life sciences 2013
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Growing British Columbia’s Bio-Economy
20
13 Partnerships take centre stage
Insider’s look at the changing faces
Using data for better health Population Data BC may hold the key
The political lens What will health care look like in five years
Best in class Research excellence and unique perspectives
SPON
SOR
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CIAL
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BLIC
ATIO
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D BY
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www.merck.ca
At Merck, we work hard to keep the world well. How? By providing people all around the globe with innovative prescription medicines, vaccines, consumer care and animal health products. We also believe our responsibility includes making sure that our products reach people who need them.
more hope to more people around the world.
See all we’re doing at merck.ca.
Copyright ©2013 Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA. All rights reserved.
Merck recognizes the importance of innovative science and the spirit of collaboration that exists in British Columbia. We have established life sciences partnerships in the province with Alectos Therapeutics, EnWave Corporation, Xenon Pharmaceuticals, and Zymeworks. Our goal is to work with our partners to accelerate the successful development and commercialization of breakthrough products that can bring meaningful improvements to patients’ lives.
Not just healthcare.
OUR NAME IS NEW. OUR COMMITMENT TO HEALTHCARE WILL NEED NO INTRODUCTION.
Features10 Partnerships take centre stage
14 Using data for better health
17 Stars of B.C.
22 Biotech in B.C. more upbeat in 2012
36 Biotechnology’s transformation
39 Best in class
Departments6 Chair’s message
7 President’s report
8 Q&A Minister of Health, Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid
9 Q&A MLA Mike Farnworth, Critic for Health
35 List: Biggest life-sciences companies in B.C.
41 LifeSciences British Columbia Awards
43 LifeSciences BC members’ directory
LifeSciences BCSuite 900 – 1188 West Georgia StreetVancouver, B.C. V6E 4A2Tel.: 604-669-9909, Fax: 604-669-9912Email: info@lifesciencesbc.cawww.lifesciencesbc.ca
LifeSciences British Columbia 2013 is published for LifeSciences BC by BIV Magazines, a division of BIV Media Group, 102 Fourth Avenue East, Vancouver, B.C. V5T 1G2, tel. 604-688-2398, fax 604-688-6058, www.businessinvancouver.com
Publisher: Paul HarrisManaging publisher: Gail ClarkEditor: Christine WoodDesign director: Randy PearsallProofreader: Noa GloubermanWriters: Sam Eifling, Noa Glouberman,
Peter Mitham, Production manager: Don SchuetzeProduction: David TongVice-president sales: Kerry MacDonaldSales manager: Joan McGroganAdvertising sales: Lori Borden, Corinne TkachukAdministrator: Katherine ButlerList research: Richard ChuController: Marlita HodgensPresident, BIV Media Group: Paul Harris
Copyright 2013, BIV Magazines. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system without permission of BIV Magazines. The publishers are not responsible in whole or in part for any errors or omissions in this publication.
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Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical
Companies, (Rx&D)
Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP
Genome British Columbia
GlaxoSmithKline Inc.
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Merck Canada Inc.
Pfizer Canada Inc.
Amgen
Business in Vancouver
Discovery Parks
Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.
Janssen Inc.
LifeScan Canada Ltd.
Technology Vision Group LLC
AbbVie
Airgas
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Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
The Centre for Drug Research &
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Eli Lilly
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
inVentiv Health Clinique Inc.
Michael Smith Foundation for
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Sanofi Canada
STEMCELL Technologies Inc.
UBC University-Industry
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Vancouver Economic
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Internationally recognized for our life sciences expertise, we combine our regulatory, intellectual property, commercial, transactional, M&A, antitrust/competition, litigation and other expertise to meet the needs of many participants in the life sciences industry. Our experience and proven expertise allow us to provide our clients with practical and strategic advice to realize their business objectives.
For more information, please contact:
Joseph GarciaPartner | Vancouverjoseph.garcia@blakes.com604-631-3307
In Life Sciences,Blakes Means Business.
*Associated Office Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP | blakes.com/lifesciences
MONTRÉAL OTTAWA TORONTO CALGARY VANCOUVER NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON BAHRAIN AL-KHOBAR* BEIJING SHANGHAI*
Chair’s messageGordon C. McCauley, LifeSciences BC
The vitality of any community is the
quality and strength of the people
committed to its success. This critical
element is the reason that so many people
have such great faith in the capacity of
British Columbia’s life-sciences community
to flourish, even as technology communities
around the world are being challenged by a
variety of negative forces.
Historically, there is no good reason why our
community should be so strong, surrounded
as we are by natural resources that underpin
our economy. Yet, nobody told that to the col-
lection of innovators who were determined
to build a strong life-sciences community
here because, of all the natural resources, the
strongest are human resources.
Since those innovators decided to build
a life-sciences industry here, it has grown,
matured and become the premier cluster
in Canada, and among the leaders in the
world. Based on that belief in people, we
now have the formula that other commun-
ities only dream about: strong universities
(the University of British Columbia is one of
the top-20 public universities in the world,
and Simon Fraser University among the top
30), outstanding research institutes (such as
the Michael Smith Foundation
for Health Research, the Rick
Hansen Institute, Genome British
Columbia and the BC Cancer
Agency), excellent research con-
sortia (for example, the PROOF
Centre of Excellence and the BC
Clinical Research Infrastructure
Network), globally competitive
researchers (over 800 engaged
in human-clinical studies alone
through 60 research centres), en-
gaged patients and advocates (18
patient registries and many more
advocacy groups), the Centre for
Drug Research and Development
(a global research and commer-
cialization engine) and entrepre-
neurs who find capital and build
businesses by motivating teams
to achieve.
B.C. is facing the same negative
forces that challenge the viability of the
sector around the world, such as greater
regulatory risk, more expensive clinical
trials, diminished partnerships and less cap-
ital to fund our work. Many of these chal-
lenges are due to the fact that our industry
is evolving. To remain a leader,
LifeSciences BC must evolve as
well, embracing more collabora-
tive structures, different funding
mechanisms and alternate clin-
ical trial approaches.
In keeping with this industrial
evolution, however, we must
remember that Darwin taught
us it is the adaptable that sur-
vive. LifeSciences BC has this
essential adaptability. We will
flourish due to the same kind of
extraordinary commitment of
the people who built this com-
munity in the first place. Our in-
dustry is comprised of people
not just globally competitive in
their outlook but their expertise,
people committed not just to
science but to innovation and,
most importantly, people com-
mitted not just to life sciences but to making
the world a better place.
This commitment to other people is dem-
onstrated in each of our members who lead
noble adventures to improve the human
condition each and every day.
LifeSciences
BC must
evolve
as well,
embracing
more
collaborative
structures,
different
funding
mechanisms
and alternate
clinical trial
approaches
6 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
Winston Churchill once said, “The
pessimist sees difficulty in every
opportunity; the optimist sees op-
portunity in every difficulty.” With regard
to boom and bust cycles, one can hardly
debate the notion that the global life-sci-
ences community has seen better days, and
British Columbia is no exception. However,
there are many who believe that the future
holds promise. I acknowledge that the issues
associated with capital markets, sovereign
debt and evolving business models are chal-
lenging, and I would also argue that there is
reason for guarded optimism, which should
produce results that may benefit individuals
(i.e., patients and investors), organizations
and the industry as a whole.
If one accepts the concept that the best
predictor of the future is predicated upon
foundations built in the past, consider some
of what has been accomplished in the past
generation:
1986 DNA fingerprinting was first used to
assist with a criminal conviction
1990 The launch of the Human Genome
Project
1994 The FDA approves the first genetically
engineered tomato
1996 Dolly the sheep is cloned
2002 Ce ler a and the NIH announce
completion of the human genome
sequence
2007 International teams determine how to
transform skin cells into stem cells
2012 Digital pills are approved, which wire-
lessly transmit key patient metrics
According to Capital IQ, a leading global
credit and market adviser, the market capital-
ization of large pharmaceutical companies
operating during the timeline outlined above
increased from $60.5 billion US to $955 bil-
lion. The achievements made by our sector
in business, research and patient outcomes
have been nothing short of phenomenal, yet
they can be taken for granted or, possibly, not
even understood. Our scientific progress has
moved ahead of society’s ability to absorb
much of this information. Other challenges
include the ambiguity associated with the
regulatory approval pathway and industry’s
ability to translate cutting-edge research into
a well-defined business model.
