604-822-7352 www.mriresearch.ubc.ca UBC Science Co-op Programs 170-6221 University Blvd, Chemistry-Physics Building, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 604-822 9677 www.sciencecoop.ubc.ca

BioTalent Canada 1100 – 85 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 6A4 613-235-1402 www.biotalent.ca

UBC University-Industry Liaison Office #103 – 6190 Agronomy Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-822-8580 www.uilo.ubc.ca

BIOTECanada 1 Nicholas Street, Suite 600, Ottawa, ON K1N 7B7 613- 230-5585 www.biotech.ca

Rx&D, Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies 55 Metcalfe Street, Suite 1220, Ottawa, ON K1P 6L5 613-236-0455 www.canadapharma.org DigiBC 900-1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 604-602-5237 www.digibc.ca

Genome BC 500-555 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1C6 604-738-8072 www.genomebc.ca Research Universities’ Council of British Columbia (RUCBC) Suite 400 – 880 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC V8W 2B7 250-480-4859 www.rucbc.ca Student Biotechnology Network (SBN) The Accelerator Centre at UBC – Suite 200, 2386 East Mall, Gerald McGavin Building, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-767-4712 www.sbn.ubc.ca Vancouver Board of Trade World Trade Centre Suite 400, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, BC V6C 3E1 604-681-2111 www.vancouverboardoftrade.com Vancouver Economic Development Commission 134 Abbott Street, Suite #402, Vancouver, BC V6B 2K4 604-632-9668 www.vancouvereconomic.com Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association (WBBA) 1551 Eastlake Ave E, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98102-3706 206-624-1967 www.wabio.org Wavefront Wireless Innovation Society of British Columbia 1055 West Hastings Street, Suite 1400, Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9 www.wavefrontac.com

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:46 PM

Bioinformatics GenomeDx #201 – 1595 West 3rd Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6J 1J8 604-558-4777 www.genomedx.com GenomeDx is a new genomics company developing clinical support tools for the management of chronic disease HealthMetrx 306-2083 Alma Street, Vancouver, BC V6R 4N6 604-222-3900 www.digitalpt.com HealthMetrx is a leading healthcare technology company and the principal External Quality Assessment provider in Canada. We combine expertise in laboratory medicine and information technology to create innovative programs to monitor, improve and standardize laboratory testing.

Kinexus Bioinformatics Corp.

Suite 1 – 8755 Ash Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 6T3 604-323-2547 www.kinexus.ca Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation maps the cell signalling networks of protein kinase enzymes for the treatment, diagnosis and prognosis of human diseases. Protein kinases are the key proteins for communication and control inside cells.

Augurex Life Sciences Corp.

1423 Dempsey Road, North Vancouver, BC V7K 1S7 778-839-3319 www.augurex.com Augurex Life Sciences Corp. develops biomarker technologies to screen people for diseases that when identified can be promptly treated, thereby delivering the benefit of earlier detection and greater treatment success.

Aurora Biomed Inc. 1001 East Pender Street Vancouver, BC V6A 1W2 604-215-8700 www.aurorabiomed.com Aurora Biomed provides enabling technologies, liquid handling systems, assay services, and reagents for life sciences, drug discovery research, analytical chemistry, drug safety screening and laboratory automation. bioLytical Laboratories 1108-13351 Commerce Parkway, Richmond, BC V6V 2X7 604-204-6784 www.biolytical.com Biolytical Laboratories Inc. is a privately-owned Canadian company federally incorporated in 2002 and focused on the research, development and commercialization of rapid, point-of-care in vitro medical diagnostics developed using its proprietary INSTI™ technology platform.

Alectos Therapeutics Inc. 8999 Nelson Way, Burnaby, BC V5A 4B5 604-628-7129 www.alectos.com Alectos Therapeutics is a private biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel smallmolecule therapeutics for the treatment of serious human diseases.

Biomark Technologies Inc. 600-1665 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6J 1X1 604-282-6567 www.biomarktech.com BioMark is focused on the research, development and commercialization of its novel Acetylated Biomarker Assay (ABA) Red Alert technology. This is a patented screening technology that is used for the determination of tumour burden.

Allon Therapeutics Inc. Suite 506, 1168 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 2S2 604-736-0634 \www.allontherapeutics.com Allon Therapeutics Inc. (TSX: NPC) is a clinicalstage biotechnology company focused on bringing to market innovative central nervous system therapies.

Boreal Genomics 302 – 2386 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-822-8268 www.borealgenomics.com Boreal Genomics is a venture-backed Vancouver company committed to the development and commercialization of high performance methods and instruments for bio-molecule purification, enrichment and detection.

Biopharmaceuticals

Amgen British Columbia Inc. 7990 Enterprise Street, Burnaby, BC V5A 1V7 604-415-1800 www.amgen.com Amgen British Columbia Inc., one of several research facilities operated by Amgen Inc., specializes in the discovery and development of human therapeutic antibodies. The research center, located in Burnaby, became part of Amgen with Amgen’s acquisition of Abgenix, Inc. in April 2006.

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. Suite 430 – 5600 Parkwood Way, Richmond, BC V6V 2M2 604-629-9223 www.aquinox.com Aquinox Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel and targeted small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disease.

Cardiome Pharma Corp.

