BUSINESS corner Sanofi knocks the socks off Toronto with C$500-M investment French company Sanofi announces one of their largest investments ever in a single building and knocks the socks off the Toronto life sciences community. Sanofi announces that they are investing €350 million (C$500 million) into their Toronto facility to significantly increase capacity to meet the growing demand for pediatric and booster vaccines and demonstrate their commitment to innovation and leadership in global health. The announcement was held at Sanofi Pasteur’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto and was joined by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and the Honourable Steven Del Duca, Minister of Economic Development and Growth.
“Canada has a strong legacy in the research and development of vaccines. With this investment, Sanofi is renewing our longstanding commitment to making Canada central in our effort to protect and improve human health across the globe,” says David Loew, executive vice president and head of Sanofi Pasteur. “Vaccines save three million lives every year and this new facility will take us one step closer to a world where no one suffers or dies from a vaccine-preventable disease.” The new facility will allow Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines global business unit of Sanofi, to meet the growing demand of five-component acellular pertussis (5-acP) antigen. The building itself is expected to be completed within three to four years, a year or two to get the quality manage-
Zucara secures $3.9-M in non-dilutive funding from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
ld Weaver
Zucara Therapeutics Inc., a Torontobased diabetes life sciences company working to advance the first once-daily therapeutic to prevent low blood glucose levels secures US$3.9 million in non-dilutive funding from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Helmsley will provide the funding to support preclinical advancement of Zucara’s lead drug candidate “ZT-01”, which is focused on the prevention of hypoglycemia in people with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) and other types of insulin-dependent diabetes. The partnership is structured as a program-related investment (PRI) in the form of a loan to Zucara. The company is now moving forward with GLP toxicology, GMP manufacturing 8 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS April/May 2018
and other Investigational New Drug/Clinical Trial Application enabling activities to bring its lead drug to Phase I clinical trials in 2019. Preclinical development work will be led by Dr. Richard Liggins, Zucara’s Chief Scientific Officer, who has helped to bring several similar-stage therapeutics to clinical trials. Zucara continues to work closely with The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) to build and advance its products. Dangerously low blood glucose, which can lead to unconsciousness or even death, is a frequent challenge for people with T1D and other types of insulin-dependent diabetes. The constant risk of hypoglycemia means that these individuals must monitor and treat low blood glucose levels with fastacting carbohydrates or, in the case of emer-
ment system up and running, and a year or two to do product development and testing. The site will be equipped to produce the antigens used in the diphtheria and tetanus vaccines. “This project is one of the most important investments for the Sanofi global industrial network,” says Philippe Luscan, executive vice president, Global Industrial Affairs, Sanofi. “It demonstrates our continued commitment to manufacturing excellence and to better serving our vaccines portfolio to people all over the world.” To see this story online visit https://biotechnologyfocus.ca/sanofiknocks-the-socks-off-toronto-with-c500m-investment/
gency, have a companion inject them with exogenous glucagon. A therapy that restores the body’s ability to prevent hypoglycemia would prevent dangerous hypoglycemic episodes and would improve management of the disease while reducing long-term complications. Zucara will join other leading institutions in a Helmsley-supported scientific working group focused on understanding and restoring the pancreas’s natural ability to prevent hypoglycemia in individuals with T1D. In this working group investigators study relevant cell types, including alpha and delta cells, and share knowledge to make therapeutic discoveries within an area of research that is historically underappreciated and underfunded. This new support builds upon more than US$1M in recently announced funding from JDRF International, the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and MaRS Innovation. This funding continues to support preclinical activities with Dr. Michael Riddell at York University, a Zucara founding scientist, who has accelerated the technology originally discovered by Drs. Mladen Vranic (Banting and Best Diabetes Centre, University of Toronto) and David Coy (Tulane University). To see this story online visit https://biotechnologyfocus.ca/zucara-funding-helmsley-trust/
