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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