6190 Agronomy Road 6th Floor, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-677-6905 www.cardiome.com Cardiome is a research-based biopharmaceutical company. Our approved product (EU), vernakalant IV (BRINAVESSTM), and our lead clinical programs target the treatment of atrial fibrillation through cardiac ion-channel modulation.

WE ARE CULTIVATING HEALTH THROUGH BIOMARKER SCIENCE. JOIN US.

02//&

www.proofcentre.ca

#DMSQD NE [ #DMSQD C`

%8#%,,%.#%

Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc. 1779 W 75th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6P 6P2 604-708-5858 www.celator.ca Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a private biopharmaceutical company developing new carrier technology for targeting combinations of rationally selected chemotherapeutic agents to sites of disease. enGene Inc. 2386 East Mall, Suite 111, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-221-4362 www.engeneinc.com enGene Inc., a leader in nucleotide delivery to the intestine, has developed a proprietary mucosal immunotherapy platform for treating several prevalent, chronic diseases of the immune system. Its lead product targets Inflammatory Bowel Disease by concentrating IL-10 delivery to the gut. iCo Therapeutics Inc. Suite 760 – 777 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1S4 604-602-9414 www.icotherapeutics.com iCo Therapeutics Inc. is a Vancouver-based reprofiling company focused on redosing or reformulating drugs with clinical history for new or expanded indications.

Indel Therapeutics Inc. 4068 West 11th Avenue, Suite 100, Vancouver, BC V6R 2L3 604-551-8464 www.indelrx.com Indel Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new drugs to address the global health crisis caused by antibiotic resistance. The company has a growing pipeline of novel antibiotic drug discovery programs that focus on curing difficultto-treat and hospital-acquired infections.

Inimex Pharmaceuticals Inc. 8540 Baxter Place, Burnaby, BC V5A 4T8 604-225-2251 www.inimexpharma.com Inimex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a Vancouver B.C.-based private biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of new medicines based on the up-regulation and control of the innate immune response.

iProgen Biotech Inc. 126-11782 River Rd., Richmond, BC V6X 1Z7 415-800-4392 www.iprogen.com LEO Pharma Inc. 123 Commerce Valley Dr. E., Suite 400, Thornhill, ON L3T 7W8 800-668-7234 www.leopharma.ca LEO Pharma Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of LEO Pharma A/S which is a Danish, research-based pharmaceutical company, globally renowned for its R&D in dermatology, coagulation and bone turnover MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. 730 View Street, Suite 730, Victoria, BC V8W 3Y7 250-386-3000 www.med-genesis.com MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. is a privatelyheld biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing innovative treatments for patients with serious neurologic diseases.

MSI Methylation Sciences Inc. Unit 108 4475 Wayburne Drive, Burnaby, BC V5G 4X4 604-435-5155 www.methylationsciences.com Methylation Sciences, Inc.(MSI) has patented a new formulation of a naturally occurring human molecule called S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAMe).

Network Immunology Inc. 3311 Quesnel Drive, Vancouver, BC V6S 1Z7 778-847-7521 www.networkimmunologyinc.com Network Immunology is a Vancouver-based biotech company that is developing an HIV vaccine, an organ transplant facilitation technology and a therapeutic for autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes and lupus.

Neurodyn Inc. 1260 – 1188 West Georgia Street 550 University Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 604-619-0990 www.neurodyn.ca Neurodyn Inc, a Canadian biotechnology company, is developing and marketing early stage, pre-clinical, diagnostic and theraputic products to treat neurodegeneration.

PHYTON BIOTECH is a global company specialized in the development and manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients for the treatment of cancer.

Global providers of GMP grade Paclitaxel and Docetaxel active pharmaceutical ingredients for the oncology market. Ă More than 10 years of commercial experience with taxane APIs. Ă State-of-the-art GMP facilities near Hamburg, Germany and Vancouver, Canada. Ă Phyton Germany has the world’s largest plant cell fermentation facility and production of crude Paclitaxel. Ă Eco-friendly, sustainable process. Ă API development services from our expert staff.

1527 Cliveden Avenue, Delta, BC V3M 6P7 | 604-777-2340 x 225

w w w. phyt onbi ot e ch .com BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 41

LifeSciences/2012

41

3/19/12 8:50:46 PM

OncoGenex Technologies Inc. #400 – 1001 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6H 4B1 604-736-3678 www.oncogenex.ca OncoGenex Technologies Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing targeted therapeutics for Cancer.

Pacific Rim Laboratories #103, 19575 – 55A Avenue, Surrey, BC V3S 8P8 604-532-8711 www.pacificrimlabs.com Pacific Rim Laboratories Inc. (PRL) is an ultratrace organic laboratory specializing in the analysis of polychlorinated dibenzo(p)dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and other analytes by highresolution mass spectrometry (HRMS).

Phyton Biotech 1527 Cliveden Avenue,Delta, Delta, BC V3M 6P7 604-777-2340 www.phytonbiotech.com Phyton Biotech is a global provider of chemotherapeutic agents including Paclitaxel and Docetaxel Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and Taxane intermediates.

Protox Therapeutics 1210-885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 3E8 604-688-4369 www.protoxtherapeutics.com Protox Therapeutics uses genetic engineering to transform naturally occurring proteins into novel targeted therapeutics for the treatment of prostate diseases and various cancers.

Protox is advancing a pipeline of clinical-stage product candidates derived from its PORxin™ and INxin™ technology platforms.

