Biotechnology Focus September/October 2014

INSIGHTS FOR THE LIFE SCIENCE INDUSTRY

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 VOLUME 17, NUMBER 4

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THINGS BREWING AT

ROBERTO BELLINI BELLUS HEALTH PRESIDENT AND CEO

BELLUS COULD AN EXIT BE ON THE HORIZON? INSIDE:

SPOTLIGHT ON QUÉBEC

Publication Mail Registration Number: 40052410

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August/September 2014 – VOLUME 17 – NUMBER 4

contents FEATURES 12

ABIC 2014 Saskatoon: the best of biotech!

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Biotechnology Focus goes one-on-one with Dianne Gosselin to discuss CQDM’s growing footprint in Canada

The Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference returns to where it all began SPECIAL TO BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS

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A new kind of biotech startup incubator comes to Montréal

COMPILED BY SHAWN LAWRENCE

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Inception Sciences Montréal hopes to capitalize on the existing talent and R&D strengths in Québec to generate company creation

BY SHAWN LAWRENCE

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Big things brewing at BELLUS After engaging U.S. biotechnology merger and acquisition firm Lazard as financial advisors, many in the industry are wondering if an exit could be on the horizon

BY SHAWN LAWRENCE

CQDM: The innovation engine that continues to evolve

Translational research: a successful model For more than 45 years, IRCM has been a leader in taking ideas from the bench to the bedside

BY JULIE LANGELIER

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Across Borders Belgium is ready to be a leader in the life sciences

BY DANIELA FISHER

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The Last word The Sherbrooke International Life Sciences Summit: A regional gamble with national impact

BY JOSÉE BLANCHARD

www.biotechnologyfocus.ca

August/September 2014 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS 3

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SENIOR WRITER STAFF WRITER COPY EDITOR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Terri Pavelic Shawn Lawrence Daniela Fisher Mark David Julie Langelier Josée Blanchard

Canada shines on the world stage When it comes to the 2014 BIO International Convention, there was no better place to be than the Canada Place pavilion in San Diego, California. For starters, it was a pleasure to see so many of you face-to-face and to hear about some of the great things you are doing.

Moreover, amidst a staggering seventy countries and fifty states, Canada made a remarkable impression. The event, hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, helped connect industry and government leaders in the hopes of furthering the promise of biotechnology. Although the convention lasted only four days, Canadian organizations and businesses certainly had their hands full.

Canada, with over five hundred delegates, was among the ten largest delegations, and just to prove the truth in the old adage “Quality over quantity”, Canada showcased its qualifications with both celebrations of the old and announcements of the new.

The BIOTECanada Gold Leaf Awards proved to be especially exciting, with winners including Medicago Inc. (Game Changing Technology), Sanofi Group Inc. (Contribution to Canadian Communities), Trillium Therapeutics Inc., (Emerging Health) and David Main for Industry Leadership. To top it off, the prestigious “Company of the Year” award was taken home by Saskatoon-based Agrisoma for their work in sustainable biofuel production.

One of BIO 2014’s goals is to connect both companies and countries in the name of biotech. Keeping with this theme, the convention was host to an array of announcements regarding collaborations and cooperation, both within Canada and internationally. Quebec’s Minister of Economy, Innovation and Exports Jacques Daoust made the announcement that the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and the Ontario Brain Insitute (OBI) had partnered with CQDM to launch the 2014 edition of CQDM’s Explore Program. Now, for the first time ever, both Ontario and Quebec researchers will have access to the program. Likewise, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) and Life Sciences Queensland Ltd. (LSQ) have agreed to pair up in hopes of accelerating the commercialization of high-tech projects.

Meanwhile, five leading Canadian CECR’s and BDC Venture Capital used BIO 2014 as a platform to announce the launch of their latest endeavour, Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator (Accel-Rx). Fittingly, the new entity embodies everything that BIO 2014 is about: helping health science companies get off the ground and making sure they have the funding to spread their wings. Accel-Rx has the potential to encourage and cultivate cross-Canadian collaborations and address seed-stage funding for health sciences companies.

With next year’s BIO International Convention being held in Pittsburgh, PA, and numbers growing annually, Canada’s influence will extend even further. It certainly is an exciting time to be a Canadian – and a proud one, at that.

NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER GRAPHIC DESIGNER CONTROLLER MARKETING MANAGER CIRCULATION DIRECTOR

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Celine Bak, Analytica Advisors; Rob Henderson, BioTalent Canada; Najla Guthrie, KGK Synergize; Pierre Bourassa, IRAP, Montréal; Murray McLaughlin, Sustainable Chemistry Alliance; Carol Reynolds, AdFarm; Ulli Krull, UTM; John Kelly, KeliRo Company Inc.; Peter Pekos, Dalton Pharma Services; Brad Thompson, Oncolytics; Darrell Ethell, CanReg; John Hylton, John H. Hylton & Associates; Robert Foldes, Viteava Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Randal R.Goodfellow, P.Ag., Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations, Ensyn; Bob H. Sotiriadis, Robic LLP; Dale Patterson, Genome Canada; Darcy Pawlik, Syngenta Seeds Canada Inc; Gail Garland, OBIO; Barry Gee, CDRD; Bonnie Kuehl, Scientific Insights Consulting Group Inc.; Raphael Hofstein, MaRS Innovation Biotechnology Focus is published 6 times per year by Promotive Communications Inc. 24-4 Vata Court, Aurora, Ontario L4G 4B6 Phone 905-727-3875 Fax 905-727-4428 www.biotechnologyfocus.ca E-mail: biotechnology_focus@promotive.net Subscription rate in Canada $35/year; USA $60/year; other countries $100/year. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Publications Mail Registration Number: 40052410 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: circulation dept – 24-4 Vata Court, Aurora, Ontario L4G 4B6 National Library of Canada ISSN 1486-3138 \ All opinions expressed herein are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or any person or organization associated with the magazine.

If you would like to order hard copy or electronic reprints of articles, contact Sandra Service 905-727-3875 x221 reprints@promotive.net

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R & D NEWS Canadian companies strike gold at BIO: BIOTECanada honours Gold Leaf Award winners at BIO 2014 The BIOTECanada Gold Leaf Awards were presented during a ceremony at the BIO International Convention in San Diego, CA with Saskatoon’s Agrisoma receiving the prestigious “Company of the Year” honour.

Other winners included Trillium Therapeutics Inc. (Emerging Health), Ceapro Inc. (Emerging Agriculture), Medicago Inc. (Game Changing Technology), Sanofi Group Inc. (Contribution to Canadian Communities) and David Main for Industry Leadership.

“These winning companies are symbolic of the industry broadly and the opportunity biotech innovation represents. From life-saving vaccines, technologies offering lessened environmental impact, innovative medicines, and reinvigorating traditional industries, all facets of the Canadian biotech industry are represented by this year’s group of Award winners,” commented Andrew Casey, president and CEO BIOTECanada. “I congratulate these companies for having been nominated and voted on by industry peers. Knowing the many milestones they have reached we look forward to their future success,” Casey added.

BIOTECanada sponsors the Gold Leaf Awards, which are nominated and judged by biotechnology industry leaders, and the awards honour companies and individuals who have made significant contributions to the growth of Canada’s biotech sector.

Headquartered in Saskatoon, Agrisoma is an agricultural company that has commercialized carinata, a non-food oilseed crop designed for sustainable production

of biofuels. Sourcing most of its crops from southern Saskatchewan, Agrisoma sells carinata seed products under the Resonance® brand name that delivers a reliable source of renewable oil that can be used as a “drop in” feedstock for biojet and biodiesel fuel manufacturing processes.

“Agrisoma is honored to receive the Gold Leaf Award,” stated Steven Fabijanski, Agrisoma president and CEO. “Agrisoma’s Resonance® Carinata, Canada’s first non-food crop that produces oil uniquely suited for biofuel production, was used to fuel the world’s first 100 per cent renewable biojet fuel flight here in Canada. Agrisoma has

worked hard to demonstrate how our industry provides sustainable solutions as well as the role of biotechnology in securing our energy future.”

Casey added that “Agrisoma’s innovation is a fantastic demonstration of how biotechnology helps to provide the solutions needed to address the pressing challenges facing our society and environment. The vision and dedication of Agrisoma offers inspiration and promise for the economy and society more broadly.”

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/?p=11680

NRC and KalGene targeting brain cancers The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and KalGene Pharmaceuticals have agreed to work together and co-develop a new treatment against aggressive brain cancers.

The joint project will see NRC and KalGene target glioblastomas or severe brain tumours associated with a median patient survival of about 15 months. The collaboration couples KalGene’s proprietary therapeutic antibody with NRC’s single domain antibodies that exploit the mechanisms needed for the entry of nutrients in order to enable the delivery of medicine, like a Trojan horse.

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Specifically, NRC’s antibodies will shuttle KalGene’s antibody across the challenging blood-brain barrier composed of tightly woven cells that safeguard the brain by repelling harmful agents such as bacteria, while allowing the passage of critical nutrients. Overcoming the barrier is a significant challenge in addressing many diseases affecting the brain; virtually 100 per cent of large molecule medicines are unable to cross the barrier.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/?p=11938

R & D NEWS New Canadian health sciences accelerator launched at BIO 2014 Hoping to address the gap between academic discovery and commercialization by industry in Canada, a group of Canadian CECR’s along with BDC Venture Capital have launched a new national hub for health science company creation.

The announcement was made at the BIO International Conference. The new entity, called the Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator (Accel-Rx) will focus on maximizing new health sciences company creation, and ensuring startups have the resources they need to grow and become a new generation of strong health sciences companies.