Is it possible that the future has already
arrived? Undoubtedly, sequencing costs will
continue to decrease, which will benefit per-
sonalized medicine initiatives. Technologies
of all forms will migrate toward convergence
in a manner that is sector agnostic, stem
cell research will be better understood and
emerging economies, such as India and Brazil,
will play a greater role in our sector. In B.C.,
the underlying building blocks for these
advancements are already in place. What can
be done to ensure that the potential of these
foundational elements are fully realized? How
can LifeSciences BC and its members influ-
ence outcomes? I have a few thoughts:
Capital formation Access to early-stage
capital continues to be the challenge for
many entrepreneurial ideas. As underlined
earlier this year by the federal government’s
announcement of providing $400 million
in a venture capital fund, government and
private industry must work together in an
attempt to bridge the gap. Structurally, we
must think of approaches that allow for a
more comprehensive and sustained ap-
proach. For example, would it be possible
to negotiate reimbursement fees in such
a manner that a portion is allocated for re-
search collaborations?
Unconventional partnerships Strategic
partnerships between large pharmaceutical
corporations and early-stage companies
or institutes are well established. But, what
about partnerships between foundations
and SMEs, or large pharmaceutical corpora-
tions and mobile technology companies, or
even government-to-government collabora-
tions? Admittedly, objectives may differ but
they are by no means entirely divergent, and
organizations like LifeSciences BC can help
facilitate those relationships.
Flexible policy framework In general, we
must ensure policy reflects scientific progress
in a timely manner. Canada is 25 years
behind the U.S. on developing an orphan
drug strategy, and the federal government
has yet to implement non-discrimination
legislation related to genetic predisposition.
International trade agreements, data access
and innovative pricing models are some of
the other issues that warrant our collective
attention.
Public engagement As noted earlier, one
of the most significant impediments to
advancing the sector is the lack of under-
standing. It is incumbent upon the life-sci-
ences community to articulate – in a clear
and concise manner – how technology will
be integrated into our health-care system
and how it will benefit patient care. There
must be constructive dialogue around the
issues of personal health data, mobile plat-
forms, genomics applications and remote
monitoring.
Many people are unaware that B.C. is ideally
suited to compete in this changing global
landscape. The underlying infrastructure
already exists, and it is a matter of nurturing
and aligning them in a strategic manner. In
keeping with my opening comment, I will
close with another quote from Churchill:
“To improve is to change. To be perfect is to
change often.”
President’s reportDon M. Enns, LifeSciences BC
Do
min
ic S
chae
fer
Ph
oto
gra
ph
y
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 7
Honourable Dr. Margaret
MacDiarmid, Minister of Health and
MLA for Vancouver-Fairview
How do you see the life-sciences industry
supporting the delivery of health care in
B.C.?
As someone who has experienced both
sides of the health system, as a patient and
a physician, I understand the importance of
the life-sciences industry and the positive
impact it can have on health care for B.C.
families.
Every day researchers and life scientists in
British Columbia reveal answers that help in
the fight against disease and pave the way
for new ways to improve patient care and
patient outcomes.
B.C. is the only province in Canada that is
demonstrating a consistent decline in HIV.
The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS
plays a crucial role in research and treatment,
positioning B.C. as a world leader in the fight
against HIV-AIDS.
We are always looking at innovative strat-
egies to keep our health-care system sus-
tainable and the life-sciences industry plays
a role. We remain committed to investing
in health research, as this work also helps
government in meeting the health needs
of British Columbians and their families. In
fact, since 2001 our government has made
investments of more than $900 million in
health research.
If you had the ability to change one aspect
of B.C.’s current health-care system, what
would it be?
If I could change one thing it would be to
have all British Columbians embrace all the
ideas, strategies, programs and recommen-
dations there are regarding prevention and
health promotion.
That said, it’s important to realize the health
system is constantly in a state of change. Just
look at the advances over the last 10 years:
introducing LEAN design techniques,
building better patient care with major in-
vestments in health capital, consolidation of
non-clinical services and more
focus on integrated primary and
community care.
There are many factors driving
change. We have a growing
population that is also aging.
We have seen advances in
technology and testing, which
expands ability to treat more
people, and new and expen-
sive treatments for previously
untreatable conditions. We have
a rising incidence in chronic dis-
eases such as diabetes, renal failure and
congestive heart failure.
The ministry has been implementing
gradual systemic change outlined in our in-
novation and change agenda. This includes
providing effective health promotion and
prevention as well as meeting the majority
of health needs with high-quality primary
and community-based health care and sup-
port services.
What does your view of health-care
delivery look like five years from now?
I believe that in five years health delivery will
look remarkably different and will be even
better than it is today. There will be more
personalized medicine, less in-hospital care
and more care based in the community. The
degree to which patients are partners in their
own health care will have increased.
Our health-care system is regarded as a
world leader. In fact, British Columbia has
some of the best health-care outcomes in
Canada. However, as the population grows
and ages and as medical technology and
pharmaceuticals advance, it’s necessary to
look at innovation to ensure the sustain-
ability of our public health-care system.
For example, B.C.’s eHealth program uses
information technology to provide the best
possible patient care. It will bring lab results,
diagnostic scans, medication histories and
electronic prescriptions online.
The program will implement
secure electronic health-record
systems to bring better, faster,
safer health care by giving au-
thorized health professionals
electronic access to secure pa-
tient health records where they
are required for delivering care.
With regard to genomics, our
government has contributed
$177.5 million to Genome BC since
2001. In 2012, we provided a fur-
ther $10 million for the organization. The
funding is for genomics projects that sup-
port B.C.’s scientific community and secure
social and economic benefits for people
everywhere.
How can B.C.’s life-sciences sector best
contribute to the economic well-being of
the province?
British Columbia’s life-sciences sector not
only does invaluable research work, which
helps families and leads to better patient
outcomes, it also provides great economic
benefits for the province.
Since being founded in 2007, the Centre
for Drug Research and Development has
created just over 2,200 direct and indirect
jobs in the health-research sector in B.C. and
over the next five years expects to create
an additional 2,300 jobs. Our government
understands the importance of such jobs
and how they contribute to the overall eco-
nomic picture of British Columbia.
As well, investing in life sciences helps the
industry further translate academic health
research into viable investment opportun-
ities for the private sector.
I look forward to continuing our good
working relationship with the life-sciences
industry, which is beneficial not only for the
health system and B.C. families but for the
economic well-being of the province.
It’s necessary
to look at
innovation
to ensure the
sustainability
of our public
health-care
system
8 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
Mike Farnworth,
MLA for Port Coquitlam and Health
Critic, Official Opposition
How do you see the life-sciences industry
supporting the delivery of health care in
B.C.?
British Columbians expect and deserve a
public health-care system that is world-
class, one that delivers the best possible
patient outcomes, responds in a timely
fashion and maximizes new and emerging
technology and procedures to constantly
improve. As the primary funder of health
care, government can lay the foundation for
this innovation, but effective partnerships
with health-care professionals, academia
and industry will drive change, improve
health-care delivery and ultimately en-
hance our collective social and economic
well-being.
If you had the ability to change one aspect
of B.C.’s current health-care system, what
would it be?
Despite its strengths, there are significant
challenges facing public health care in British
Columbia. An aging population – which in-
cludes patients, as well as doctors, nurses,
care aides and other health-care
providers – and other demo-
graphic shifts will put additional
pressure on finite resources in
the coming decade. The intel-
lectual capacity exists to ad-
dress those challenges – inside
the current system as well as
among academic, professional
and other associations. However,
the necessary flexibility to adapt
quickly, responding to changing
needs, trends or innovations,
has not always been apparent.
That gap in flexibility could be
what stands in the way of the
system adapting to emerging
technologies, for example. This
problem is not unique to health
care, nor to health care in British
Columbia. Indeed, any large organization
that delivers a broad array of services is
bound to face similar challenges. Working in
collaboration with all the partners in health-
care delivery is the key to encouraging that
flexibility within the health-care system.
What does your view of health-care
delivery look like five years from now?
There is little doubt that health-care delivery
in the decades to come will look markedly
different than it does today. And there’s
every reason to believe that many of the
innovations currently in development in
British Columbia and elsewhere will con-
tribute significantly to strengthening our
system, making it more responsive to the
individual needs of patients across the con-
tinuum of care, allowing more effective use
of precious resources – both human and
technological – and ultimately increasing
patient outcomes, with better life expect-
ancy and improved quality of life.
But British Columbians have also said that
they want to play a bigger role in their own
health care. This clearly starts
with healthy lifestyle choices,
which government policy can
support through initiatives
such as anti -smoking cam-
paigns, screening programs or
encouraging active lifestyles.
Effective use of emerging tech-
nologies is another component
that may allow patients to tailor
their access to the health-care
system to their specific needs.