QLT Inc. 887 Great Northern Way, Suite 101, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 604-707-7000 www.qltinc.com QLT is an ocular-focused company dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative ocular products that address the unmet medical needs of patients and clinicians worldwide.

Qu Biologics Inc. 887 Great Northern Way, Suite 138, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 604-734-1450 www.qubiologics.com Qu Biologics’ proprietary technology, Site Specific Immunotherapeutics (SSIs), stimulate the body’s innate immune response to cancer.

With compelling clinical and animal study data, and multiple clinical trials planned, Qu’s SSIs are at the forefront of a paradigm shift in cancer treatment.

RepliCel Suite 1225-888 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 3K4 604-248-8730 www.replicel.com The company has developed RepliCel™, a natural hair cell replication technology that has the potential to become the world’s first, minimally invasive solution for androgenetic alopecia (pattern baldness) and general hair loss in men and women.

Sirius Genomics Inc. 603 1125 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2K8 604-484-7195 www.siriusgenomics.com Sirius Genomics Inc. (SGI) strategically discovers and patents important variations of the genes which are involved with drugs used in treating critically ill patients having severe infections or other critical illness.

Sirona Biochem Corp.

955-789 West Pender St., Vancouver, BC V6C 1H2 604-641-4466 www.sironabiochem.com Sirona Biochem is developing diabetes therapeutics, cancer vaccine antigens, skin depigmenting and anti-aging agents for cosmetic use and biological ingredients. We are applying a proprietary chemistry technique to improve the pharmaceutical properties of carbohydrate-based molecules.

Superna Life Sciences Suite 102, 887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 877-469-1254 www.supernapharma.com Superna Life Sciences is a new specialty pharmaceutical focused on the Canadian cancer care market. We have two approved products being marketed to hematologists, oncologists, radiation oncologists and nuclear medicine specialists. Superna seeks to expand our portfolio through in-licensing commercial-stage products.

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation 100 – 8900 Glenlyon Parkway, Burnaby, BC V5J 5J8 604-419-3200 www.tekmirapharm.com Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a Burnaby, BC-based biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing proprietary drugs and drug delivery systems to improve the treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Zymeworks #540 – 1385 W. Eighth Ave, Vancouver, BC V6H 3V9 604-678-1388 www.zymeworks.com Zymeworks is a privately held computational biotechnology company that is designing and developing best-in-class bi-specific antibodies and multi-valent protein therapeutics for the treatment of oncology, autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases.

Solegear 204 – 901 West 3rd Street, North Vancouver, BC V7P 3P9 604-988-4068 www.solegear.ca Solegear has developed a suite of proprietary, energy-efficient, non-toxic, biodegradable plastics. From the feedstock to additives to processing and coatings, Solegear maintains a focus on green chemistry and full compostability to ensure a healthy and renewable product life cycle.

Bioproducts & bioenergy

Waterfall Advisors Group Ltd. 206-566 Artisan Lane, Bowen Island, BC V0N 1G2 604-960-0354 www.waterfall.ca Waterfall Group provides advisory services in key areas of clean energy policy and project development. We are leading the next generation of policies, standards and regulations to create a new economic base for the production and use of low carbon and sustainable bio-based fuels and energy.

BC Hydro 333 Dunsmuir Street, 9th Floor, Vancouver, BC V6B 5R3 604-224 9376 www.bchydro.com As the third largest electric utility in Canada, BC Hydro serves customers in an area containing over 94% of British Columbia’s population. BC Hydro endeavours to provide energy solutions to its customers in an environmentally and socially responsible way by balancing British Columbians’ energy needs with the concerns of the environment.

Carbon Credit Corporation Suite 600, 1055 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9 604-699-2580 www.carboncreditcorp.biz Carbon Credit Corp (CCC) is a BC-incorporated technology and ecosystem services company, providing comprehensive technology solutions, consultancy and services related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate protection to organizations worldwide.

Valocor Therapeutics Inc. 1300 – 777 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K2 650-461-4600 www.valocor.com Valocor Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage private biotech company dedicated to developing new therapies to treat dermatological conditions with unmet medical needs viDA Therapeutics Inc. 604-924-1730 www.vidatherapeutics.com viDA Therapeutics Inc. (viDA) is an early stage biotechnology company, focused on the discovery and development of first-inclass drugs, based on novel technology for the treatment of age-related and chronic inflammatory conditions.

Vifor Pharma 1203-4464 Markham Street, Victoria, BC V8Z 7X8 250-744-2488 www.viforpharma.com/en Vifor Pharma is a fully integrated speciality pharma company of the Galenica Group. It is based on two main pillars: the business units Rx (prescription products) and consumer healthcare (OTC products).

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. 3650 Gilmore Way, Burnaby, BC V5G 4W8 604-484-3300 www.xenon-pharma.com Xenon Pharmaceuticals is a privately owned, clinical genetics-based drug discovery and development company engaged in developing small molecule therapies based on the genetic causes of select metabolic, neurological and cardiovascular diseases.

Zalicus Pharmaceuticals Ltd. 301 – 2389 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-909-2530 www.zalicus.com We are focused on developing novel drug candidates for the treatment of pain and inflammation. We will continue to apply our combination high-throughput screening technology platform and our selective ionchannel modulation platform to generate a pipeline of innovative therapeutics.