Accel-Rx brings together five of Canada’s leading health sciences Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) to foster cross-Canadian cooperation and directly addressing the health science company creation challenge in Canada. They include: • The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD); • MaRS Innovation (MI); • The Vancouver Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development (PC-TRIADD); • The Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM); and, • The Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization (CPDC).

CDRD Ventures Inc. (CVI) will provide the initial management to launch Accel-Rx operations, while a proposed seed funding partnership with BDC Venture Capital would be the main funding mechanism for companies created at

Accel-Rx, with the intent to invest in up to three to four companies annually, with that number potentially increasing as the partnership progresses. Selected companies would each receive a $500,000 convertible note from BDC Venture Capital, which we hope will allow companies to attract similar, if not greater investments from the private sector.

“The fact is the healthcare industry in Canada holds great promise, with over $6 billion invested in basic research annually.

However, a gap exists in terms of transforming this research into commerciallyviable businesses. We believe that our collaboration with Accel-Rx will help tackle this problem,” commented Jérôme Nycz, executive vice president, subordinate financing and venture capital at BDC. To date, all BDC-backed accelerators have been in primarily the digital media and ICT sectors. This proposed partnership marks their first step in expanding their support to the health sciences sector.

“Together with our network of partner CECRs across the country, Accel-Rx is now supporting the next stage in the development continuum, and acting as a robust national accelerator for new company creation,” said Natalie Dakers, president and CEO of CVI, and the inaugural Centre director of Accel-Rx. “With the new resources it brings to the table, Accel-Rx will provide Canada with a more well-informed, well-resourced, and effective approach to company creation; and ensure

that opportunities arising from the country’s strong foundation of innovative discovery research and technology development are fully capitalized upon through the launching of a critical mass of robust companies based on exceptional innovative, pre-validated (scientifically and commercially) technologies.”

Accel-Rx will deliver five key Program Pillars: Business Planning and Investment Strategy Development, Funding, Technology Development Planning, Mentorship, and Access to Infrastructure (through preferred partnerships with the five founding CECR organizations noted above).

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/?p=11614

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R & D NEWS Tak Mak study maps decade of discovery to potential anticancer agent

The journal Cancer Cell has just published research led by Dr. Tak Mak mapping the path of discovery to developing a potential anticancer agent.

“What began with the question ‘what makes a particular aggressive form of breast cancer cells keep growing?’ turned into 10 years of systematic research to identify the enzyme PLK4 as a promising therapeutic target and develop a small molecule inhibitor to block it,” says Dr. Mak, director of The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network and an internationally acclaimed immunologist renowned for his 1984 cloning of the genes encoding the human T-cell receptor.

In the lab, Dr. Mak`s scientific team used an approach that combined functional RNAi analysis with gene expression analysis in breast cancer-derived cell lines and in human breast cancers replicated in mice. Using these multidimensional data sets for human breast cancer, PLK4 was identified as a candidate target among 10,000 other targets for the development of anticancer therapeutics.

“The research showed that the aggressive form of basal breast cancer cells may be dependent on PLK4 for survival and that depleting it induced cell death,” he says. “This finding led to the identification of CFI-400945, a selective and orally active inhibitor of PLK4, which was shown to have significant anti-tumour activity as

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a single agent in a variety of preclinical tumour models.”

Another key finding was observing the inhibitor effect on tumour models with a gene PTEN deficiency as a biomarker is of huge interest because PTEN, a tumour suppressor, is known to be defective in as many as half of all advanced solid tumour cancers.

“If clinical testing supports our hypothesis that PTEN is a predictive biomarker for CFI-40095, we will have another way to tailor personalized cancer medicine based on an individual’s genetics,” says Dr. Mak. Although breast cancer was the initial focus and featured in the study that was published, the team has also conducted experiments with other types of solid tumours, with similar results. The next phase of research will involve testing in humans, which was approved last year by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“It may take several more years to determine the benefit for patients,” says Dr. Mak, “but we are happy to be able to provide this opportunity for our patients. We remain optimistic that we may have found a novel way to treat cancer.”

The research was funded by The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Genome Canada.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/?p=11922

Clinical Trials & Patents n OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Vancouver, BC) says that its Cedar™ clinical trial, an investigator-sponsored, randomized, open-label Phase 2 trial evaluating apatorsen in previously untreated patients with advanced squamous cell lung cancer is now open for enrollment. Apatorsen is a once-weekly intravenous (IV) experimental drug that is designed to inhibit production of heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) to disable cancer cells’ defenses and overcome treatment resistance. Approximately 140 patients with previously untreated stage IV or recurrent squamous cell lung cancers or stage IIIB squamous cell cancers that are not amenable to radiochemotherapy will be randomized to receive either apatorsen plus gemcitabine and carboplatin therapy, or gemcitabine and carboplatin therapy alone. The primary objective of the study is progression-free survival (PFS), with secondary objectives to evaluate tumour response rates, overall survival, safety, tolerability, and health-related quality of life. Additional analyses will be conducted to determine the effect of therapy on Hsp27 levels and to explore potential biomarkers that may help predict response to treatment. n Lorus Therapeutics (Toronto, ON) says the FDA has completed its review and cleared the company’s investigational-new-drug application of LOR-253 for the treatment of hematologic malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia, high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, lymphomas and multiple myeloma. Clearance of the IND allows Lorus to initiate a Phase 1b, multi-center, open-label, clinical study of LOR-253 in patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies. The Phase 1b trial will evaluate safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamic responses and efficacy of LOR-253 as a single agent. The trial is expected to enroll 45 to 60 patients as part of a dose-escalation program and two separate disease-specific singleagent expansion cohorts. Lorus believes that LOR-253 may represent a targeted therapeutic solution for a very difficult-to-treat cancer.

It works by inducing the KLF4 gene, which has been reported as a key transforming event in AML and high-risk MDS. n Antibe Therapeutics Inc. (Toronto, ON) announces that following the receipt of a No Objection Letter from Health Canada, its Phase 1 clinical trial has been initiated. The first clinical study of ATB-346, a drug the company says is a safer anti-inflammatory painkiller, involves safety and pharmacokinetic evaluations in healthy human subjects and will be conducted in Montréal, QC over the coming months.

BUSINESS CORNER Reverse takeover sees QLT merge into Auxilium Pharma Vancouver biotech company QLT Inc. has disappeared from the market, merging with U.S.-based Auxilium Pharmaceuticals in a reverse takeover deal worth about US$300 million in stocks.

QLT, which specializes in drugs for eye diseases, will remain incorporated in B.C. and operate as a subsidiary called ‘New Auxilium,” while the merged company will stay headquartered in Chesterbrook, Mass.

In buying QLT, Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc. will also acquire QLT’s experimental treatment for eye diseases caused by gene mutations in addition to other orphan ophthalmology products. The experimental treatment, called synthetic retinoid, replaces a key chemical component in the eye that plays a role in visual functioning. The drug is being tested to treat eye diseases caused by gene mutations that hamper the availability of the component.

Under the terms of the transaction, Auxilium shareholders will end up owning about 76 per cent of the combined company receiving 3.1359 QLT shares for each share held. Shares of the combined company are expected to trade on NASDAQ and QLT is expected to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange following the deals completion.

In a release, Auxilium CEO Adrian Adams said he expects the transaction be completed by the end of 2014’s fourth quarter.

Auxilium, whose products focus on men’s health, orthopedics and dermatology, said it plans to continue to look for a potential

partnership agreement for late-stage studies of the QLT drug.

QLT Canada was founded in 1986 and has been one of Canada’s most iconic drug developers, employing 400 staff at its peak in 2006.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/?p=11661

Dealmakers Biosign Technologies Inc. (Thornhill, ON) has completed its acquisition of 51 per cent of issued and outstanding shares of Meck Medical GmbH (MECK). In connection with the acquisition, the company has agreed to provide MECK a loan to fund its operations of up to €100,000 per month to a maximum of €2.4 million in the aggregate. MECK is required to have a reserve pool of not less than €50,000 at all times. The loan will bear interest at 5.75% per annum and is repayable based on future MECK profits with maturity in five years from the date of the first advance. In connection with the acquisition, MECK has agreed to pay a co-founder a total of €1,000,000 over eight quarters starting in August 2014 to acquire certain intellectual property. n

n Specialty pharmaceutical company Medicure Inc. (Winnipeg, MB) through its newly formed subsidiary, Medicure U.S.A. Inc. has entered into an arrangement to acquire a minority interest in pharmaceutical manufacturing business Apicore (Somerset, NJ). In all, Medicure and Medicure USA have acquired a 6.09 per cent equity interest (5.33 per cent on a fully-diluted basis) in two newly-formed holding companies of which Apicore LLC and Apicore U.S. LLC will be wholly owned operating subsidiaries. Medicure has also received an option to acquire all of the remaining issued shares of Apicore LLC and the

holding company of Apicore U.S. LLC, within the next three years.

Eventi Capital Partners, a Toronto-based growth capital investment firm specializing in high growth technologies in the IT and healthcare sectors, has sold Visualase Inc. (Houston,TX) to Medtronic Inc. in a deal valuing the company at approximately US$105 million. Visualase develops and sells a laser system for minimally invasive neurosurgery. The Visualase technology has been used to treat more than 800 neurosurgical patients. Eventi Capital Partners made its initial investment in Visualase in February 2009 with a follow-on round of financing made in May 2012.

The all-cash transaction of up to US$105 million includes an initial payment of US$70 million to Visualase’s shareholders plus the potential for an additional US$35 million in incremental revenue-based earn out payments. Leerink Partners LLC served as financial advisor and Miller, Egan, Molter & Nelson LLP served as legal advisor in the transaction.