Again, this can serve as a way of
adding efficiency to the system
and ensuring resources go dir-
ectly where they’re needed. So
while the demographic shift
is coming, smart application
of these emerging technolo-
gies will allow the health-care
system to continue to improve the health
outcomes of patients while getting the
most for the health-care dollar.
How can B.C.’s life-sciences sector best
contribute to the economic well-being of
the province?
British Columbia’s patients will expect better
access to specialized medicine irrespective
of where they live. A greater understanding
of how best to deliver those services will
require constant innovation, which in turn
will require a continued emphasis on re-
search and development. Adrian Dix and the
New Democrats have said repeatedly that
increasing British Columbia’s knowledge-
based economy must be a high priority,
and the life-sciences sector will be a key
component of that.
British Columbians have for generations
stood at the forefront of innovation, across
the spectrum of scientific disciplines. This
begins with educating our children and
youth. With a renewed emphasis on training,
education and research, and by supporting
programs like Science World’s school out-
reach and tour program, we can continue to
be world leaders in health-care research, en-
couraging the world to look to this province
as the leader in life-sciences technology.
Governments set policy direction, but it
will be organizations such as LifeSciences
British Columbia that will provide the skills,
knowledge and expertise, ensuring a greater
understanding not only of the challenges
but also of the tremendous opportunities
ahead in life sciences.
British
Columbians
have also
said that
they want to
play a bigger
role in their
own health
care. This
clearly starts
with healthy
lifestyle
choices
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 9
PARTNERSHIPS TAKE CENTRE STAGE
BY PETER MITHAM
How does innovation happen?
Whether it’s through industry clusters or
a triple-helix model that brings together
government, academia and industry,
partnerships and relationships between
organizations are key.
Those partnerships have taken cen-
trestage in the life-sciences industry as financiers have
become risk averse. While the payoff from a successful
new drug can be significant, the up-front cost of de-
veloping new products is equally significant. By some
measures, it can cost upward of $200 million to take a
drug through to commercialization, not to mention years
of research. Committed partners are more likely to have
the vested interest and stamina than external investors
seeking a return on capital.
“As some of the venture capital has repositioned itself
within the market, strategic partnerships have become a
very significant way of financing ventures,” says Don Enns,
president of the industry association LifeSciences BC.
On the front lines, the partnerships take three primary
forms: licensing agreements, which often garner com-
panies an ongoing revenue stream in exchange for a
development partner that can engage in the research
needed to take a new pharmaceutical or device to the
trial stage and commercialization; mergers and acquisi-
tions, which often allow local companies to receive the
backing of international players in exchange for a measure
of independence; and strategic partnerships that offer
a variety of benefits from in-kind support and to the
prospect of future financial relationships.
Enns notes that partnerships are increasingly common
among large pharmaceutical companies that want a stake
in new developments but don’t necessarily have the cash
to risk. By partnering with rising companies early in the
development process, they’ve hedged their bets.
“Ten years ago large pharma effectively would not have
been interested in early-stage companies,” Enns says.
Today they’re happening- and earlier than ever in a com-
pany’s life. Merck & Co. Inc. has five strategic partnerships,
for example, representing a billion-dollar stake in B.C. life
sciences – exponentially beyond anything private-equity
investments are providing.
Brain wave
The significance of partnerships is clear to John McNicol,
a founder and co-CEO of EnWave Corp., which has de-
veloped a novel dehydration technology that’s attracted
interest from diverse companies ranging from pharma-
ceutical giant Merck to homegrown food processors such
as CAL-SAN Enterprises Ltd.
EnWave grew out of research at the University of British
Columbia (UBC) that developed a radiant energy vacuum
for dehydrating food and nutraceuticals. EnWave’s pro-
prietary process maintains colour, quality and nutrients,
as well as appearance. The process also allows different
moisture content. The considerations are important ele-
ments in tailoring products, from purées to vaccines for
different uses and markets. Dehydration can also reduce
packaged volumes while extending shelf life.
A prototype of the system was ready by 2007, when
commercialization efforts began in earnest.
Since then, it has struck $33 million in financing and
licence agreements that have enabled the development
of increasingly larger plants.
“I felt we needed to go after the largest companies in
the world to establish collaborations and partnerships
because a) it gives you tremendous credibility if they
become a partner and it’s known in the industry and b) it
Transforming
the face of the life
sciences industry
We would
rather
let them
adopt the
technology, be
a partner, and
sometimes
we give them
exclusivity
John McNicol
co-CEO
EnWave
10 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
allows you to create a whole range of different research
and product-development areas where you’re not put-
ting up all the money,” McNicol explains. “They’re able
to take your machinery into their development pool and
do development work, they pay you for that. They also
are developing products and when they get something
that’s commercially available for the market we end up
getting licensees and a royalty stream.”
EnWave now has partnerships in place with more than
a dozen companies, including Merck and Gay-Lea Foods
Cooperative Ltd. In 2012, Milne Fruit Products Inc. began
commercial processing of fruit at its Nampa, Idaho, plant
under a licensing agreement that will yield EnWave
upfront and ongoing revenues from the production of
Milne’s products.
“Milne couldn’t start up the plant without signing a
licence with us,” McNicol says. “[The licence] controls what
they can produce in the plant and also gives us royalties
as a percentage of the revenues they generate.”
A licence may also open opportunities for companies.
In the case of Boreal Genomics Inc. a licensing agreement
has given access to a portfolio of patents held by UBC.
The patents allowed Boreal to develop a series of cancer
tests that will guide patient treatment. An initial release of
the system in 2012 is being followed up by a collaboration
with researchers at Stanford University.
Buying in
Some of the top headlines in the pharmaceutical busi-
ness result from mergers or acquisitions that reward a
company’s achievements and provide the owners with
a springboard to greater opportunities or an exit strategy
to a new venture.
Some of the biggest deals in the region include Galenica
Holding SA’s acquisition of Victoria-based Aspreva
Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2007 for $915 million. Before that,
in December 2005, GlaxoSmithKline’s purchased UBC-
spinoff ID Biomedical Corp. for $1.7 billion.
Aspreva’s rise to prominence was built on a research
team that sought new applications for existing drugs
among underserved diseases. A pharmaceutical for
kidney patients attracted Galenica, which initially sought
to license the drug but instead bought Aspreva.
Similarly, ID Biomedical’s work on flu vaccines gave
GlaxoSmithKline greater capacity to serve the market
while renewing ID Biomedical’s financial stability and
allowing it to expand and increase operations.
For companies such as telecommunications giant
Telus Corp. and urological drug developer Sophiris Bio
Inc., acquisitions have also been a gateway to the life-
science sector.
Sophiris originally incorporated in B.C. in 2003 through
an amalgamation of three life-science companies. The
new company acquired Protox Pharmaceuticals Inc.
and became Protox Therapeutics Inc., with a licence
to develop and commercialize a treatment for prostate
cancer it obtained under a licence with John Hopkins
University and the University of Victoria Innovation
and Development Corp. Today the company is signing
agreements of its own, including a collaboration with
Matsumoto-based Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. on the
development and commercialization of one of its drug
candidates in Japan.
Telus is following a similar route as it builds its business in
the life-sciences sector. The telecommunications company
acquired two life-science companies in 2012, building on
the 2008 acquisition of health-records company Emergis
Inc. that established Telus Health. The acquisition, valued
at $763 million, allowed Telus to establish six distinct
business units and a foothold in activities as diverse as
pharmacy systems and claims processing; health-records
management and health care-consulting; and human-
resources outsourcing. Telus Physician Solution, overseen
by Wolf Medical founder Brendan Byrne, was established
through its latest acquisitions of Wolf Medical Systems
Corp., Kinlogix Medical Inc., and the purchase of PS Suite
EMR from MD Practice Software LP.
“Telus stepping into health is bringing world-class ap-
plications on a world-class infrastructure to solve Canadian
health care problems,” Byrne says. “The telco DNA is all
around moving information. And health care is just crying
out for that movement.”
The sector also has room to grow. A report by consulting
firm KPMG notes that life sciences is outperforming other
segments of the province’s economy, but remains small
relative to those in Quebec, Ontario and the world.
Collaborations
are very, very
important,
especially
at the onset
of growth,
because
they bring
expertise
that you
don’t have at
minimal cost
Ali Tehrani
president and CEO
Zymeworks
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 11
“It’s a very ripe area for the types of prob-
lems that we solve,” Byrne says. “We’re essen-
tially wrapping a managed service, the utility
model, around some of these health-care
applications.”
While each of the units in Telus Health re-
search and develop new products, Byrne says
the emerging model is cloud-based applica-
tions that are laid over the communications
network, allowing Telus to bundle the two
together for a monthly subscription fee. It
aims to deliver a convenient and reliable solu-
tion to the health-care sector, as well as one
that facilitates collaboration between parties
and improves outcomes for consumers and
patients.