Business consultants

Abnousi Corporate Finance 900 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 604-218-4594 www.abnousi.com Advance Biomedical Inc. 604-219-1356 www.advancebiomedical.ca

Diacarbon Energy Inc Unit 120 – 2250 Boundary Road,, Burnaby, BC V5M 3Z3 604-291 0001 www.diacarbon.com Diacarbon Energy is a renewable energy company with North American patents for its portable biomass refinery technology.

Diacarbon’s technology converts low-value biomass waste into high-value renewable fuels: bio-char and bio-oil.

Earth Renu 566-916 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K7 604-306-6142 www.earthrenu.com We are a BC company seeking to produce sustainable energy using agricultural, food processing, and restaurant waste which is treated through the natural process of anaerobic digestion.

EnWave Suite 2000 – 1066 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3X2 778-378-9616 www.enwave.net EnWave Corporation is an R&D company developing commercial applications for its proprietary vacuum-microwave technology.

FortisBC 16705 Fraser Highway, Surrey, BC V4N 0E8 604-576-7000 www.fortisbc.com FortisBC delivers natural gas and piped propane to homes and businesses throughout BC. They’re focused on connecting their customers safely, efficiently and reliably to the energy and services they need.

Arazy Group 350 | 1333 Johnston Street Pier 32 | Granville Island, Vancouver, BC V6H 3R9 604-681-6888 www.ArazyGroup.com BioPharma Solutions 1277 Nelson Street, Suite 1502, Vancouver, BC V6E 4M8 604-408-4310 www.BioPharmaSolutions.com Christie Consulting Services 3715 W. 30 Ave, Vancouver, BC V6S 1W7 604-839-2581 Edelman 2nd Floor 1035 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5L7 604-623-3007 www.edelman.ca

Emergo Group Suite 300, 1275 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 1A6 888-254-3160 www.emergogroup.com

The most advanced GLOBAL regulatory affairs product which allows multiple submissions to more than 80 countries. One comprehensive, quick and cost-effective process.

M E D I C A L A N D I V D D E V I C E R E G I S T R AT O N

42

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 42

www.arazygroup.com | www.globarhub.com

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:47 PM

Life Science Strategies Inc. 13880 18A Avenue, Surrey, BC V4A 9M1 604-541-1269

Syreon Corporation 260 – 1401 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 1C9 604-676-5900 www.syreon.com

Malachite Management Inc. 375 West 5th Avenue, Suite 201, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1J6 604-874-4004 www.malachite-mgmt.com Metaphase Health Research Consulting Inc. 604-224-5925 www.metaphase-consulting.com QualMed Corporation 23 Forestview Drive, Cambridge, On N1T 1V1 226-789-8420 www.QualMed.ca Rocket Builders 300 – 1275 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 1A6 604-839-5388 www.rocketbuilders.com Technology Vision Group LLC 5200 Soquel Ave., Suite 202, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 USA 831-464-4230 www.techvision.com True North Synergy Inc. 5371 Kew Cliff Road, West Vancouver, BC V7W 1M3 604-922-1045 www.truenorthsynergy.com

Viva Pharmaceuticals Inc. 13880 Viking Place, Richmond, BC V6V 1K8 604-718 0816 www.vivapharm.com CanReg is now OptumInsight 4 Innovation Drive, Dundas, ON L9H 7P3 905-689-3980 www.optuminsight.com Critical Systems Labs 618 – 475 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2B3 604-688-2754 www.criticalsystemslabs.com

Wax-it Histology Services Inc. 202 – 2386 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 604-822-1595 www.waxitinc.com

Ernst & Young LLP 700 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1C7 604-891 8200 www.ey.com/GL/en/Home

Facilities & real estate

KPMG LLP Suite 900 – 777 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K3 604-691-3000 www.kpmg.ca

Globe Laboratories Inc. 1-8755 Ash Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 6T3 604-325-9643 www.globelaboratories.com

PricewaterhouseCoopers 250 Howe Street, Suite 700, Vancouver, BC V6C 3S7 604-806-7000 www.pwc.com

Laporte Consultants 112 W, 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1N2 604-568-0180 www.laporteconsultants.com Lifebank Corp.

Suite 200 – 4475 Wayburne Drive, Burnaby, BC V5G 4X4 604-738-2722 www.lifebank.com

RBC Knowledge Based Industries 1055 West Georgia St., 36th Floor, Vancouver, BC V6E 3S5 604-665-8470 www.rbcroyalbank.com/kbi

CB Richard Ellis 600-1111 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4M3 604-662-3000 www.cbre.com

VenturesWest Management Inc. Suite 400, 999 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2W2 604-688-9495 www.ventureswest.com

Government World Courier of Canada Ltd. Suite 170, 3751 Shell Road Airport Executive Park, Building B, Richmond, BC V6X 2W2 604-232 9444 www.worldcourier.com

Communications Business in Vancouver Special Publications 102 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 1G2 604-688-2398 www.biv.com

BCIC 900 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 604-683-2724 www.bcic.ca Maxxam Analytics 4606 Canada Way, Burnaby, BC V5G 1K5 604-734-7276 www.maxxam.ca MPI Research Inc. 54943 North Main Street, Mattawan, Michigan 49071 USA 269-668-3336 www.mpiresearch.com MRM Proteomics Inc. 1275 West 6th Avenue, Suite 311, Vancouver, BC V6H 1A6 604-800-2296 www.mrmproteomics.com Northern Lipids Inc. 8855 Northbrook Court, Burnaby, BC V5J 5J1 604-222-2548 www.northernlipids.com