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n Privately-owned Canadian pharmaceutical services provider Dalton Pharma Services (Toronto, ON) has entered into a manufacturing services agreement with GLyPharma Therapeutics Inc., a Montréal-based company developing clinical therapies for chemotherapyinduced intestinal mucositis. Under the terms

of the service agreement Dalton Pharma Services will provide aseptic fill/finish services and analytical support under cGMP for FE 203799, a long-acting GLP-2 receptor agonist under development by GLyPharma as a first-in-class therapy for supportive care in oncology for patients receiving chemotherapy.

Laval-based KLOX Technologies has struck a license and joint venture agreement with dermatology company LEO Pharma. The deal will help to further develop and commercialize KLOX’s BioPhotonic technology platform in dermatology, which includes the LumiCleanse System.

The worldwide license and joint venture agreement excludes Canada where KLOX’s solution is commercialized by Sandoz Canada. Additionally, as part of the agreement LEO Pharma says it will also make an equity investment in KLOX. Under the terms of the agreement, LEO Pharma will be responsible for clinical and commercial activities, including manufacturing. In addition, LEO Pharma will provide financial funding support for KLOX research and product development in dermatology. The financial terms include a significant upfront, as well as a double-digit, escalating, tiered royalty rate based on product sales.

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For more Business Corner news visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/category/ topics/business/ August/September 2014 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS 9

BUSINESS CORNER

Canadian biotech company Microbix Biosystems Inc. is suing Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG for alleged infringement of its VIRUSMAX® patent in Europe.

Microbix’s VIRUSMAX® technology is used for increasing virus yields in eggbased vaccine manufacture.

The company said it has commenced new patent litigation in the Court of Dusseldorf, Germany against Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics after earlier filing a complaint against Novartis in the Eastern District of Texas on January 6, 2014, for alleged infringement of the Virusmax patent in the U.S. The patent application was first published internationally in 2004. At that time, governments, the World Health Organization and public health authorities worldwide expressed growing concern about limited global vaccine manufacturing capacity and supply, especially in light of a potential influenza pandemic.

Microbix successfully defended its European VIRUSMAX® patent against Novartis’ Opposition at the European Patent Office in January 2014 when, following a hearing in Munich, the Office rendered a decision in favour of Microbix and confirmed that the VIRUSMAX® technology is a novel, useful and non-obvious invention. Novartis has now appealed that decision. Microbix was also granted patents for the VIRUSMAX® technology in twenty-one countries between 2006 and 2011.

“Microbix discovered the presence of

large quantities of flu virus in eggs that was previously unrecognized by the industry,” said Vaughn Embro-Pantalony, president and CEO of Microbix. “VIRUSMAX® is the innovative manufacturing process developed by Microbix for the vaccine industry based on that discovery. Following the successful defense of our European patent in January 2014, we are taking this next step to enforce our intellectual property rights in Europe.”

An independent study published in the Journal of Vaccine in 2007 reported that the application of VIRUSMAX® technology led to a significant increase in flu virus production in eggs. These trials used methods comparable to those employed in seasonal influenza vaccine manufacture. The company has also demonstrated substantial yield increases over conventional manufacturing processes for a number of influenza vaccine strains using its technology.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus. ca/?p=11846

Xagenic closes Series B financing raising $25.5M

Canadian molecular diagnostics company Xagenic Inc. announces a second closing of its recently announced Series B financing, bringing the total raised in this round to $25.5 million. In conjunction with the closing, new investor BDC Capital joined as an investor and Dion Madsen, senior managing partner at BDC Capital, will join Xagenic’s board of directors.

The company is developing the first labfree molecular diagnostic platform with a 20 minute time-to-result called the Xagenic X1™ platform and recently received the Frost & Sullivan 2014 Point-of-Care Diagnostics New Product Innovation Leadership Award..

“Securing this additional financing from high-quality new and existing investors demonstrates confidence in the Xagenic X1™ platform. We look forward to continuing our development program in anticipation of our analytical and clinical study start later this year,” said Shana Kelley, founder and CTO of Xagenic. “Our enzyme-

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Knight Therapeutics reaches deal with Origin Biomed Knight Therapeutics has entered into a secured debt agreement with Origin Biomed, makers of the Neuragen and Bionica brands.

Origin will use the funds to promote the growth of Neuragen in both Canada and the U.S. Neuragen is the first all-natural, non-prescription topical treatment for rapid relief of pain associated with diabetic and peripheral neuropathy, approved for sale in Canada and the U.S. “This $850,000 loan from Knight helps fund the continued promotion of Neuragen across all 40,000 retailers in North America,” Carlo Shimoon, Origin’s executive chairman, said in a statement.

Jonathan Ross Goodman, president and CEO of Knight, said the company is pleased to support Origin in the growth of Neuragen and “looks forward to a long, pain-free partnership with Origin.”

Jonathan Ross Goodman

Microbix sues Novartis for infringement of VIRUSMAX® patent in Europe

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/?p=11659

free molecular diagnostic platform will provide significant advantages in patient care by bringing nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT)-like performance to the physician office with a testing time of 20 minutes.”

Based in Toronto, Ont., Xagenic is a privately-held company that is developing a menu of infectious disease tests it hopes will have an impact on patient care and reduce health care costs. In addition to BDC Capital, Xagenic is supported by private investors Domain Associates, CTI Life Sciences Fund, the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/?p=11909

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SPECIAL REPORT:

ABIC 2014 SASKATOON: the best of biotech!

An exciting program is in place for the 14th edition of the Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC 2014), hosted by Ag-West Bio in Saskatoon, SK from October 5–8.

ABIC™ is the premier global meeting that promotes innovation in bioscience to ensure sustainable food, feed, fibre and fuel security as the climate changes.

ABIC 2014 will provide a forum for discussion and analysis of several themes and issues that are familiar to everyone involved in biosciences. Each of the four days of the conference will focus on a different theme: • Global Challenges and Issues related to Agricultural Productivity • Innovation for Global Food Security • Strategies for Agriculture Innovation • Leadership for Successful Innovation Wilf Keller, Chair of the ABIC Foundation and Ag-West Bio’s President and CEO, says that science will play a greater role than ever in creating solutions, as climate change creates unstable weather patterns, and the population grows. “The ABIC 2014 themes were chosen to reflect the most prevalent questions within the industry, such as, how can the biosciences mitigate some of the predicted challenges?”

ABIC 2014 SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS The 2014 steering committee is proud of this year’s program, which brings high-calibre speakers from around the world to Saskatoon. Three of the 42 plenary and session speakers presenting at the conference are highlighted below.

Ingo Potrykus

child’s daily Vitamin A requirements. Golden Rice has the potential to eliminate Vitamin A deficiency, saving eyesight and lives.

To Potrykus’s immense frustration, Golden Rice has yet to save anyone. Because the rice was biofortified with beta-carotene using genetic modification, the anti-GMO lobby and regulatory hurdles have held up release of the rice to those who would benefit most. “The science to develop Golden Rice took eight years,” says Potrykus. “Product development and deregulation, so far, has taken 15 years and is not yet over.”

Golden Rice was developed with the intent of improving food security in developing countries, and reaching subsistence farmers in rice-dependent cultures, particularly in remote areas. The licensing agreement pioneered by Potrykus and his team identifies a cut-off level of income that separates free access to the technology for humanitarian purposes from commercial use of the technology.

“The progress in science, and the projected impact on agriculture and food is breathtaking,” says Potrykus. “But effective use of biotechnology is locked by GMO opposition and extreme precautionary regulation. The future depends upon whether society listens to activists or science.”

Julie Borlaug

Every year in developing countries, more than two million children die from standard infectious diseases and approximately 500,000 children become blind because of vitamin A deficiency. In an effort to combat this diet-based disease, Dr. Ingo Potrykus, Professor Emeritus of Plant Sciences at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, developed Golden Rice.

Golden Rice looks and tastes like regular rice, but contains enough beta-carotene in a half-cup serving to meet 65% of a

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Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

No one knows better than Julie Borlaug the value of gaining public support for biotechnology projects. As the Associate Director of External Relations for the Borlaug Institute for Inter-

SPECIAL REPORT: national Agriculture, she has seen first-hand the need for innovative agricultural solutions in developing countries, as well as the heartbreaking delays that can be caused by a lack of public awareness or understanding.

As a keynote speaker at ABIC 2014, Borlaug will focus on the legacy of her grandfather, Dr. Norman Borlaug, known as the father of the Green Revolution, and credited with “having saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived.”

Dr. Borlaug’s legacy includes improvement of wheat varieties, educating future generations of scientists, and creating alignment between policymakers, scientists, and the public and private sectors to ensure that agricultural advancement reaches farmers. In 1970, Norman Borlaug won the Noble Peace Prize for his work.

A key component of the Borlaug legacy is popularizing biotechnology as a tool in the fight against world hunger. “We need to reach beyond the agricultural and scientific community and instead address the public, including mothers, youth and groups who know nothing about agriculture or the needs of the developing world,” says Julie Borlaug.

Borlaug will not sugar-coat what she believes would be her grandfather’s response to the anti-science/anti-GMO movement: “He would be disgusted! These groups do harm by barring innovations that would be lifesaving, such as Golden Rice.

My grandfather never understood their inability to see the environmental benefits of biotechnology, especially considering the reality of climate change.”

Nina Fedoroff

“We live in a world whose major problems have no borders,” says Nina Fedoroff, a keynote at this year’s ABIC. “What affects developing nations affects all of us. Helping them bridge the knowledge and technology gap helps us, too.”