“The collaboration services that we’re
building between physicians and pharmacists
and patients, those are completely new – they
haven’t been done before,” Byrne says, noting
that Telus’ acquisitions are slowly transforming
the company into a full-fledged partner of the
life-sciences industry. “It’s starting from a core
and building.”
Bridging public and private sectors
Strategic partnerships help companies to
receive a handup in the life-sciences sector
as they take their initial steps toward the dis-
covery and development of a new product.
Preliminary partnerships are often as simple
as research collaborations that allow individ-
uals to share expertise or make use of a su-
perior organization’s equipment and research
infrastructure. B.C.’s strengths in the areas
of HIV-AIDS, cancer research and genomics
provide fertile ground for partnerships that
can jump-start new projects.
Enns points to the co-ordinating role
various organizations in the province play
in facilitating such partnerships. While the
province’s eight centres of excellence bring
together researchers, one is of particular
value to companies seeking to commercialize
new pharmaceuticals – the Centre for Drug
Research and Development (CDRD). Bridging
the public and private sectors, CDRD plays a
co-ordinating role in relationships between
industry, universities and the public sector.
Similarly, the BC Clinical Research and
Infrastructure Network is working to stream-
line and co-ordinate the activities of the prov-
ince’s 60 research organizations engaged in
clinical trials. Enns also mentions Genome BC,
a not-for-profit organization funded by the
federal and provincial governments that has
leveraged $400 million for the industry since
its creation in 2000, and the Michael Smith
Foundation for Health Research, a provincial
body that has co-ordinated more than $360
million in funding for life-sciences research
since 2001.
Government can also sometimes be a
direct partner of companies, as in the case
of Vancouver-based iCo Therapeutics Inc.,
which in 2012 received $1.1 million from the
Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI), a col-
laboration between the federal government
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The
grant is funding feasibility testing and pre-
clinical toxicology studies in patients who are
candidates for iCo’s Amp B treatment.
A spinoff from UBC, iCo also enjoys a re-
search collaboration with the Toronto-based
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
for the prevention, treatment and cure of
Type1 diabetes. The collaboration supports
its own research, helping it to make better
use of its resources as well as those of the
foundation.
Such partnerships are critical, says Ali
Tehrani, president and CEO of Vancouver-
based Zymeworks Inc.
Zymeworks pursues computer-assisted
development of new therapies, a process
that Tehrani says eliminates guesswork as
well as the potential for human error in pro-
cessing data related to the selection of new
drug candidates for trial. It has developed a
proprietary platform for the assessment of
a new product, ZymeCAD, that Merck and
other companies are keen to license for future
development. Azymetric, for example, is a
molecule that can be used as the basis for
several kinds of biologic drugs. “It’s the output
of this research that interested Merck,” Tehrani
says. “We struck a deal where they gained a
non-exclusive licence to be able to use that
molecule to be able to develop a certain
number of antibody therapeutics.”
The process Zymeworks uses for identifying
new products makes its work appealing to
large pharmaceutical companies looking to
reduce their development costs and time-
lines. Securing licensing agreements provides
Zymeworks with ongoing revenues as well as
insights into how its molecules behave that
feed back into its own research and develop-
ment activities.
“Partnerships are always important,” he
says. “Collaborations are very, very important,
especially at the onset of growth, because
they bring expertise that you don’t have at
minimal cost.”
And it’s not just corporate entities Zymeworks
is courting; it also has partnerships with UBC,
Simon Fraser University and the University of
Victoria, as well as private labs.
Avoiding hurdles
EnWave’s McNicol makes a similar point. The
partners it has for pilots of its dehydration
process and for licensing agreements are
aimed at opening the company to a broader
range of expertise and influences.
“It opens up our technology to be suc-
cessful,” McNicol says. “This is a very important
lesson for companies that have a unique
technology: don’t be shy to partner with the
leaders in a market.”
The par tnerships have shown how
EnWave’s
dehydration
technology has
been advanced
through
partnerships
12 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
how i did it | RICHARD GLICKMAN
I co-founded Aspreva Pharmaceuticals
in 2001 to develop and commercialize
drugs for uncommon diseases that were
underserved. It wasn’t my first entrepre-
neurial go, but Aspreva was a bit of an
industry newbie. Our business model
wasn’t to acquire drugs; we wanted
to help pharmaceutical and biotech
companies get full benefit, economic-
ally and socially, out of the drugs they
already develop.
Most drugs can potentially be used in
more than one indication. Often com-
panies will develop just a few of those
indications. Aspreva helped companies
go from off-label to on-label with their
drugs for new indications, and helped
provide the evidence base to prove
whether a drug works for various pa-
tient populations.
The idea came from our frustration as
scientists working in rare diseases. There
were thousands of rare diseases and
only hundreds of approved medicines
to treat them. We also understood the
high cost of drug development and
felt a business model that considered
existing medicines would be a reason-
able place to look for new indications.
It was also about understanding the
pathology of diseases. We could look at
the pool of existing medicines to find
drugs that would respond potentially,
for good scientific reasons, to diseases.
That formed the basis of our program,
with the idea that we could reduce the
cost of developing a drug for a rare-
disease patient.
We partnered with the drug company
on one of its drugs and developed new
indications. We funded the clinical de-
velopment, worked with them through
the regulatory process and, once the
drug was approved, launched the sales
force and clinical support to support
that drug in its commercialization. In
exchange we shared in the revenue
from that drug.
Ours could generally be considered
a lower-risk approach to taking an
idea from inception to commercial-
ization because the drugs we worked
on tended to have significant safety
track records behind them – enough
clinical exposure that there was a fair
opportunity to prove efficacy going
forward. It was a way of making drugs
available and generating early-stage
revenue to build a sustainable business
fairly quickly.
Take our work with Swiss drug-maker
Hoffman-La Roche on CellCept, origin-
ally developed as an anti-rejection agent
for organ transplants. While there was
promising data that it could serve other
markets, including the autoimmune-
disease markets Aspreva was targeting
– Roche had little motivation to develop
CellCept for these.
We took over developing these new
indications, allowing Roche to stay fo-
cused on its core transplant business.
We signed a licensing agreement to use
CellCept in trials to treat less-common
autoimmune diseases like lupus neph-
ritis and pemphigus vulgaris, which col-
lectively represented a fairly significant
market opportunity but, individually,
were below the radar of most com-
panies, including Roche.
Talk about a win-win. Roche benefited
from access to resources to see its drug
further developed in autoimmune dis-
eases, plus incremental revenue and
recognition of making that medicine
available for the patient population that
needs it. We shared in the upside and,
of course, patients benefited by gaining
access to the drugs they needed.
Richard Glickman, co-founder,
Aspreva Pharmaceuticals: “[we]
helped companies go from off-
label to on-label with their drugs”
companies want to use its dehydration pro-
cess, opening up new opportunities as well
as allowing the partners to determine uses
for the technology without EnWave having
to market a specific application.
“We would rather let them adopt the tech-
nology, be a partner, and sometimes we
give them exclusivity,” he says. “It’s given
us a really excellent pipeline that’s going to
grow further.”
He warns other companies against nar-
rowing their opportunities by retaining too
much control and avoiding strategic partner-
ships that may in fact expand their interests.
“[EnWave] can partner without being too
one-dimensional,” he says. “A lot of com-
panies don’t think like that. They want to
control everything themselves, they want to
go and put all the capital up front and invest
in all the prior development and go into the
market and compete against
these big companies.”
Tehrani is sympathetic to
such advice, noting that B.C.
offers a collaborative environ-
ment for life-science com-
panies but that improvements
are possible. Universities, for
example, often have research
protocols and intellectual
property policies that limit
the free flow of information. A
long-standing issue for clinical
trials has been the frequent
requirement for researchers
to conform to multiple ethics
agreements and protocol
documents, rather than being
subject to a single, standard
document when working
with several institutions. The quirk increases
paperwork, as well as the time and expense
required to undertake research.
Similarly, the desire by universities to protect
intellectual property rights makes sense but
it inhibits the flow of information among
research teams. “The desire to collaborate, the
desire to share information is there,” Tehrani
says. “Sometimes the problem that occurs is
how various management of the different
organizations create stumbling blocks.”
This can lead to researchers seeking alterna-
tive partners, something Tehrani doesn’t feel
needs to happen.
“Sometimes you don’t have to go outside
your backyard to form a strategic collabora-
tion,” he says. “And sometimes you’re forced
to go outside your backyard because of un-
necessary rules and regulations.”