Canister Creative Inc 2440 East Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V5K 2J5 604-868-4838 www.canistercreative.com

Contract research & scientific services ASKA Research (a Division of Valerie Willetts & Associates) 115 – 1869 Spyglass Place, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4K7 604-736-3166 www.askaresearch.com

British Consulate-General 800-1111 Melville Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4V6 604-683-4421 www.uktradeinvestcanada.org

Chernoff Thompson Architects 110 – 1281 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3J5 604-669-9460 www.cta.bc.ca

Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Suite 200, 1285 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 604-730-8322 www.msfhr.org

Discovery Parks Trust 155-887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 604-734-7275 www.discoveryparks.com Vancouver Island Technology Park 2201-4464 Markham Street Victoria BC V8Z 7X8 250-483-3200 www.vitp.ca

NRC-Industrial Research Assistance Program 1200 Montreal Road, Bldg. M-58, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6 613-993-9101 www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Financial services & insurance

NSERC Pacific Suite 407 – 138 Melville Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4S3 604-666-8818 www.nserc.ca

Aon Reed Stenhouse Inc. 900 Howe Street, 5th Floor, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2M4 604-688-8591 www.aon.com PBR Laboratories 9960-67 Avenue, NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 0P5 866-450-3957 www.pbr.ca/index.htm PharmaNet Development Group Inc. 5160 boul. Décarie, 8th Floor, Montreal, QC H3X 2H9 514-485-7500 www.pharmanet.com PharmEng Technology Inc. 130 – 10691 Shellbridge Way, Richmond, BC V6X 2W8 604-303-0445 www.pharmeng.com

BDC Venture Capital 505 Burrard Street Suite 2100, P.O. Box 6, Vancouver, BC V7X 1M3 604-666-7875 www.bdc.ca CMW Insurance Services Ltd. 700 – 1901 Rosser Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5C 6R6 604-294-3301 www.cmwinsurance.com

SBW – SBNA Systems Biology North America Ltd. 887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 604-365-6424 www.sbw.fi

Canadian External Quality Assessment Laboratory (CEQAL) #307-2083 Alma Street, Vancouver, BC V6R 4N6 604-222-3907 www.ceqal.com

SignalChem Pharmaceuticals Inc. Suite 550 – 5600 Parkwood Way, Richmond, BC V6V 2M2 604-232-4600 www.signalchem.com

Abbott 8401 Trans-Canada Highway, St. Laurent, QC H4S 1Z1 514-832-7000 www.abbott.com AstraZeneca Canada Inc. 1004 Middlegate Rd., Mississauga, ON L4Y 1M4 800-565-5877 www.astrazeneca.ca Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada 2344 Alfred-Nobel Boulevard, Suite 300, Montreal, Quebec H4S 0A4 800-267 0005 www.bms.com

Rondaxe Suite 1, 100 Intrepid Lane, Syracuse, NY 13205 USA 315-469-2800 www.rondaxe.com BRI Biopharmaceutical Research Inc. #101-8898 Heather Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 3S8 604-432-9237 www.bripharm.com

International pharmaceutical corporations

Eli Lilly Canada Inc. 3650 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, ON M1N 2E8 416-694-3221 www.lilly.ca GlaxoSmithKline 7333 Mississauga Rd, Mississauga, ON L5N 6L4 905-819-3000 www.gsk.com Deloitte & Touche LLP 2800-1055 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V7X 1P4 604-669-4466 www.deloitte.ca

Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. 2455 Meadowpine Boulevard, Mississauga, ON L5N 6L7 905-542-5555 www.rochecanada.com BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 43

LifeSciences/2012

43

3/19/12 8:50:48 PM

Kardium Suite 100 – 12851 Rowan Place, Richmond, BC V6V 2K5 604-248-8891 www.kardium.com Kardium is a technology pioneer developing new medical devices to address cardiovascular diseases. The company was founded in 2007 by a team that has a track record of excellence in medicine, business and engineering.

Merck 16711 Trans Canada Highway, Kirkland, QC H9H 3L1 514-428-8600 www.merckfrosst.ca Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. 385 Bouchard Blvd, Dorval, QC H9S 1A9 514-631-6775 www.novartis.ca Nycomed Canada Inc. 435 North Service Rd. West 1st Floor, Oakville, ON L6M 4X8 905-469-9333 www.nycomed.com/ca

Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5400, Seattle, WA 98104 USA 206-622-4900 www.seedip.com Tees Consulting Corp.

2880 Trimble Street, Vancouver, BC V6R 4L4 604-839-4284 www.teesconsulting.com

Medical devices Pfizer Canada Inc. 17300 Trans-Canada Highway, Kirkland, QC H9J 2M5 514-695-0500 www.pfizer.ca Sanofi Canada 2150 St. Elzear Blvd. West, Laval, QC H7L 4A8 514-331-9220 www.sanofi.ca Sanofi-Pasteur 1755 Steeles Avenue West, Bldg. 83, Room 214J, North York, ON M2R 3T4 416-667-2700 www.sanofipasteur.com

Legal services Blake, Cassels & Graydon, LLP 595 Burrard Street, P.O. Box 49314 Suite 2600, Three Bentall Centre, Vancouver, BC V7X 1L3 604-631-3300 www.blakes.ca Borden Ladner Gervais LLP 1200 – 200 Burrard Street, PO Box 48600, Vancouver, BC V7X 1T2 604-687-5744 www.blgcanada.com Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP 3000 Royal Centre, PO Box 11130, 1055 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3R4 604-687-6576 www.bht.com

Biolux Research Ltd. 220-825 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1H7 604-669-0674 www.bioluxresearch.com Biolux Research Ltd. is a world leader in the development of innovative Light Accelerated Regeneration technology and products for use in orthodontics, implantology and other dentistry markets.