Fedoroff is a Distinguished Professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and Evan Pugh Professor at the Huck Institutes of Life Sciences at Penn State University. She is currently establishing a new centre for desert agriculture in Saudi Arabia. Researchers there will work with some of the most extreme conditions on earth to enhance knowledge and develop plant strains that can be used in re-

gions that may become less hospitable to agriculture as climate change intensifies.

Fedoroff is committed to increasing international collaboration and scientific communication. The role of biotechnology in agriculture is limited by the public’s perception of it, and the effect that public perception has on government policies. As president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fedoroff worked to make knowledge available across borders, and also closer to home.

“I think people often fear–and even denigrate–what they do not understand,” she says. “We live in a world of faster technological change than humans have ever experienced. Since science is the fundamental source of the technological advancement, it isn’t surprising that it engenders negativity in some.”

Accumulating evidence that genetic modification by molecular techniques is as safe as genetic modification by older techniques (such as chemical mutagenesis), should translate to changes in the regulatory framework. This would reduce the regulatory burden and make it more economically feasible to bring GM crops to market. Such changes could also aid in the acceptance of biotechnology as a positive force for increasing food production on a global scale.

“In the best of worlds, governments would invest in helping academic scientists and small companies to test and bring GM products to market. Regulation should be on the properties of the product or organism created, not the methods by which it was created.”

… and much more Topics at ABIC 2014 are diverse, ranging from regulations to emerging technologies, and include novel innovations such as 3-D printing of food (presented by David Irvin from Systems and Materials Research Corp. of Austin, TX) and genetically modified mosquitoes to combat dengue fever (presented by Simon Warner of UK-based Oxitec Ltd).

Canadian speakers include Howard Wheater, Director of the Global Institute for Water Security in Saskatoon, who will address the links between agriculture and water security. “Land and water are intimately connected, so agriculture not only depends on water, but affects water in many ways,” he says.

The full program with speaker biographies can be viewed at www.abic.ca/abic2014.

ABIC 2014 is hosted by Ag-West Bio, Saskatchewan’s bioscience industry association: www.agwest.sk.ca.

REGISTER NOW: ABIC 2014 early-bird rates end soon!

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

13

SPOTLIGHT ON QUÉBEC

By Shawn Lawrence

A new kind of biotech startup incubator comes to Montréal

I

t’s an investment model that has worked well for global life science venture firm Versant Ventures in both the U.S. and in Europe. On the surface, the model is similar to that of other venture capital firms that co-invest in startups with attractive new drugs and platform technologies, but Versant’s model offers a slightly different spin. For starters, Versant specializes in seeking out not just the emerging technologies at an early stage, but also recruits the researchers behind these innovative ideas. Then through partnerships with its virtual incubators, it creates new companies in the hopes of taking these technologies far enough along the value chain in the hopes of selling to a producthungry big biotech and pharma.

Now the firm is attempting to replicate this success in Canada, having created two virtual incubators with Blueline Bioscience in Toronto and Inception Sciences in Vancouver, and this past June, announcing the creation of a third called Inception Sciences Montréal.

The motivation to expand into Québec comes down to a number of factors according to Clare Ozawa, founding business chief and COO of Inception Sciences. In her role, Ozawa is responsible for Inception Science’s global operations including strategic business development. Working out of the Inception Science San Diego Incubator, she’s seen the Versant model play out before. Charged with overseeing Inception Montréal’s launch, she believes the model will work very well here as well.

“There are very good academic institutions in Québec with a strong reputation for world-class science that can support drug discovery,” says Ozawa. “It’s also a province that prides itself on its strong history in the life sciences sector.”

This is important, she says, as the idea behind Inception’s entry into locations like Montréal is to capitalize on the strengths of the provinces bioscience assets to generate companies.

“It’s all part of a creating a value chain,” explains Ozawa. “This is what really differentiates us. Inception Sciences operates as a kind of mother ship or incubator-type holding company, spinning out new drugs and development programs most of which are drawn from academic institutions. So you need a strong talent pool to work from.”

The hope is that the new drugs and programs that are to be incubated will be done so in part-

14

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

“Inception Sciences operates as a kind of mother ship or incubator-type holding company, spinning out new drugs and development programs most of which are drawn from academic institutions. So you need a strong talent pool to work from.”

— Clare Ozawa nership with large biopharmaceutical companies. The companies will not only provide the funding, but if successful, provide a path of exit through pre-negotiated acquisitions.

“It all comes down to big pharma and even big biotech firms facing the problem of their pipelines drying up and their internal R&D efforts not being as productive as they need them to be. They’ve shifted huge amounts of dollars into what’s called external R&D and this is where we come in with Versant Ventures and our incubators ready to provide this R&D. We’re like the middle-person, taking early stage discovery far enough along to the point of exit,” says Ozawa.

Again, this is where the model differentiates from the norm. When the technology or company is sold, unlike other incubators the same scientists will remain with the Inception Sciences incubator and continue to work together on the next great discovery or project.

“It’s a model where Versant is actually partnering with the scientists. And everyone benefits when we reach a promising milestone.

The product may be sold but the team stays to set up the next program,” she explains.

Spotlight on Québec

“Both Versant and Inception are very committed to finding ways to work with Canadian academics in all three hubs – including Québec – to translate their discoveries.” — Jerel Davis

Finding the right environment for such a model to work is a big part of Versant Ventures Canadian growth strategy says Jerel Davis, a partner at the firm.

“That is why we’re in Vancouver, Toronto and now in Montréal. In all the companies we’ve helped launch over the years, each of those companies has academic collaborators. We fund and actively engage with entrepreneurs, taking early-stage discoveries and incorporate them into companies. At the same time, we’re looking for investments, seeking out other investors who might get involved in backing these companies as well as to help us leverage our investment.”

An example of this process has seen Teralys Capital, along with co-investors Fonds de solidarité FTQ and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), already working with Versant Ventures on the expansion of the Inception Sciences incubator to Montréal.

“Some of the folks that announced their commitment to Versant, have their own mandate to develop the Québec ecosystem. As we come to Canada as Versant, an investor, and as Inception Sciences, the drug discovery engine, both Versant and Inception are very committed to finding ways to work with Canadian academics in all three hubs – including Québec – to translate their discoveries,” says Davis.

Echoing Ozawa’s feelings, Davis says the lure of Montréal is that it is still a relatively untapped biotech market.

“Great ideas can come from anywhere, they don’t have to come from San Francisco or Boston, and so that’s part of thesis, look to places that often get overlooked to find great scientific breakthroughs, places like Québec and even the rest of Canada, where we think there is a lot of under-recognized talent,” says Davis.

Of course, he adds, there’s also the fact Versant has pre-existing ties to Canada as both co-founders Brad Bolzon (managing director of Versant Ventures) and Peppi Prasit (CEO of Inception Sciences) are Canadian, with the latter having spent considerable time in the province of Québec.

“Prior to establishing a relationship with Versant, Peppi (Prasit) was very much involved with Merck Frosst, working there for 15 years prior to its closing. He has extensive relationships with many people who formerly worked there, as well as others from Canada’s research community. So, he knows the region very well, he knows of its potential and those are reasons we think we can be successful here,” says Davis.

Both Davis and Ozawa add that while Versant and Inception have much to gain from entering into this market, they also have much that they can give back.

For example, Montréal’s life science sector has been hit hard in recent years with some of the big pharma companies such as AstraZeneca PLC and Merck & Co. Inc. closing research facilities there, leaving scientists needing a place to work.

“Inception can help bring researchers who left following these

closures back to the province,” says Ozawa. “I think we’re interested in great talent regardless of where it comes from but we are looking for people obviously from Montréal. In some cases, I think some people we’ve already hired, or who have accepted their offers, are people who have actually moved out from Montréal and that are going to relocate back here. Some are ex-Merck employees and people that we know well.”

For Davis, the true measure of success and giving back will not only be associated with the jobs that are created, but the companies that will be spurred and the investments that will be made. On this note, Davis speaks of what Versant Ventures has accomplished on the global stage, managing more than $1.6 billion and investing in over 75 companies to date in North America and Europe.

“I think Canada as a whole, and Québec have a lot of components that allow us to replicate that success, and it begins with how we are able to work with academic institutions,” says Davis.

In terms of how these partnerships will work and what therapeutic areas will be targeted, Ozawa explains the partnerships will be broad and decided largely by what areas are in most demand from big pharma.

“That is pretty much the priority. It has to be in an area that’s of significant interest to potential pharma partners. We’ll definitely focus on projects that can easily be translated into a drug within a relatively short timeframe also.”

As such the types of scientists Inception Montréal will be hiring will be those who are able to work across many different therapeutic areas.

“Many of the scientists that we will be bringing in will have backgrounds in medicinal chemistry, in vitro biology and drug metabolism,” says Ozawa.

In terms of getting Inception Montréal off the ground, plans have already been initiated to hire drug development experts and a location will be selected for the new physical drug discovery laboratory shortly.

“I think initially we’re looking to build a scientific team of about fifteen to twenty scientists and we’ll supplement that with some business support on the ground. From there, we’ll see how the model rolls.”

The aim say both Davis and Ozawa is to have Inception Sciences Montréal fully operational by the end of 2014.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/a-new-kind-of-biotechstartup-incubator-comes-to-montreal/

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

15

Spotlight on Québec

By Shawn Lawrence

Big things brewing at

BELLUS Could an exit be on the horizon?

W

hen BELLUS Health announced in early May 2014 that it had engaged U.S. biotechnology merger and acquisition firm Lazard as financial advisors to explore the sale of the company’s lead product and program, KIACTA™, many on the capital markets side wondered if BELLUS was on the brink of a big exit.