The telco DNA
is all around
moving
information.
And health
care is just
crying out
for that
movement
Brendan Byrne
vice-president,
physician solutions,
Telus Health
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 13
USING DATA FOR BETTER HEALTHPopulation Data BC may offer untapped
potential for industry research
BY SAM EIFLING
The compendium of data Brit ish
Columbia’s health system collects can
begin to sound like lyrics from the old
Police song, “Every Breath You Take.” The
administrative data goes back more than
25 years, recording every hospital visit, birth
and death. Every prescription written to a
British Columbian, every cancer, mental-
health case, workers’ compensation claim
and early-childhood development record
is tallied and stored.
This is all primarily to audit our big, expen-
sive health-care system. But this mountain of
information, coded for privacy, has other ap-
plications. Health outcomes correlate highly
with a range of indicators – if a social policy
is working, the people it affects are generally
healthier. This has made the trove of informa-
tion, collected by and accessible through
Population Data BC, a public gold mine for
researchers, by law the only people who
can access the data, and only
after undergoing a rigorous
application process that in-
cludes an ethical review.
It’s rare that industry in B.C.
accesses the possibilities
buried in the Population Data
BC records, its administrators
say.
“Using it is extremely in-
expensive and the quality
of it is unparalleled in terms
of coverage of populations,”
says Nancy Meagher, execu-
tive director of Population
Data BC. “Having data on every person in
British Columbia is powerful, especially if
you’re looking at diseases or incidents where
there’s a very low percentage. Even for a
very rare condition, you may be able to get
a hundred cases.”
Meagher says the term “big data” bemuses
her while Dr. Bruce Carleton, the
pediatrician and professor who
chairs the Data Stewardship
Committee, says he first heard
the phrase at a conference last
year.
The cumulative power of
such data is essential to driving
better health. Carleton points to
the improvement in leukemia
outcomes over recent decades:
in the 1960s a child would have
a 30 per cent chance of surviving
the cancer while today it’s 80 per
cent. The province’s interest in
making the data available, and
the committee’s charge when
reviewing applications, is to
determine whether a proposal
might extend or improve the
lives of British Columbians.
“There would be tremendous
benefit to industry in accessing
data,” Carleton says. “Certainly
we want industry to develop
products that at least improve our quality of
life. And industry shares that. Who wouldn’t
want to create the next medical interven-
tion that improves the lives of patients who
use it?”
While at present any corporate use of the
public data would require an academic re-
searcher to apply and lead the research (and
to disclose his or her funding), the com-
mittee is considering ways to allow that
access in the absence of a university partner-
ship, Carleton says.
“That’s an interesting area,” Meagher says,
“to try to promote more partnerships and to
encourage the academic community to be
more in tune with industries or hospitals or
health authorities.”
Population Data BC
executive director
Nancy Meagher:
“having data on
every person in
British Columbia is
powerful”
Who wouldn’t want to create
the next medical intervention
that improves the lives of
patients who use it?
Dr. Bruce Carleton
chair, Data Stewardship Committee
14 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
LifeSciences BC is a not-for-profit, non-government, industry association that supports and represents the life sciences community of British Columbia through leadership, facilitation of investment and partnering, advocacy and promotion of our world-class science and industry.
To build a world-class life sciences community in British Columbia that contributes to the economic and social well being of the Province through a collaborative effort between industry, academia and government.
To broaden our representation of British Columbia’s converging “bio” community by building a forum for complementary technologies, and supporting the Province’s life sciences industry through advocacy, facilitation and promotion.
People Increase the general public’s understanding of the issues in B.C.’s life sciences community.
Promotion Raise awareness of B.C.’s life sciences capabilities and capacity.
Partnerships Increase membership and explore collaborations with other organizations in support of our vision.
Policy Through consultation with members and government, provide guidance on public policy.
Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, (Rx&D)
Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLPGenome British ColumbiaGlaxoSmithKline Inc.McCarthy Tétrault LLP Merck Canada Inc.Pfizer Canada Inc.
AmgenBusiness in VancouverDiscovery ParksHoffmann-La Roche Ltd.Janssen Inc.LifeScan Canada Ltd.Technology Vision Group LLC
AbbVieAirgasAstraZenecaBorden Ladner Gervais LLPThe Centre for Drug Research &
Development
Eli LillyFasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP inVentiv Health Clinique Inc.Michael Smith Foundation for Health
ResearchNovartisPwCPROOF Centre of ExcellenceQLT Inc.Sanofi CanadaSTEMCELL Technologies Inc.UBC University-Industry Liaison OfficeVancouver Economic Commission
Membership Activities
B.C.’s Life Sciences Sector Statistics
Partnerships
Committees: 185 Members
310$90214,000$300$68,000$424$1.03
1. 2.
3. 4.5.6.7.8.9.10.
30 events
2,500participants
Top ten
Membership Composition
$550 million
Corporate 35%Individual 1%Institutional 12%Multi-National 9%Life Science 33%Reciprocal 7%Student 1%
STARS OF B.C.
BY PETER MITHAM
With more than $550
mill ion in f inan-
c ings and par t-
nerships inked in
2012, the B.C. life-
sciences sector is
showing resilience
in changeable economic times. Building on
vibrant, cross-sector relationships, the sector
is attracting the interest of entities from
the U.S. Department of Defense (UCDD) to
international pharmaceutical companies and
hometown food processors. Research ranges
from biopharmaceuticals to medical devices
and food technologies.
LifeSciences BC president Don Enns says
research that’s focused on key therapeutic
areas – especially HIV-AIDS, oncology and
genomics – have been key to attracting
interest from international players.
“As some of the venture capital has repos-
itioned itself within the market, strategic
partnerships have become a very significant
way of financing ventures,” Enns says. He
expects 2013 to bring more of the same.
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Burnaby-based Xenon Pharmaceuticals,
headed by B.C. biotech veteran Dr. Simon
Pimstone, garnered one of the biggest deals
of 2012 with a $335 million agreement with
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. for the
development and marketing of XEN402,
which promises to reduce pain by blocking
sodium channels in nerve endings.
Teva, based in Israel, will deliver the funds
in a series of payments at milestones in the
development, approval and sale of XEN402.
The agreement reflected the strength of
Xenon’s international relationships. In addi-
tion to being active in the U.S. and Europe,
Xenon claims as a co-founder Michael
Hayden – chief scientific officer for Teva.
Zymeworks Inc.
Zymeworks’ success continued in 2012 with
the completion of a share offering that raised
$11 million for the private Vancouver com-
pany. The offering was led by Advanced
Biotechnologies Venture Fund, which also
partnered on an $8.1 million deal in 2011 with
CTI Life Sciences Fund, L.P.
Zymeworks, launched in 2003, develops
antibody- and protein-based therapies for the
treatment of cancers, autoimmune disorders
and inflammatory diseases using a propri-
etary development platform. With a focus on
collaborative projects, it has struck partner-
ships with the University of British Columbia
With a focus on collaborative projects, Zymeworks develops therapies using a
proprietary platform
Partnerships lead B.C.’s most
innovative companies forward
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 17
(UBC) and Simon Fraser University, as well as
pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc.
Proceeds from the latest financing will ad-
vance its lead oncology candidates through
late-stage preclinical studies and into the
clinic.
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp.
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals began Phase 1 clin-
ical trials in 2012 of a potential treatment for
the Ebola virus, responsible for hemorrhagic
fever in humans and a potential biological
weapon. The work is taking place under a
July 2010 agreement with the (USDD) that
followed the publication of research results
showing its lead drug candidate, which uses
lipid nanoparticle technology to reach in-
fected cells, offers primates full protection
from Ebola. The virus is typically 90 per cent
lethal to humans.
The agreement with the U.S. government
is worth up to US$140 million if the drug
reaches final approval; the first phase, which
extends through Phase 1 clinical trials, is
worth approximately US$34.7 million.
Neovasc Inc.
Vancouver-based Neovasc tapped a vein
of success in 2012 with a $4.5 million sale of
manufacturing rights to its Xenosure surgical
patch.
LeMaitre Vascular Inc. gained the right
to produce the patches in-house, some-
thing Neovasc previously did. Neovasc, in
turn, channelled proceeds from the sale
to ongoing research and development of
biological tissue technologies.
The latter half of 2012 saw Neovasc focus
on its Reducer refractory angina device and
its Tiara transcatheter mitral valve products.
The proceeds from Xenosure eliminate the
need for the company to seek additional
financing in the short term.
Welichem Biotech Inc.