Daan Diagnostics Ltd. 200 – 5050 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 4H2 604-451 7588 www.daandiagnostics.com Daan Diagnostics is a leader in the development and commercialization of innovative technologybased products and services for clinical laboratory, veterinary and food applications.

Evasc Medical Systems 107 – 1099 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 1C3 604-742-3811 www.evysio.com Evasc Medical Systems is a medical device company focused on developing technologies for the treatment of vascular disease.

With a strong background in interventional cardiology, Evasc’s mandate is to refine early stage intellectual property and take new endovascular products from concept to pilot production.

Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP 25th Floor, 700 W Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1B3 604-684-9151 www.farris.com Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP Bentall 5 2900 – 550 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 0A3 604-631-3131 www.fasken.com Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP 550 Burrard Street Suite 2300, Bentall 5, Vancouver, BC V6C 2B5 604-683-6498 www.gowlings.com MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP 700 West Pender Street, Suite 700, Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8 604-669-4350 www.mbm.com McCarthy Tétrault LLP PO Box 10424, Pacific Centre, 1300-777 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K2 604-643-7100 www.mccarthy.ca Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP 480 – The Station, 601 West Cordova Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1G1 604-669-3432 www.patentable.com

44

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 44

LifeScan Canada Ltd. #300 – 4170 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, BC V5C 6C6 604-320-2904 www.onetouch.ca/english/index.asp LifeScan Canada Ltd. is committed to improving the quality of life for people with diabetes and has created a unique system of products and services tailored to meet the needs of health care professionals and people with diabetes.

LightIntegra Technologies 650-999 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K5 604-734-3548 www.lightintegra.com LightIntegra Technology Inc. is developing ThromboLUX, a medical device that analyzes the quality of platelets immediately prior to a transfusion Lungpacer Medical Inc. 8888 University Drive, Room L9003, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 778-782 3141 www.lungpacer.com Lungpacer’s mission is to develop and commercialize a novel, award-winning therapeutic system to prevent diaphragm atrophy and protect the lungs from damage associated with mechanical ventilation in critically ill ICU patients Neovasc Inc. #2135-13700 Mayfield Place, Richmond, BC V6V 2E4 604-270-4344 www.neovasc.com Neovasc Inc. is a specialty medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets products for the rapidly growing cardiovascular marketplace. Its products include the Reducer™, Tiara™ and a line of advanced implantable biological tissues.

Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC 1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2800, Seattle, WA 98101-2347 USA 206-682.8100 www.cojk.com DuMoulin Black LLP 595 Howe Street, 10th Floor, Vancouver, BC V6C 2T5 604-687-1224 www.dumoulinblack.com

LED Medical Diagnostics Inc. 235-5589 Byrne Rd., Burnaby, BC V5J 3J1 604-434 4614 www.velscope.com LED Medical Diagnostics Inc. is the parent of company of LED Dental which recently launched the VELscope Vx Enhanced Oral Assessment system, a cordless, affordably priced instrument that helps dental practices screen patients for oral cancer and other oral disease.

Farabloc Development Corp. #211 – 3030 Lincoln Avenue, Coquitlam, BC V3B 6B4 604-941-8201 www.farabloc.com Farabloc Development Corporation is a private company headquartered in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, a suburb of Vancouver. The company was incorporated in 1983 for the purposes of research and development focused on the product Farabloc.

Heart Force Medical Inc. Suite 305 – 1818 Cornwall Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6J 1C7 604-566-8200 www.heartforcemedical.com HeartForce Medical Inc. is an early stage medical devices company dedicated to researching, developing and commercializing products and services for general physicians and cardiologists, specifically for Seismocardiographic and Ballistocardiographic assessments of patients.

Innovatek Medical Inc. #3 – 1600 Derwent Way, Delta, BC V3M 6M5 604-522-8303 innovatekmed.com Innovatek Medical Inc. is a Canadian company selling rapid diagnostic kits in the areas of women’s health, drugs of abuse and infectious diseases.

Ondine Biomedical Inc. 888-1100 Melville Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A6 604-669-0555 www.ondinebiopharma.com Ondine Biopharma Corporation is developing non-antibiotic therapies for the treatment of bacterial, fungal and viral infections.

The company is focused on developing and commercializing innovative products using its patented light-activated technology.

Pyng Medical Corporation 7 – 13511 Crestwood Place, Richmond, BC V6V 2E9 800-349-7964 www.pyng.com Pyng Medical is committed to bringing awardwinning, professionally preferred trauma and resuscitation products to critical care personnel around the world, helping them respond and treat patients faster and more effectively.

Response Biomedical Corp.

1781-75th Avenue W, Vancouver, BC V6P 6P2 604-456-6010 www.responsebio.com Response Biomedical is commercializing a new class of diagnostic with the world’s only immunoassay platform that provides labquality information in a matter of minutes, anywhere, every time.