The question inevitably came up at the recent Bloom Burton Conference, with the investor audience wondering if the timing was right to hitch their wagons to this upstart company.

That’s what happens when a company reaches this stage in the game. It’s not just that the aforementioned KIACTA™ - cur-

16

rently in a confirmatory Phase 3 trial - is promising as a treatment for AA Amyloidosis, but the fact that it is an orphan drug, a very hot commodity in the biotech space. Once the forgotten cousins of the pharmaceutical industry, orphan drugs are now its fastest growing category and very much in high demand.

As appealing to potential investors and buyers is the name behind the company. As CEO and president of BELLUS Health, Roberto Bellini is a rarity in Canadian biotech; a second generation biotech CEO. His father, Francesco Bellini, accomplished what most scientists and entrepreneurs in the space can only dream of. BioChem Pharma, the company he founded and ran, developed the

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

HIV-AIDS medication 3TC, a billion dollar blockbuster before selling the company to Shire Pharmaceuticals in one of the biggest cash deals in Canadian biotech history.

In the case of younger Bellini, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Like his father, Roberto was raised a scientist and received his Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at McGill University. Likewise, the leap from science to business for Roberto happened at a very young age, launching Picchio Pharma with his father, a family company that was created to invest in the biotech space.

“It was just good timing with my father having sold BioChem, we decided together to start a family business and run it very much like a venture capital firm. Our strategy was

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Spotlight on Québec

BELLUS Management team. Left to Right: Dr. Denis Garceau, Senior Vice President, Drug Development, François Desjardins , Vice President, Finance, Roberto Bellini , President and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Matzouranis , Vice President, Business Development) Martin LeBlanc, President and CEO, Caprion.

“We decided to focus on what we were best at: clinical development. This meant focusing inhouse on clinical trial design and business development, and using contract research organizations to do the actual work.”

18

to invest in a small number of companies and to take a high ownership position in these companies,” explains Roberto on how he transitioned into the business world.

From the start, Roberto was heavily involved, at the very beginning as an analyst, then more senior roles and then eventually working directly in the investee companies.

Neurochem, the ancestor to BELLUS Health was one of the companies in the family’s investment portfolio. “They were a spin-out from Queen’s University with a focus in two main areas, Alzheimer’s disease and AA amyloidosis. I worked directly in project management and drug development, really the nitty gritty of operations and clinical trial management. It was great on-the- job training.”

By 2009, he was appointed vice president, Business Development and then president and CEO of the company in 2010. Following the high profile failure of its Alzheimer’s disease program, he was charged with the task of turning its business fortunes around.

“The plan was to focus on the company’s second project, KIACTA™, which we believed the market was undervaluing.”

Five years later, the company is financially sustainable and on the cusp of potentially great things starting with the crown jewel of its pipeline.

According to Bellini, KIACTA™ is a drug that is designed to bind to amyloid proteins preventing them from creating toxic fibrils and plaques. These fibrils and plaques in time clog the kidneys and cause the manifestation of AA amyloidosis, a rare disease

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

that affects 10,000-15,000 patients in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

“Amyloids represent a whole family of proteins in the body, roughly 25 of them, and each is linked to a different disease when they start misfolding and binding together.

In the case of AA amyloidosis, usually within seven to eight years of diagnosis patients are either dead or on dialysis, and the latter places a financial burden on the healthcare system of about $100,000 per year per patient in the U.S. So, if you can develop a drug that can delay dialysis for the patient, which we think we have with KIACTA™, you could save the healthcare system a lot of money.”

The KIACTA™ program has already gone through one Phase 2/3 study, which was strongly supported by the medical community with results concluding that KIACTA™ slowed the decline of kidney function caused by AA amyloidosis. On the recommendation of the FDA, the company is following up with a confirmatory study of 230 patients that Bellini says is to the favour of KIACTA™ with refinement of endpoints and patient-subject selection criteria.

“Essentially, we need to produce similar results to the Phase 2/3 study to approval.

The confirmatory study concludes when 120 out of the 230 patients reach an even of kidney dysfunction, and there are already over 60 of these events recorded in our trial and we expect to reach 120 within the next two years.”

Moreover, the company has more than enough money to complete the trial.

“We have a fully funded business plan, we don’t require any financings, we have cash on hand (reported $13.1 million as of Q2/2014) to carry us through and beyond an exit. It also helps that we’re not big spenders, we have a lean operational structure with a low a burn rate.”

This wasn’t always the case. When Roberto stepped into the role of president and CEO, the company was burning through cash at an unsustainable rate. Making the company financially viable involved several steps.

For starters, in addition to shifting the focus of the company from its Alzheimer’s drug to its AA amyloidosis drug, Bellini also restructured the company into a semi-virtual model.

“We decided to focus on what we were best at: clinical development. This meant focusing in- house on clinical trial design and business development, and using contract research organizations to do the actual work.”

Bellini remodeled the BELLUS team from

Spotlight on Québec

over 50 employees to nine. He focused on building a culture based on high expertise, multi-disciplinary skills and information transparency.

“The company would not be in the position it is today without the contribution of our employees.”

A second part of refocusing the company was putting in place partnerships to help BELLUS finance its clinical trials. BELLUS turned to a U.S. fund called Auven Therapeutics to back its trial. In all, Auven has contributed more than $70 million in the development of the current Phase 3 program, and these funds are a big reason why BELLUS is in an enviable cash position today.

In exchange, the resulting revenues from a sale of the product will be split based on a pre-agreed formula which he expects should result in an even split of the overall proceeds between the two parties.

There’s also a second project involving KIACTA™ that Auven is involved in financially.

This project came about when Mount Sinai Hospital in New York approached BELLUS to test KIACTA™ in a second rare disease indication called Sarcoidosis. The disease is caused by granulomas, or balls of proteins that form in the lungs and it affects more than 100,000 patients in the U.S. “A researcher at the hospital had a bit of a ‘Eureka’ moment proposing that if amyloid plays a role in the formation of those granulomas, why not see if the drug can inhibit this formation. The research showed activity in some preclinical models so an agreement was signed to proceed with a human proofof-concept study at Mount Sinai next year,” says Bellini.

Again the focus is on treating a rare disease and relying on a partner to fund the trials.

The shift to focus on orphan and rare disease therapeutics isn’t accidental.

“The figures around rare diseases are truly amazing. For example, there are more than 250 million people in the world that suffer from over 7,000 different rare diseases and there are only about 300 approved therapies for those diseases in the U.S.” As Bellini likes to say, rare diseases aren’t so rare. It’s a largely untapped market as only five per cent of rare disease patients have a specific therapy to treat their disease.

More importantly, they represent a significant unmet medical need, most affect children and 80-to-90 per cent of rare diseases are serious or life threatening.

Moreover, there’s also a more supportive regulatory and commercial pathway than

“We are currently conducting animal proof-of-concepts studies with the drug and we intend to move the test drug into a Phase 2 study next year.” with traditional therapeutics when it comes to orphan drugs. In fact, three of the biggest pharmaceutical markets (U.S., Europe, and Japan) all have regulations in place to provide benefits for the development of rare disease drugs, including easier access and communication with regulatory agencies, as well as the benefit of protection from competition from generics for up to 10 years.

Moreover, a company can apply for approval based on clinical studies of hundreds of patients instead of the thousands or tens of thousands that are usually required.

“From a commercial perspective, many of the best drug launches of the last five years have been rare disease drugs, including poster child success like Alexion Pharmaceuticals’ Soliris, a drug used to treat the rare disorder, atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), and Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ drug Kalydeco for cystic fibrosis. There’s also the incentive of premium pricing.”

According to Bellini, most rare disease drugs launched today are priced and reimbursed anywhere between a $100,000-to$300,000 per patient per year. The industry as a whole has taken note of these trends, and there has been an increase across the board of rare disease drugs in development over the last 10 years, with 33 per cent of FDA approvals in the last five years being drugs for rare diseases.

“You realize very quickly that the economics really make sense.”

It’s all reason enough for BELLUS to continue to build its rare disease portfolio. Among the new additions is Shigamab, a monoclonal antibody therapy being evaluated for the treatment of Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC) bacterial infections. BELLUS acquired the asset when it purchased Thallion in 2013; it is also a product that falls in the kidney disease area. STEC infections can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a condition principally affecting the kidney and that also often leads to dialysis.

“Shigamab works very simply; it binds and neutralizes the toxin produced by e. coli,” says Bellini. “We are currently conducting animal proof-of-concepts studies with the

drug and we intend to move the test drug into a Phase 2 study next year.”

The company is also involved in a joint collaboration with Montreal-based VC Amorchem to discover a new drug for another rare amyloid disease, AL amyloidosis.

Once again, the partnership that was struck sees BELLUS’ partner taking on the financial burden developing the projects with the caveat that if the results are positive, BELLUS can buy back the rights to the program.

“It’s putting people with the right expertise in place to do the research work and allowing us to stay focused on clinical development.”

It’s all part of a plan he says for when the company eventually sells its KIACTA asset.

One might ask, with all this going for it, why the need for an exit strategy? Bellini says it’s about having a culture that’s focused on creating value for company shareholders. In fact every aspect of the company’s business plan is tied to this strategy.

While the company has hired Lazard, Bellini considers the base case for a KIACTA exit to be after the confirmatory trial is complete in 2016.

“But considering the high market demand, this was a good time to test the market. It’s never a question if we’re going to exit, but rather when we’re going to exit,” he adds.

That said, he also believes that even if there is an exit, he won’t be leaving the sector any time soon. If anything he feels like he’s just getting started.