Welichem Biotech of Burnaby successfully
sold rights to its experimental anti-inflamma-
tory compound WBI-1001 to GlaxoSmithKline
subsidiary Stiefel Laboratories Inc. in 2012.
WBI-1001 is in Phase 2 development for the
treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
The sale garners Welichem $35 million, a
strong follow to a private placement at the
beginning of 2012 that raised $600,000.
The deal gives Steifel rights to develop
and market WBI-1001 in markets outside
of China, Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong,
which were included in a previous 2011
agreement Welichem struck with Celestial
ABOVE: Neovasc
is a star of B.C.’s
life-sciences
sector, with the
$4.5 million sale
of manufacturing
rights to its
Xenosure surgical
patch allowing
it to focus on
developing its
Tiara valve
LEFT: EnWave
co-CEOs John
McNicol and Tim
Durance have
found fresh
opportunities
through
partnerships
Pharmaceuticals (Shenzhen) Ltd.
Welichem continues to focus on de-
veloping therapeutic drugs targeting auto-
immune diseases and cancers.
Protox Therapeutics Inc.
New York private equity firm Warburg Pincus
boosted its stake in Vancouver’s Protox
Therapeutics in early 2012.
Pursuant to a 2010 agreement, Warburg
Pincus invested $8.3 million in Protox,
which focuses on new treatments for uro-
logical diseases. Its lead product, PRX302
(PORxin), targets a benign form of enlarged
continued on page 20
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 19
prostate. Protox is collaborating with Kissei
Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. of Japan on the
development and commercialization of
PORxin in Japan.
Warburg Pincus has invested $26.7 million
in Protox to date; the 2010 agreement allows
it to invest up to $35 million.
iCo Therapeutics Inc.
UBC-spinoff iCo Therapeutics trumped its
2011 performance in 2012 with a $2.6 million
financing led by Euro Pacific Canada Inc.
With a portfolio of three pharmaceuticals it
has identified for reformulation and commer-
cialization in the treatment of sight-related
diseases, iCo raised $1.1 million in 2011 to sup-
port clinical trials of iCo-007, which targets
diabetic macular edema. It also enjoys a re-
search collaboration with the Toronto-based
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation re-
garding the prevention, treatment and cure
of Type1 diabetes.
EnWave Corp.
A novel dehydration technology is bearing
fruit for EnWave, which landed its first major
U.S. customer in 2012. Milne Fruit Products Inc.
began commercial processing of fruit at its
Nampa, Idaho, plant using EnWave’s radiant
energy vacuum dehydration technology.
Boosting its fortunes, EnWave completed
a $5.5 million private placement in support
of ongoing research and development, as
well as its $2.6 million acquisition of a 86.5
per cent interest in Germany’s Hans Binder
Maschinenbau GmbH. Hans Binder designs
and develops custom driers and dehydra-
tion plants.
biOasis Technologies Inc.
Strong financing and broad collaboration are
taking biOasis Technologies of Vancouver
into new territory. biOasis raised $2.5 mil-
lion through a highly successful private
placement in 2012, fuelling development of
Transcend, its proprietary carrier for deliv-
ering therapeutic and imaging agents across
the blood-brain barrier. The financing was
over-subscribed, garnering biOasis $410,000
more than expected.
Collaborations with top-tier pharmaceutical
companies in the U.S. and Europe – including
Abbott Laboratories Ltd. and Brussels-based
UCB – are assisting biOasis’ development of
therapies for the diagnosis and treatment of
neurological diseases and disorders.
I co-founded ID Biomedical in 1991.
Our initial focus was on gene-based
diagnostics. We developed the first
truly rapid test for antibiotic-resistant
MRSA – a bacteria that causes several
hard-to-treat infections. It normally
took up to two days to get MRSA re-
sults – a huge problem for hospitals.
The speed of our test meant doctors
could treat patients with the right
antibiotic quicker, leading to shorter
hospital stays and savings.
In 1999 we shifted gears, zeroing
in on vaccines. We bought exclusive
rights to an experimental tuberculosis
vaccine and then sold it, using the
money to build labs, hire scientists and
license another experimental vaccine
for strep throat.
In 2001 we acquired Intellivax, which
held key inhalable-vaccine technology.
We used this science to develop an
inhalable flu vaccine that eliminated
needles and, because it didn’t use live
germs, was safe and portable. We also
developed vaccines against bioterrorist
agents, plus a variety of viruses, bac-
teria and allergens.
I n 2 0 0 4 w e a c q u i r e d S h i r e
Pharmaceuticals, which had a virtu-
ally brand-new plant that was being
expanded to produce injectable flu
vaccines. At the time there was a
worldwide shortage of flu vaccines and
our factory was one of the few sources
able to supply them. We decided to
focus on maximizing the value of our
injectable flu vaccine and advancing
the clinical development of our intran-
asal flu vaccine and strep vaccine. The
latter had been extensively tested in
adults; the next move was to test the
pediatric population.
There are challenges in developing
pediatric vaccines, namely having to
test in tens of thousands of children.
The clinical trials are very expensive.
One of our strategies was to partner
with large multinational vaccine com-
panies. Before our products got to the
large-scale pivotal Phase 3 studies, we
wanted to have them partnered with
firms that could eventually help us
market and distribute them.
I’d say that making these strategic
acquisitions and partnerships was one
of our main strengths. We focused on
our weaknesses. We addressed our
weaknesses by hiring people and ac-
quiring companies that had what we
lacked – whether that was a specific
talent or an entire manufacturing
plant. Whenever we bought another
company we strategically acquired a
skilled team of people – some of the
best people in the world – not just a
product line.
Also, I never looked at myself
as “boss.” Before we were taken
over by GlaxoSmithKline in 2005 I
held a number of positions with ID
Biomedical, including CEO. For the
first few years I was involved in various
parts of the company, learning from
each experience and gradually making
the transition from science to business.
I always referred to it as “we” work – I
may not be able to do these things,
but we can. We ran a very flat organ-
ization, which allowed me to acquire
a lot of knowledge. You watch your
colleagues, you see their mistakes and,
each time, you learn a little more. By
the time I became CEO I’d done most
of the jobs at the executive level, so I
had a pretty broad experience. It was
a matter of hard work, time and being
a good learner.
how i did it | DR. ANTHONY HOLLER
Dr. Anthony Holler, chairman of
the board, CRH Medical: by the
time I became CEO I’d done
most of the jobs at the executive
level | DOMINIC SCHAEFER PHOTOGRAPHY
STARS OF B.C.
continued from page 19
20 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
Visit www.genomebc.ca for current funding opportunities.
IN YEARS, GENOME BRITISH COLUMBIA HAS INVESTED OVER MILLION IN GENOMICS RESEARCH. THE RESULTS?
BREAKTHROUGHS that have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives, including the way we diagnose and treat illness. Human health, food supply, energy and the environment — all of
by Genome BC.
Genome BC programs are supported by the Provincial Government of British Columbia, the Government of Canada through Genome Canada
private partners.
GENOMICS RESEARCH DELIVERS
A HEALTHY RETURN ONINVESTMENT
BIOTECH IN B.C. MORE
UPBEAT IN 2012
BY SAM EIFLING
Vancouver lawyer Joe Garcia has an
informal theory as to why he’s talking
lately with more upbeat biotech com-
panies and financiers in the course of his
work as a partner in the life-sciences division
at Blakes. It goes like this: the past five years
have been tight in biotech and, during the
downswing, the strongest companies have
found a way to hunker down and run lean.
Now investors are finding that the small,
lean biotech-sector companies in B.C. look
increasingly like bargains.
“I have a lot of clients, and a lot of them have
some activity,” Garcia says. “It could be on
the commercial front, on the financing front,
on the mergers and acquisitions front. What
I find heartening is that most of them have
something going on.”
B.C. biotech companies appear
to be staying smaller, working
on products closer to market
and par tnering with larger
corporations.
“ I f any thing i t ’s probably
going to be another modest
year,” said Ian Heine, a tax
partner and biotech specialist
at PricewaterhouseCoopers in
Vancouver. “This year, continuing
what was happening last year, a
lot of the capital you’re seeing is
coming from outside B.C.”
B .C . i s o n l y f o l l o w i n g a
nationwide current. The latest Ernst &
Young global biotech report found that
Canadian firms on the whole were more
cash-strapped than a year earlier. Only 10 per
cent of Canadian firms had more than five
years’ worth of cash on hand in 2011, down
from 18 per cent a year earlier.
Still, after some clinical successes, Canadian
companies found greater funding, led by a
91 per cent jump to $166 million by private
companies.
“Capital in Canada is hard to come by at this
point,” Heine says. “Since that recession hit,
a lot of VCs haven’t been able to regenerate
their funds. Is it changing? I think yes, but
slowly.”