Sorin Group Canada – Mitroflow Division Heart Valve Manufacturing Operations 5005 North Fraser Way, Burnaby, BC V5J 5M1 604-412-5650 www.sorin.com Sorin Group is a global medical device company and a leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The company develops, manufactures and markets medical technologies for cardiac surgery and for the treatment of cardiac rhythm disorders.

Starfish Medical 455 Boleskine Road, Victoria, BC V8Z 1E7 250-388-3537 www.starfishmedical.com StarFish provides medical device development services, from business, market, and product planning to proof of concept to manufactured devices. Our focus is on great design.

Verathon Medical (Canada) ULC 2227 Douglas Road, Burnaby, BC V5C 5A9 604-439-3009 www.verathon.com Verathon® (formerly Diagnostic Ultrasound Corporation) designs, manufactures and distributes reliable, state-of-the-art medical devices and services that offer a meaningful improvement in patient care to the health care community.

Verisante Technology, Inc. #306 – 2309 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6M 2A3 604-605-0507 www.verisante.com Verisante is a medical device company dedicated to skin cancer detection. The company’s award-winning device, AuraTM, is approved for sale in Canada, Europe and Australia.Verisante is a TSX Venture 50® company (TSX-V: VRS).

Scientific suppliers Airgas North Pacific 12365 King George Hwy, Surrey, BC V3V 3K2 604-580-3000 www.airgas.com

STEMCELL Technologies Inc. 400 – 570 West 7th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1B3 604-877-0713 www.stemcell.com VWR International Ltd. 2360 Argentia Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 5Z7 800-932-5000 www.vwrcanlab.com

Other Arbutus Dental Centre #203 – 4255 Arbutus Street, Vancouver, BC V6J 4R1 604-731-4188

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:48 PM

LIFESCIENCES BRITISH COLUMBIA AWARDS

From investigation to innovation Recognizing today’s foremost achievements in the field

E

ach year, LifeSciences British Columbia presents the LifeSciences British Columbia Awards to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to B.C.’s life sciences.

In 2012, LifeSciences BC recognized the following distinguished recipients.

Tim Durance Innovation & Achievement Award Tim Durance, founder, chairman and cochief executive officer of EnWave Corp., is a world leader in the innovation and advancement of high-speed vacuum microwave drying technology. Since 1996, he has grown his radiant energy vacuum (REV) technologies from early-stage concepts invented at his laboratory at the University of British Columbia into a pipeline of technologies ranging from prototype to industrial offerings, all positioned to challenge the conventional industry standards of freeze-drying (lyophilisation), air-drying and spray-drying.

Durance was a professor in the food, nutrition and health program at UBC and has been a member of the faculty since 1987. He is the owner of 15 patents and author of more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific publications and numerous book chapters and scientific presentations.

Durance received his PhD and M.Sc. in food science from UBC, as well as a B.Sc.

in microbiology from the University of Guelph and a BA in anthropology from the University of Waterloo. He has grown EnWave from a university startup to a TSX-listed company with a market capitalization of over 100 million, employing 25 persons and owning engineering and biotechnology facilities and a pilot plant.

Durance’s ability to innovate while leading a team of highly skilled engineers and scientists has led to the creation of technologies that have interested large multinational companies, including Merck, with which EnWave announced a research evaluation agreement in December 2011.

Bruce M. McManus Milton Wong Award for Leadership Bruce McManus is professor, department of pathology and laboratory medicine, UBC. He serves as director, UBC James Hogg Research Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital; and co-director, Institute for Heart + Lung Health; and director, NCE CECR – Centre of Excellence for Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF). McManus served as inaugural scientific director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, from 2000 to 2006.

McManus received BA and MD degrees from the University of Saskatchewan, an M.Sc. from Pennsylvania State University and a PhD from the University of Toledo. He pursued postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, and residency training at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Harvard University. After 11 years on faculty at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, he joined the UBC faculty of medicine where he served as department head of pathology and laboratory medicine from 1993 to 2000. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the College of American Pathologists, the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Chest Physicians.

McManus has co-authored approximately 350 peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters. He co-holds numerous patents and serves on various editorial boards and advisory committees.

He has also served as councilor for the International Society for Heart Research and the American Society for Investigative Pathology and as president of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology. He was corecipient of the prestigious Max Planck Research Award in 1991, was elected to the Royal Society of Canada as a fellow of the Academy of Sciences in 2002 and became an inaugural fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2005. He has received the Research Achievement Award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the British Columbia Innovation Council’s Lieutenant Governor’s Technology Innovation Award and the CSATVB Scientific Excellence Award from the Canadian Society for Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.

BIV Magazines

Life Sciences 2012.indd 45

LifeSciences/2012

45

3/19/12 8:50:52 PM

LIFESCIENCES BRITISH COLUMBIA AWARDS

Neil Cashman Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence Neil Cashman is a neurologist and neuroscientist and an internationally recognized leader in prion and neurodegenerative disorders. He has received numerous accolades over three decades. As a senior investigator at UBC’s Brain Research Centre and the scientific director of PrioNet Canada, he has focussed on translating research discoveries in protein misfolding into innovative therapeutics and diagnostics for neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease, as well as protective vaccines for the infectious prion diseases, such as mad cow disease. Cashman’s ground-breaking discoveries and globally collaborative efforts have shaped the Canadian research landscape in this field. Cashman has authored more than 300 scientific publications and has filed 30 patent applications.