“It’s funny, people always say that I’m a bit young to be a CEO, and I tell them I was very young when I learned about this business.

When you grow up with an immigrant entrepreneur father, the things we talked about at the dinner table, or when we went fishing, or on family vacations was the business.”

Like his father, the business of biotech is in his blood.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus. ca/ big-things-brewing-atbellus-could-an-exit-be-on-thehorizon/

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

19

Spotlight on Québec

Q&A

Compiled by Biotechnology Focus Staff

CQDM: A banner year for partnerships From left to right: Michele Davies, Director, Partnerships Development at OCE, Diane Gosselin, President and CEO at CQDM, Jacques Daoust, Quebec Minister of Economy, Innovation and Exports and John Clarkson, Senior Vice-President at OBI

Biotechnology Focus: It’s been a busy year for you in terms of new partnerships, topped off by the addition of Sanofi Canada to your growing list of pharma members. What makes this new partnership stand out?

The CQDM is perhaps Canada’s most wellknown life science industry-initiated research vehicle, accelerating pre-competitive drug discovery research by bringing big pharma, small biotech and academia around the same table to work together. And through its many partnerships, funding programs and competitions, it has continued to evolve beyond its provincial footprint. This month Biotechnology Focus catches up with Diane Gosselin, CQDM’s president and CEO, to discuss the consortium’s recent string of deals, its strategy going forward and to look back at what was very much a year of tremendous growth for the organization.

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Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

Diane Gosselin: It’s really great news for us as they’re the eighth pharma company to join the CQDM, and they carry a lot of clout in Canada as one of the largest investors in innovative biopharmaceutical research in the country.

Their strategy also aligns very well with our strategy of “open innovation”– collaborating with partners to accelerate and facilitate drug research. I also believe having them sign on with our consortium and our Explore program validates our model and at the same it also increases the value that we are able to bring to our stakeholders. They’ve already expressed that they are very willing to work and think outside the box to find new ways of partnering with other members of the consortium, really to drive innovation. In the case of Sanofi, the interest to join CQDM was championed by Marc Bonnefoi, the North America Head of R&D who very much supports open innovation. So this partnership, like all our pharma partnerships expands our global footprint. And of course by increasing the number of partners we have, we also increase our leverage in terms of funding and the scope of the types of projects we will be supporting. Lastly, we also benefit from the addition of key scientists at Sanofi taking part in our mentorship program.

BF: This wasn’t your only big announcement at the Bio 2014 Convention. CQDM also partnered with the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) in an Explore program initiative, as well as with the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) and Brain Canada on a Focus program project. Can you discuss these partnerships and in terms of the latter, the significance of the neuroscience focus?

DG: I will start with our partnership with OBI and Brain Canada.

It’s an area where there is a clear unmet medical need. The pharma industry in general is finding it very difficult to develop therapeutics for conditions likes Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and mental dis-

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Spotlight on Québec From left to right : Léon Gosselin, Chairman of CQDM’s Board of Directors; Marc Bonnefoi, the North America Head of R&D at Sanofi; Diane Gosselin, President and CEO of CQDM; Jon Fairest, President and CEO of Sanofi Canada and Franca Mancino, Sanofi Canada’s VP of Medical and Regulatory Affairs

orders like schizophrenia or depression. We do not understand very well what causes these diseases and one of the major shortcomings in this field is the lack of enabling technologies to make the drug discovery process easier. Thus, from our discussions with our pharma partners, it’s a very significant area of interest. Moreover, there are a lot of things we can do in the precompetitive space when it comes to neuroscience. However, we also recognize that we need to have both financial and human resources in order to make what we’re trying to do a reality and that’s why Brain Canada and the Ontario Brian Institute were obvious partners. We are not the experts in neuroscience, but they are. They have the network in place and they are very involved in basic neuroscience research. At the same time they are looking for linkages to pharma to translate that basic research and this is what we offer. It’s a mutually beneficial partnership.

BF: What types of technologies are you hoping will come out of this initiative?

DG: As an example, or thinking on a grand scale, we would like to see an imaging platform that would allow us to identify a patient with Alzheimer’s disease right away, before the patient would get the symptoms. That would be great, because it would then be easy to recruit patients for clinical trials. Right now, the problem is that you need to recruit a lot of patients and discerning who has it and who doesn’t isn’t feasible right now. That is the type of technology we want to see developed, and there are other examples of the types of discovery tools that are very needed in this space. There’s also the whole idea of having targets, i.e. researchers today aren’t even sure we are even targeting the right receptors for Alzheimer’s disease with therapeutics. To develop a tool that can identify these targets could go a long way. And it’s not just Alzheimer’s that we don’t understand; our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases as a whole is very incomplete. I’d like to add a further comment to this initiative and what we’re trying to do.

It’s really about leverage, working in collaboration with these partners, we are going to select the projects together, fund the projects together, but most importantly, benefit from the results together.

BF: And with the Ontario Centres of Excellence partnership, can you tell us how it evolved from a pilot project to what it has become today?

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Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

DG: This is a good example of an effective partnership. Initially, we worked with OCE in a pilot project under the umbrella of the Québec-Ontario Life Science Corridor. It was a good experience for both sides, and the following year, we approached the OCE to launch a formal program together, the OCECQDM challenge. Through these efforts, I think we gained a deeper appreciation for one another, sharing the common goal of changing the game in research. It’s also a big reason why we have OCE joining us in launching the 2014 edition of CQDM’s Explore Program to fund the Ontario arm. This is the first time this program will be open to researchers in Ontario as well as in Quebec, and this really is a unique initiative that fosters highly innovative and unconventional game-changing biopharmaceutical research.

BF: Does it surprise you that they were interested in the Explore program?

DG: Not at all. I think it’s a program that’s very attractive, where you have the potential to dream up big ideas that really have the potential to impact pharmaceutical research. Things that have that ‘wow effect.’ I think that’s a big reason why for example that OCE got involved with us. They were seduced by that concept. The same can be said of Sanofi.

BF: There’s a bit of a pan-Canadian feel to many of these partnerships, where CQDM is moving towards expanding its footprint beyond Québec. One partnership we haven’t even mentioned is your partnership with CIHR in personalized medicine. It seems indicative of a new direction for your organization?

DG: I wouldn’t say it’s a new direction, but we want to of course develop our network and tap into innovation across Canada. And we have a lot to offer, including access to our pharma partners. As an example, CIHR is funding basic research across Canada, which is great. But what we want, and I think Canada needs, is to be a bit more efficient in turning this basic research into something a bit more tangible, or put more clearly, translational. CIHR sees a great deal of value in working closely with the pharma industry, and that’s why they want to work with CQDM. On the topic of pan-Canadian expansion, this started with the partnership with CIHR and really has continued with Brain Canada and OBI). So, you can say we have moved from a provincial/regional model to national one.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/cqdm-a-banner-year-forpartnerships/

Spotlight on Québec

By Julie Langelier

Translational research: a successful model How PCSK9 went from an enzyme discovered in the lab to a drug target that could revolutionize the way we treat high cholesterol levels

T

he “bench to bedside” approach, also known as translational research, denotes the transfer of knowledge obtained in basic research laboratories into the development of new methods to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases in patients. This increasingly important research model contributes to improving health by accelerating the application of scientific breakthroughs to patients in need.

In 1967, the IRCM (Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal) became the first independent academic research centre in Quebec to unite basic and clinical researchers under one roof, thereby establishing the ‘bench to bedside’ philosophy that has been largely responsible for its success.

At the time, IRCM founder Dr. Jacques Genest was determined to build clinical research departments in way that would promote frequent and close interactions between basic scientists and clinicians, as they were too often dispersed in various sections of a hospital or university campus. Thus, the IRCM was born from the notion that the future of Quebec medicine was in the hands of doctors who could most effectively treat patients by combining their clinical skills with the knowledge acquired from biomedical research.

“The fundamental idea was to take a problem at the bedside, bring it to the lab to find a solution based on scientific insight, then apply that solution back to patients,” says Tarik Möröy, PhD, the IRCM’s president and scientific director. “We continue to respect these founding principles at the IRCM and, to do this, we foster an environment in which scientists can conduct first-rate research projects in close collaboration with practising clinician-scientists who provide the

“We discovered that the PCSK9 enzyme leads to an accumulation of LDL cholesterol (or bad cholesterol) in the blood and contributes to the growth of plaque that eventually blocks arteries.” — Nabil G. Seidah

necessary bedside knowledge and input.”

Imitated by numerous other research centres, the IRCM’s approach is proving to be extremely relevant and has led to several important discoveries, including that of an enzyme called PCSK9, the ninth member of a family of proteins called proprotein convertases, which were discovered at the IRCM in the early 1990s.

IRCM researchers Nabil G. Seidah, PhD, and Michel Chrétien, MD, are pioneers in the field of research on proprotein convertases and, in 2003, were the first to describe PCSK9. The same year, Dr. Seidah’s team, in collaboration with French researchers, discovered that PCSK9 plays a key role in regulating blood cholesterol levels. This was one of the most exciting discoveries in cardiovascular research in the last decade.

“We discovered that the PCSK9 enzyme leads to an accumulation of LDL cholesterol (or bad cholesterol) in the blood and contributes to the growth of plaque that eventually blocks arteries,” explains Dr. Seidah, who won the 2011 Wilder-Penfield Prix du Québec for his research on proprotein convertases. “Following numerous observations, we found that inhibiting the function of PCSK9 can significantly lower LDL cholesterol levels.” In addition, Dr. Chrétien identified three French Canadian families whose members have a uniquely potent PCSK9 mutation. “This mutation causes their blood cholesterol levels to decrease to levels unattainable by drug treatments alone, and these subjects have no obvious side effects,” mentions Dr. Chrétien.