This means investors are looking more
closely at companies with present revenue
streams and quicker turnaround
times on getting new products
to market. Interest remains high
in companies that specialize in
medical devices or diagnostic
services.
Two local bright spots have
fit that profile. Analogic, out of
Boston, announced in January
that it was acquiring Richmond-
b as e d u l t r as o un d ima g er
Ultrasonix for $83 million. A
month earlier, it was the Israeli
drug giant Teva Pharmaceutical
I n d u s t r i e s p a y i n g Xe n o n
Pharmaceuticals, of Burnaby,
$41 million up front toward a distribution
partnership that could gross another $335
million for Xenon.
The next Ernst & Young report is still
three months away but, according to Paul
Karamanoukian, who helps to compile it,
preliminary 2012 numbers show Canada’s
biotech companies raised even less capital
than in 2011. Smaller firms, Karamanoukian
says, “Are getting sprinkled with dollars to
keep them alive for a bit.” Meanwhile it’s
larger companies that are reaping about four-
fifths of the total, with the money skewing
toward more immediately marketable, less
exploratory ventures.
“Where traditionally Canada used to get
a lot of innovation, now the service side is
where the money’s going – software, real
estate,” Karamanoukian says. “There seems
to be a shift toward the output as opposed
Joe Garcia, a Vancouver lawyer who
specializes in biotech business, finds
that his clients are busier now than in
recent years: “there are a lot of deals
getting done”
Investors
are looking
more closely
at companies
with present
revenue
streams
and quicker
turnaround
times
22 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
to drug development.”
Some good news for B.C. Karamanoukian
noted was its private companies claiming
an outsized share of the national take: about
25 per cent, far outpacing the 7.5 per cent
B.C.’s public companies claimed among that
Canadian total. “The pipeline looks promising
for B.C. because it’s earlier-stage private
companies,” he says. “So the future could
be better if and when those companies
go public.”
As it gets harder for smaller companies to
acquire the funds to think longrange, Heine
says, more of those will partner with large
pharmaceutical companies earlier in the dis-
covery process. Meanwhile, companies will
in turn hire part-time employees or partner
with universities in order to keep overhead
down.
“If you look at where B.C. always does well
in the early stage of the startup, there’s a
lot of positivity – the university, the people
we have, the ideas we churn out, the talent,”
Heine says. “There’s always new and exciting
things that are truly worldclass. There’s a lot
of optimism. We have the next thing. If you
look at it in segments, it’s a better story as
you get smaller.”
how i did it | PAUL GEYER
I left my hometown of Brantford, Ontario, in
1983 to study electrical engineering at the
University of British Columbia. In my fourth
year I developed a portable Breathalyzer that
never made it to market. But my adviser on
the project, Charles Laszlo, would help shape
my career.
In 1987 I took a job at Symbion Medical,
which made an artificial-heart device. When
Symbion stopped making medical devices a
year later, I decided to take out a licence for the
heart-valve technology I’d been working on
and partnered with Charles to form Mitroflow
International.
In eight years we grew from nine to 125
employees and $5.3 million in sales. It’s a long
process for a heart valve – it takes years. In
1999 Sulzer Medica bought us for $43 million,
with another $20 million contingent on ap-
proval of our valves.
I stepped down as Mitroflow’s president
in 2001 and started Performance Medical
Devices (now Neovasc), applying the tech-
nology we’d been doing at Mitroflow to tissue
patches and other cardiac devices.
I get a lot of enjoyment helping people
through medical technologies. I believe new
technologies should let people enjoy a decent
quality of life, not just keep them alive.
This isn’t an easy business; I’ve learned a lot
along the way. The most critical thing is iden-
tifying a true need in the marketplace. If you’re
just developing something that sounds “cool”
to other engineers, it will end in disaster.
Whatever the idea is, it’s got to have an eco-
nomic benefit. Unfortunately, it’s not enough
to make something that saves lives; it’s also got
to save money or time. That means making
a cheaper, faster, better technology, or one
that’s easier to use. The tendency these days
is toward the economic impact, especially
when you’re met at the door by a CFO.
Most entrepreneurs have great intentions
and unrealistic expectations when it comes to
time and money. In this business it inevitably
takes twice as much time and money than
you initially anticipate. My advice: take your
plan, multiply how long it’ll take and what it’ll
cost by two, and divide how much you think
you’ll sell by two – if you find it’s not OK, go
back and rework it.
Paul Geyer, co-founder, Mitroflow
International: “whatever the idea
is, it’s got to have an economic
benefit” | DOMINIC SCHAEFER PHOTOGRAPHY
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 23
ENGAGEBring people together for health research planning and action
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DISCOVEREnable BC’s brightest researchers to conduct their best research
CORPORATE PROFILESGrowing British Columbia’s Bio-Economy
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GENOME BRITISH COLUMBIA www.genomebc.ca
Securing benefits for British Columbia
As part of its long-term strategic plan to move genomics along the research con-tinuum, Genome BC is moving toward a balanced investment across the areas of discovery, applied research and transla-tion. This dichotomy has been a limiting factor in the uptake and impact of some technologies. With a strong underpin-ning beneath it, Genome BC plans to right this imbalance. The current Strategic
Plan (2010-2015) outlines securing benefits from previous and currently funded research through an emphasis on user-driven applications in B.C.’s key economic sectors. Understanding sectors and engaging with stakeholders across all sectors is pivotal to this goal being achieved.
In 2007-2008, Genome BC initiated significant dialogue with stakeholders about sector influences, challenges and opportunities that could be addressed with genomics. This engagement helped to inform the development of the Applied Genomics Consortium Program (AGCP), the Translational Program for Applied Health (TPAH) and, later, the Proof-of-Concept (POC) and the Strategic Opportunities Fund for Industry (SOFi) programs to support application and translation of genomic technology. More recently Genome BC has launched the User Partnership Program (UPP) to foster partnerships between researchers and users of research to encourage translation of genomics-based solutions to the needs of the key sectors of the B.C. economy.
Looking beyond 2015, Genome BC is taking a more focused sector-oriented approach to design the right programs for invest-ment. These initiatives will lead to genomic-based solutions for more sustainable, profitable and competitive industries and public services.
Ongoing engagement
Genome BC recognizes the fundamental need to remain engaged throughout all ranges of the innovation spectrum and plans to continue participation with stakeholders in key sectors. Iden-tifying promising opportunities to help access new markets or develop new products is just one way in which Genome BC will continue to be a catalyst for interaction and innovation.
To get involved and engage with stakeholders in your sector or to learn about related activities contact:
Rachael Ritchie, Director, Business DevelopmentEmail: rritchie@genomebc.ca Tel: 604-637-4379
enome BC has invested over $550 mi l l ion, including 140 research projects and science and technol-
ogy platforms, to establish a world-class genome sciences region. This capacity for life-science innovation means that strate-gic areas such as human health, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, bioenergy, mining and the environment have a strong basis on which to develop inventive, applicable solutions to challenges facing British Columbia.
With significant capacity in place, Genome BC is working to support user-driven applications of genomics that will address sector-based needs and create new opportunities with the goal of helping to ensure a vibrant economy and regional prosperity for generations to come. To be successful in this process, Genome BC encourages active involvement with key participants in academia, industry and government.
Ensuring research translation
As genomics technology matures and is translated into appli-cations, there is reason to be optimistic about the future. A few examples of real-world utility include:
reactions to certain drugs, making treatments safer for patients and reducing the significant health-care burden associated with adverse drug effects.
being used to examine responses to environmental factors, pathogens and pollutants, and for brood stock development, improving harvests and yields and improving the fitness of these stocks.
-nants in order to ensure clean drinking water and prevent public health outbreaks. However, navigating the murky way from research labora-
tory to forest or from bench to bedside is not easy; many useful ideas, discoveries and inventions never see the light of day. To help address the needs of those in the laboratory and those in the forest, field, clinic or elsewhere, Genome BC has developed a robust business development program that spans the translation continuum. Genome BC continues to invest in social science and humanities research to facilitate translation by understanding the economic, environmental and social context in which the innova-tions will be realized.
A sector-orientated approach to investment
In more than a decade of work with research groups and orga-nizations, Genome BC has recognized a need to balance the research “push” and end-user “pull” of genomics technologies.