In 1998, Cashman was the scientific founder of Caprion Pharmaceuticals, and in 2004 he founded Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd., a company focussed on the diagnosis and treatment of protein misfolding diseases. To kick-start Canadian prion research after the outbreak of mad cow disease, he organized a Network of Centres of Excellence named PrioNet Canada in 2003, with the purpose of networking multidisciplinary researchers in Canada and internationally to investigate the causes and prevention of animal and human prion diseases. He also holds the Canada Research Chair in Neurodegeneration and Protein Misfolding Diseases, is a professor of neurology at UBC and serves as an expert consultant for the Canadian government and international industry.

46

LifeSciences/2012

Life Sciences 2012.indd 46

Ian de la Roche Dr. Don Rix Award for Lifetime Achievement Ian de la Roche is adjunct professor, forest resource management, UBC. For four decades, he has helped usher Canada’s traditional agriculture and forestry into the new bioeconomy. A plant geneticist, he started his career as a research scientist and head of genetic engineering at Agriculture Canada, publishing more than 80 scientific articles on plant genetics, physiology and biotechnology and moving into leadership roles such as overseeing crop R&D programs at 50 facilities nationwide. De la Roche went on to lead three national research institutes focused on biotechnology and crop improvement. He then became director general, priorities, strategies and national programs. Among his many accomplishments, he led the development of the National Agriculture Biotechnology Initiative, established the first Industry Relations Office to facilitate commercialization of new technologies and formulated the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy for dealing with the European Economic Community.

In 1988, he was appointed assistant deputy minister at Western Economic Diversification Canada. He became a key architect of the International Centre for Agricultural Science and Technology and the Plant Biotechnology Cluster in Saskatoon. In 1992, he became president and chief executive officer of Forintek Canada Corp., Canada’s national woodproducts research institute, where he oversaw a major expansion into valueadded and secondary manufacturing.

Under his leadership, Forintek became

a key organization during the onset of the mountain-pine-beetle epidemic and helped counter many of the concerns about beetle-killed wood by conceiving scientifically-based strategies to recover value from the resource and maintain market access. In 2006, he oversaw the creation of FPInnovations, a merger of the three national forestry R&D institutes and the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre.

De la Roche has helped change how we think about forestry: from a finite natural resource to a sustainable, diversified sector with a strong innovation system.

Neovasc Inc. Medical Device Company of the Year Neovasc Inc. focusses on treating advanced cardiovascular disease and heart failure: an area of immense clinical need and rapid technological development.

The company made significant advances in 2011, growing revenues and achieving important development and regulatory milestones to establish itself internationally as a leading developer and provider of cardiovascular devices.

Neovasc has three distinct product lines: 1) its biological-tissue business, 2) the Reducer product for treating refractory angina and 3) the Tiara transcatheter mitral-valve replacement.

Neovasc has customers around the world, ranging from small startups to some of the largest companies in the medical-device industry, with more than 25,000 patients implanted with devices fabricated from Neovasc’s biological tissue in 2011. The Reducer received a CE mark in November 2011, allowing the company to begin marketing the product in Europe and treating the large population of patients suffering from debilitating angina pain. Neovasc’s Tiara transcatheter mitral-valve program is now recognized internationally as one of the most promising technologies in this area, and the company expects to undertake first-in-man implantations within a year: an accomplishment never before achieved clinically.

Neovasc has seen steady growth in revenue every year since the company’s formation in 2008, and it forecasts continued growth for 2012. Ą

BIV Magazines

3/19/12 8:50:54 PM

! ! ! " !

# "

!!!

$

Life Sciences 2012.indd 47

3/19/12 8:50:54 PM

GxP Compliance in the World Courier Network

About GxP

Our Position

â&#x20AC;&#x153;GxPâ&#x20AC;? is a collective term for the Good Practice quality guide lines and regulations used in many fields, encompassing such internationally-recognized standards as GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), GCP (Good Clinical Practice), GSP (Good Storage Practice) and GDP (Good Distribution Practice). These guidelines are designed to ensure that products are safe, meet their intended use and, in regulated industries such as drugs, food, medical devices and cosmetics, adhere to quality processes during manufacturing, control, storage and distribution.

World Courier acknowledges the critical role that Good Practice plays in servicing its biopharmaceutical customers.

It remains dedicated to ensuring company GxP compliance at a worldwide organizational level as it relates to the transport and storage of investigational drugs, biological samples and additional supplies used in global clinical trials.

For more information on our services, please call us at 800-387-3381 or visit us at www.worldcourier.com.

Life Sciences 2012.indd 48

3/19/12 8:50:55 PM

Company Amgen Arazy Group BC Centre for Excellence BCIT BioTalent Deloitte Genome BC Iotron Merck Ministry of BC Oyen Wiggs Pfizer Phyton Biotech PRA Proof Centre Stemcell Vancouver Coastal Health World Courier Xenon

page 47 42 26 14 9 6 7 33 2 5 28 3 41 22 41 39 16 48 16

url www.amgen.ca www.arazygroup.com; www.globarhub.com www.cfe.ubc.ca www.bcit.ca/health www.biotalent.ca www.deloitte.ca www.genomebc.ca www.iotron.com www.merck.ca www.britishcolumbia.ca www.patentable.com www.pfizer.ca www.phytonbiotech.com www.clearlypra.com www.proofcentre.ca www.stemcell.com www.vchri.ca www.worldcourier.com www.xenon-pharma.com