Lowering blood cholesterol is important as Michel Chrétien

“This mutation causes their blood cholesterol levels to decrease to levels unattainable by drug treatments alone, and these subjects have no obvious side effects.” —

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

23

Spotlight on Québec

high levels are a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease is the single leading cause of death worldwide, with annual deaths expected to reach 23.3 million by 2030.

Currently, statins are the most prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug. Nearly 30 million people are prescribed statin drugs because they suffer from high levels of cholesterol, have had a cardiovascular incident such as a stroke, or are predisposed to cardiovascular disease due to various risk factors. However, many statin users exhibit a resistance or inadequate response to the drug, and a significant number of patients suffer from serious side effects to the point of having to interrupt their treatment.

New therapeutic approaches are crucial for those who are resistant or intolerant to statin drugs, as well as for the large number of patients unable to reach the recommended cholesterol levels with their current treatment.

Today, PCSK9 is considered to be an ideal therapeutic target for the development of novel cholesterol-lowering drugs that could eventually supplement or even replace statins. In an April 2013(1) issue of the science journal Nature, a feature article stated that PCSK9inhibitors could become “the next blockbuster heart drug.”

The news quickly generated great interest from the industry. Dr. Seidah and his research team received a substantial investment from AmorChen (a venture capital fund that helps research-stage projects

“The next step will be to determine whether these positive results will translate into fewer cases of heart disease and stroke, which is the ultimate objective.”

— Dr. Robert Dufour translate into fewer cases of heart disease and stroke, which is the ultimate objective.”

“We still have much to understand about the role of PCSK9 in hypercholesterolemia and cardiovascular disease,” adds Dr. Seidah. “To tackle this issue, I have assembled an international, multidisciplinary team of experts to address many of the current knowledge gaps surrounding the enzyme’s biology.”

This team includes 16 basic and clinical scientists from six institutions in Canada, France and Sweden. By combining state-of-the-art technologies and extensive clinical expertise, the researchers will define the functions and physiological roles of PCSK9 in relation to risk, manifestations and management of cardiovascular disease.

In addition to Dr. Dufour, Dr. Seidah also invited IRCM researcher and proteomics experts Benoit Coulombe, PhD, to join the team. This collaboration will accelerate the development of more precise diagnostic tools to eventually offer patients personalized health care, an emerging field that tailors treatments to patients’ specific genetic information.

“New technologies are already available to measure levels of PCSK9 in a patient’s blood,” says Dr. Coulombe, director of the translational proteomics research unit at the IRCM. “Our goal is to determine whether this information can be used to predict a patient’s response to statins and evaluate cardiovascular risk after statin or anti-PCSK9 treatments.”

The transatlantic research project headed by Dr. Seidah recently received a $6-million investment from the Fondation Leducq.

“The knowledge generated by this project will have an immense impact on the understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease, and will be highly valuable to develop new therapeutic approaches,” says Dr. David Tancredi, Fondation Leducq’s scientific director.

“This is one of the best examples we could hope for to demonstrate the success of translational research,” says Dr. Möröy. “The commercialization of a PSCK9-inhibitor, which can potentially benefit millions of people, could not have been achieved so quickly without the synergy, collaboration and close proximity of both basic scientists and clinicians, within an institute like the IRCM that supports independent academic research.”

“Our goal is to determine whether this information can be used to predict a patient’s response to statins and evaluate cardiovascular risk after statin or anti-PCSK9 treatments.”

— Benoit Coulombe reach clinical proof-of-concept) and Univalor (a Quebec-based university technology transfer organization) to develop an innovative drug that could block the function of PCSK9 and, in turn, significantly lower blood cholesterol levels. Pharmaceutical companies are also jumping at the chance to take part in this multi-billion dollar market, which is expected to continue rising in upcoming years, and are racing to commercialize their version of a PCSK9-inhibitor.

Only nine years after Dr. Seidah’s discovery of the role of PCSK9, inhibitors of this enzyme were being taken to the bedside by his IRCM colleague, Dr. Robert Dufour, who is now supervising phase 3 clinical trials in order to evaluate the new therapeutic approach. The trials are mainly conducted with patients who suffer from familial hypercholesterolemia, a hereditary disease characterized by extremely high blood cholesterol levels that affects over 35,000 people in Quebec alone.

“It is nearly impossible for these patients to reach recommended cholesterol levels with currently-available treatments,” states Dr. Dufour, MD, clinical researcher at the IRCM. “However, our research has shown that PCSK9-inhibitors can reduce LDL cholesterol levels by approximately 70 per cent, with no reported side effects. The next step will be to determine whether these positive results will

24

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/translational-research-asuccessful-model

acroSS borderS

By Daniela Fisher

On the Map Belgium is ready to be a leader in the life sciences

Horizon 2020 Horizon 2020 is the largest European Union Research and Innovation program ever undertaken • It has close to €80 billion of funding allocated for the next seven years (2014-2020), along with private and public investment that the initial funding will attract • The project is aimed at enhancing Europe’s knowledge-based economy, boosting innovation and helping the public and private sectors better work together • It is also meant to improve EU international research collaboration.

As such, there are opportunities for global participation. Projects from across Europe can be submitted to receive funding • Two-year work programs announce the specific areas that will be funded by Horizon 2020 • Horizon 2020 is open to participation by researchers from all over the world -You can find out more here: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/ horizon2020/

I

’m standing at a bridge in the very picturesque city of Ghent, Belgium, looking down at the dark waters of the canal that reflect the lights of the buildings that sit beside it. Looking through a haze of rain, I see a row of people sitting by the canal, drinking wine, laughing and talking. It’s a mix of locals, a few daring tourists, but mostly it’s students. Ghent is a university town afterall, that powers one of the leading centres for biotechnology in Belgium.

As I watch the scene unfold below me, it’s easy to see why Belgium is an exciting place for the life sciences. With such a vibrant student base, it’s clear that Ghent is an innovative hub in the heart of Belgium.

When it comes to the life sciences, there are a lot of good things going on in the country – and it’s not just the vibrancy of the student base, although that is key. Altogether, there are more than 255 life science companies active in the region, working closely with universities, research institutes and hospitals. Traditionally known for its strength in ag-biotech and pharmaceuticals,

the country has expanded its reach into new sectors.

For a relatively small country, it possesses one of the larger presences in the European biotech market. Its home to a number of leading life science companies, including CropDesign, Galapagos, Tigenix and Janssen.

On the IPO side, Belgium has had eight companies go public from 2005 to 2014, raising more than €$1 billion to date on the stock market. According to FlandersBio, the leading life science organization for the northern Flanders region of Belgium, the total annual revenue of the life sciences in Flanders is approximately €$1.9 billion. The life sciences sector in the region employs over 10,000 employees in life sciences and is responsible for close to 20 per cent of R&D expenditure in Flanders.

And while known on the European level for being a strong player in the life sciences, Belgium is perhaps not as well-known on the international scale. For FlandersBio managing director Henk Joos, one of his goals is to promote the region more internation-

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

25

across borders ally. We meet Joos at the VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology), one of the top centres for biotech R&D in Flanders.

“One of the objectives that we have at FlandersBio is to more and more put our cluster and our companies on the international scale,” says Joos.

FlandersBio is an organization that is aiming to create a wider ecosystem for biotech in Belgium. Its goal is to attract more companies and investors, as well as promote the life sciences in the country.

“We started with two companies in the early 80s. Today we have 255 organizations,” notes Joos. “Close to 120 of them have their own R&D in-house facilities. Seventy-one of them use and sell products today. There has been a whole range of companies that were developed here that provide dedicated services to our industry.”

The organization is responsible for immersing a group of us in Belgium’s life sciences culture, taking us on tours of the bioclusters in Ghent and Leuven. We tour a number of companies, including Remynd, Tigenix, Ablynx and Q Biologicals. We also attend the Knowledge for Growth conference, Europe’s largest regional life science convention.

We meet with the leaders of both the wellestablished and biotech giant companies (Janssen and ThromboGenics) as well as new and upcoming companies like Ablynx and Crailar Technologies, the Vancouver, B.C.-based biotech developing renewable and environmentally sustainable biomass resources using flax, hemp and other fibres.

Upon expanding its business to Europe, Crailar opened a Belgium facility to be closer to the action.

And while the companies span the spectrum from ag-biotech to pharmaceuticals, biomedical research and nanotechnology, their community is a tight-knit one, used to working in collaboration. In addition to working closely together, over the years the companies have invested in each other,

growing the sector in Belgium.

“These companies are almost all still here and have grown, have doubled and quadrupled the number of people,” notes Joos. “PGS when we were sold 120 people, today there are 360 at Bayer Crop Science. CropDesign has doubled. A number of others [have the] same story. The other interesting thing - the €$2billion dollars that was received by the shareholders was re-ploughed back into a number of startups.”

“I sometimes compare this with the phenomenon when you throw a stone in a pond,” describes Joos. “You have a first wave. The first wave here was PGS and InnoGenetics. Then you have a second wave, which is a little bigger. We’re now in the third wave, the Ablynx wave, and it becomes bigger and it expands.”

The companies are also closely tied to Belgium’s research institutes, providing an avenue for linking research and business development. Belgium has 14 bio-incubators, research institutes, academic hospitals and clinical research organizations. It’s also home to the biggest R&D hub for plant biotech, and five world-class universities.

We visited one of these research pillars, the VIB’s bio-incubator, at the Technology Park at the University of Ghent. While touring the facility, it became clear that Belgium has something special here. We tour their BioImaging Core and their greenhouse facilities. Both are packed with state-of-the-art equipment and highly focused scientists.

That’s not to say it’s dull; there’s a feeling of comradery and enthusiasm that comes especially with university-based institutes.

True to form for a country housing the headquarters of the European Union, the facility is full of international researchers and students. In their department of plant systems biology, maize plants on conveyor belts meander through a maze of machines, being fed, watered and measured by robotic arms. The new plant phenotyping system is

Ghent, Belgium

26

Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014

a state-of-the-art platform called Phenovision. Currently used for maize phenotyping, plants are grown in pots on a conveyor belt system that regularly transports them to automated weighing and irrigation stations, where certain soil humidity or nutrient levels are applied. This allows researchers to monitor plant responses to stresses such as drought or nutrient deficits. On the imaging side, we see some of the world’s most expensive lasers and modeling technology.

We also tour IMEC, looking at the latest innovations in nanotechnology.

Researchers from around the world gather at these institutes. Not just researchers, but companies as well: Flanders offers a wide range of tax benefits and financial grants, from tax exemptions to beneficial tax regimes for R&D. It’s also one of the fastest places to host a clinical trial – a fact which Joos says needs to be more emphasized to bring more companies to Belgium.

“Another thing which we sometimes forget about is Belgium that it is one of the elite areas in the world in terms of performing clinical trials,” says Joos. “We are number one worldwide in clinical trials per capita: only 10 million people live here but still we have a very high density of clinical trials going on. As a result of that, 5 per cent of the top drugs in world have been developed in Belgium. I think this is something that we underexploit at this point in time.”

To help expand its life sciences sector, Belgium ultimately needs to keep doing what it’s doing. Essentially, keep working together to further draw the attention of the world. This means creating a bio-based economy instead of silos of red, green or white biotechnology, an antiquated notion according to Joos.

“I started to describe that as the way we talked about biotechnology in the Middle Ages,” he concludes. “And I have a good reason for that. There’s nothing worse than creating silos, because then human beings go and cocoon in those silos. What we need to do is get out of the silos and start to build bridges between these fields. When we start to work actively together with nano tech in order to develop new concepts and new products, that’s an example.”

“What counts at end of day is what you bring to consumer or the patient. Let’s not influence that by creating silos.”

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/ on-the-map-belgium-is-readyto-be-a-leader-in-the-lifesciences

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120 lbs. Delivering all the brains without the bulk, the system comes with a three-laser system at 457nm, 532nm and 785nmm and a spectrograph resolution down to 0.7cm1/pixel. These three internally mounted lasers deliver up to nine different wavelengths (405 to 1064mm) with the standard

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CALENDAR OCTOBER 2014 October 3-5 BCSLS Congress 2014 Venue: Whistler, BC Tel: 604-714-1760 Email: bcsls@telus.net Web: www.bcsls.net

Tel: 240-646-7054 Email: customerservice@ceramics.org Web: http://www.matscitech.org/

Tel: (03) 9828 1400 Email: admin@ausbiotech.org Web: https://www.ausbiotech.org/

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MS&T 2014 Materials Science and Technology Venue: Pittsburgh, PA Tel: 440-388-5151 Email: memberservicecenter@ asminternational.org Web: www.asminternational.org

October 5-8 ABIC 2014 Venue: Saskatoon, SK Tel: 306-668-2650 Email: abic2014@agwest.sk.ca Web: www.abic.ca/abic2014/

October 20-23 30th Annual International Conference on Soils, Sediments, Water and Energy Venue: Amherst, MA Tel: 413.549.5170 Email: brenna@aehsfoundation.org Web: http://www.aehsfoundation.org/ Events.aspx

October 5-10 ECS Fall Meeting Venue: Cancun, Mexico Tel: 609-737-1902 Email: meetings@electrochem.org Web: www.electrochem.org

October 27-30 ASNT Annual Conference 2014 Venue: Charleston, South Carolina Tel: 800-222-2768 Email: kwise@asnt.org Web: https://www.asnt.org/MajorSiteSections/ Events-and-Publications/ Upcoming-Events/ Annual-Conference-2014.aspx

October 8-12 ID Week Venue: Philadelphia, PA Tel: (703) 740-4961 Web: http://www.idweek.org/

October 12-16 MS&T – Materials, Science & Technology 2014 Venue: Pittsburgh, PA

October 29-31 AusBiotech 2014 National Conference Venue: South Yarra, Australia

November 2-6 AAPS Annual Meeting Venue: San Diego, CA Tel: 703-243-2800 Email: Meetings@aaps.org Web: www.aaps.org

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November 24-26 Genomics: The Power & The Promise Venue: Ottawa, ON Web: www.genomecanada.ca

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Agrisoma...................................................................................................... 6......................................................................................www.agrisoma.com Antibe Therapeutics Inc................................................................................ 8................................................................................ www.antibethera.com/ Auxilium Pharmaceuticals............................................................................ 9..................................................................................... www.auxilium.com/ BELLUS Health.............................................................................................. 16.............................................................................. www.bellushealth.com/ Biosign Technologies Inc.............................................................................. 9....................................................................................... www.biosign.com/ Caledon Laboratories.........................................................................................7..................................................................................... www.caledonlabs.com Ceapro Inc..................................................................................................... 6..........................................................................................www.ceapro.com Children’s Miracle Network..............................................................................21................................................................www.childrensmiraclenetwork.ca Dalton Pharma Services................................................................................ 9.......................................................................................... www.dalton.com Eppendorf...........................................................................................................29.......................................................................................... www.eppendorf.ca Eventi Capital Partners.................................................................................. 9...........................................................................................www.eventi.com Medtronic Inc................................................................................................ 9....................................................................................... www.medtronic.ca Microbix Biosystems Inc.............................................................................. 10......................................................................................www.microbix.com NRC............................................................................................................... 6...................................................................................... www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca Panasonic.............................................................................................................5........................................................................................ www.panasonic.com POI Business Interiors.......................................................................................11........................................................................................................ www.poi.ca QLT Inc.......................................................................................................... 9............................................................................................www.qltinc.com Sanofi Group Inc........................................................................................... 6...............................................................................................www.sanofi.ca Sherbrooke Innopole.........................................................................................2.....................................................................www.sherbrooke-innopole.com Visualase Inc................................................................................................. 9................................................................................. www.visualaseinc.com VWR......................................................................................................................17........................................................................................ https://ca.vwr.com/ Xagenic Inc................................................................................................... 10......................................................................................www.xagenic.com/ 28 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS August/September 2014

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ABIC

THE LAST WORD

By Josée Blanchard

Sherbrooke International Life Sciences Summit:

A regional gamble with national impact Turning a crisis into an opportunity

Josée Blanchard, PhD, MBA Director, Business Development – Life Sciences

It’s no secret that the pharmaceutical industry has been undergoing unprecedented upheavals in recent years.

Some might find that describing what is happening in the industry as a “crisis” is an exaggeration, but I don’t. Research centre closures, thousands of job losses – those are dramatic developments! Large pharmaceutical companies have had to drastically rethink their business models and revamp their approach to R&D. This period of crisis was the impetus for the organization of Sherbrooke International Life Sciences Summit (SILS). Sherbrooke Innopole – the Local Development Centre (CLD) for Sherbrooke’s regional county municipality (MRC) – wanted to help local SMEs enhance their reputations, and, at the same time, provide major companies with a forum where they could learn more about the needs of small and medium enterprises as they move forward. These huge marketing mechanisms still needed to fill their pipelines, but how did they intend to do so?

By working with SMEs and institutional laboratories, but what else?

This premise formed the backbone of SILS. Why not turn this crisis into an opportunity? That is the gamble we took in Sherbrooke, Québec, last year. Feature major players on stage and, in the same room, gather their potential future partners – SMEs and laboratories from around the world. To top it off, organize B2B meetings so that these companies could further explore partnership possibilities in a more intimate setting.

An extraordinary event Many of you were among the nearly 300 people who attended the Summit’s first edition in Sherbrooke in September 2013. For a first edition, that was remarkable.

Events of such magnitude in Sherbrooke are not seen very often. We managed to attract both international speakers and outstanding participants from SMEs and laboratories from around the world. We all know that time is precious for an entrepreneur, but the fact that so many CEOs took the time to attend our Summit confirms its relevance and added value. This conclusion is all supported by the fact that major pharmaceutical companies 30 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS August/September 2014

sent several delegates (up to five per company) to learn about their future partners and flagship products.

Real impact What has been most striking is the impact of this event on local, provincial, and even national industry. The impact is being particularly felt in our region by the Sherbrooke companies and institutions that were able to take advantage of the opportunity to promote themselves among those in attendance. According to a survey we conducted, the benefits were tangible and real for several companies from Sherbrooke and elsewhere!

Many organizations have already signed – or are about to sign – collaboration agreements with both Canadian institutions and major international companies.

The major pharmaceutical companies’ delegates who spoke at the Summit also took the opportunity to visit local companies and realized that Sherbrooke is an ideal place to conduct business and quality research. They discovered a few well-hidden secrets, and interesting partnerships emerged. Canadian and Québec associations like Rx&D, MEDEC, and CQDM also seized this opportunity to hold meetings, meet with researchers, and visit laboratories that had been until then unknown to them.

Great pride!

Sherbrooke Innopole is very proud of this event; we are pleased that we were able to contribute to the growth of the life sciences industry and create opportunities for our local companies. The success of Sherbrooke International Life Sciences Summit shows that, with joint efforts and a touch of audacity, the future of life sciences is bright. The second edition of SILS will be held from September 28 to 30, 2015. Come join us!

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