26 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
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LIFELABS www.lifelabs.com
LifeLabs: Making a difference to the health of British Columbians
available to better serve patients and physicians. The company has developed novel methodologies and approaches that have been presented at international con-ferences and published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Innovat ion underpins the company’s growth and service to patients. For example, in the 1990s Li feLabs env isioned a patient-centred future where lab results would be available elec-tronically to caregivers, pulling
data from multiple lab sources to provide a single, cohesive report. LifeLabs was a partner in the creation of Excelleris, a software and services health information management company dedi-cated to providing health-care professionals with fast, accessible patient information. LifeLabs patients and health-care providers throughout British Columbia can now receive their test results electronically. As well, in 2012, LifeLabs introduced an innovative online booking system that allows patients to book their appoint-ment online ahead of time in order reduce their wait at their next appointment.
Partnering for growth and success
LifeLabs’ position as a major laboratory services provider makes it an ideal partner to government, academia and industry. The company works with research institutions and other health-care providers to identify the best possible diagnostic tools to raise standards in patient care. LifeLabs also works closely with patient advocacy organizations, chronic disease groups and pharmaceuti-cal organizations to support advancements in disease management and treatment and an improved quality of life for patients living with chronic illness.
In addition to the public health benefits, these partnerships also benefit British Columbia economically. Helping to bring British Columbia research and advancements to the forefront of the medical field supports growth in the health-care sector and improves the province’s ability to attract and retain some of the best talent in the industry.
Through our team of dedicated employees and our focus on access, quality and innovation for the future LifeLabs is well posi-tioned to make a significant difference to the health and wellbeing of Canadians.
Contact: Jeff Sumner, Vice-President, Business Development and Chief Scientific Officer
Email: jeff.sumner@lifelabs.comTel: 416-675-4530 x2405
ifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services is the largest diag-nostic laboratory in Canada
and the largest community lab provider in British Columbia. Its laboratory testing services focus on helping patients and their health-care providers prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor disease.
As an important member of the extended health-care team, LifeLabs plays a vital role in the delivery of patient-focused care. Studies estimate that up to 80 per cent of all clinical-treatment decisions are based on results from laboratory tests. This makes LifeLabs a key partner in delivering better patient-care outcomes.
Enhancing access to care
Providing patients with access to care is a company priority. “With increasing demand for testing services and a challenging fiscal environment, we need to become even more effective and efficient in ensuring British Columbians receive the best service and reliable access to testing,” says Sue Paish, President and CEO, LifeLabs.
Each year the company provides more than 50 million labo-ratory tests to over 10 million patients and 20,000 physicians in Canada. In British Columbia, LifeLabs serves 4 million patients each year at its 85 patient service centres and performs more than 44,000 tests daily to help doctors diagnose, monitor and treat their patients.
In support of the commitment to patient access, LifeLabs recently announced it has entered into an agreement to purchase B.C. Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. to better serve patients in the province of British Columbia. Both organizations provide high- quality diagnostic services to community patients through patient service centres, home care and long-term care visits and dedicated laboratory testing facilities.
Leading the way with innovation
Commitment to quality and innovation is also a crucial part of the foundation of LifeLabs’ services. Medical quality is promoted by a team of medical scientific experts – including microbiologists, hematopathologists and biochemists – that guide testing services to ensure the highest quality. These experts also support physicians through consultation and the interpretation of test results.
“At the same time we focus on quality, we will also continue to invest in technologies and innovation for patients and health-care providers,” says Paish. LifeLabs regularly invests in new technologies and continues to expand the selection of tests
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 27
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APPLIED BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS INC www.abmGood.com
Next generation technology for life science
cancer – thus highlighting the significance of ORF libraries for use in gene function studies, diagnostic assays and novel drug development. The recent availability of a human genome library has revolutionized the landscape of life science research world-wide and will undoubtedly continue to have a profound impact on the study of functional genomics and clinical applications in the future. With the development of a robust gene delivery technology platform, abm can boast one of the largest in-house ORF librar-ies for human, mouse and rat genomes in the world, readily available in any required for-mat, including adenoviral or lentiviral vectors or as recombinant protein. abm holds a firm position as a market leader in recombinant
gene expression and has established multiple technology platforms for ease of customization using a comprehensive range of vectors.
Delivering premium CRO services worldwide
Through the multiple cutting-edge technology platforms estab-lished in-house, abm stands in a distinct position to provide a one-stop solution for any genetic and cellular engineering project. These premium custom services include gene synthesis, optimized recombinant vector development, protein expression, stable cell line generation, antibody assay and development and high throughput screening. In addition, abm has established a reliable miRNA profil-ing service and siRNA library, as well as an advanced cell immortal-ization service.
All custom services are provided at highly competitive pricing with the aim of reducing workload and project expenses for research organizations and the biotech industry. abm has the expertise and technological capabilities in place to achieve this through flexibility within these established platforms, allowing ease of customization to service the unique needs of customers at the lowest possible cost. With guaranteed quality and rapid turnaround times, abm’s contract research services are unmatched by any organization in providing cost-effective solutions for virtually any project demands. For a full list of services available, please visit the company website or contact abm directly for more information.
Contact: Heidi Chu, Business DevelopmentEmail: BD@abmGood.com Tel: 604-247-2416
pplied Biological Materials Inc. (abm) is a unique wholesale supplier of premium quality genetic and cellular materials
for life science research and the biotechnol-ogy industry. With a growing worldwide customer base, abm is now in its seventh year of business with over 30 employees and 10,000 square feet of wet lab space.
Operating out of Richmond, B.C., the company has experienced continual expan-sion and growth as a result of a successful business model based on providing innova-tive products with an uncompromised focus on quality at strongly competitive prices. abm consistently identifies emerging market needs in cutting-edge research areas such as miRNA, siRNA and recombinant viral vectors, in addition to providing specialized services in enzyme development and stable cell line generation.
Next generation enzymes for personalized medicine
With the completion of the Human Genome Sequencing Project, valuable information that can be gained from Whole Genome Sequencing is revolutionizing the field of personalized medicine and understanding of the genetic contribution to disease. This has led to significant clinical advances in early diagnosis and disease preven-tion, while enabling the customization of therapies for a tailored approach to treatment.
Whole Genome Sequencing is becoming an increasingly common clinical practice that requires extremely high accuracy rates. There-fore, abm has focused recent R&D efforts on developing an extended portfolio of Next Generation Enzymes with unparalleled quality and function for application in Next Generation Sequencing.
Standing confidently against the biggest names in the current market for demanding, high-fidelity PCR applications and Whole Genome Sequencing, abm’s enzymes offer the highest accuracy rates available, with superior sensitivity and yield together with extremely robust performance.
abm’s Next Generation Enzymes are the ideal choice for high throughput applications where accuracy is paramount, significantly reducing the cost of sequencing and improving data quality. To further utilize the capabilities of its proprietary enzyme technology, abm is to launch the first available Whole Genome Sequencing service from a private Canadian company in 2013.
Complete ORF libraries for human, mouse and rat genomes
ORFs (Open Reading Frames) are frequently employed to “over-express” particular genes of interest. Sequentially flipping on the switches of genes one at a time can help reveal their individual func-tions – for instance those that play a pivotal role in diseases such as
28 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
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PROOF CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE www.proofcentre.ca
Better care through improved blood testing
PROOF Centre uses information from healthy and diseased blood with cl inica l information to identify and deliver diagnostics critical to improved treatment not currently available. We use a proprietary in-house compu-tational strategy involving sta-tistical ensembling and decision trees to develop and evaluate multicomponent marker pan-els that are able to distinguish subtypes of patients. Our strong brand recognition in biomarker
development activities enables a f lexible business model and a variety of collaborations with institutions, academics and, increasingly, the private sector.
Partnering to fast-track our tests to clinic
The PROOF Centre is working with downstream commercial partners in its co-development of products, ensuring efficient integration of new tests into testing clinics and physician offices worldwide. As a result, our first products are already scheduled for the clinic within the year. In addition, our success has enabled the PROOF Centre the opportunity to offer its focused exper-tise and resources for test development and troubleshooting to an increasing number of public- and private-sector clients and collaborators.
The PROOF Centre’s services, consultation & collaboration
opportunities:
Contact: Janet Wilson-McManus, Chief Operating OfficerEmail: janet.wilson-mcmanus@hli.ubc.caTel: 604-806-8328
t i s es t imated t hat hea r t , lung and kidney diseases are responsible for more than
40 per cent of deaths and $3.46 trillion in health-care spending worldwide. In Canada and the
million people suffering from these diseases.
the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF Centre) is a not-for-profit organization focused on developing unique blood-based biomarker tests for heart, lung and kidney failure.
Addressing unmet clinical needs
Biomarkers are the building blocks for diagnostic tests that play an increasingly important role in personalized care. Through the use of biomarkers, the PROOF Centre produces blood tests that address pressing health-care needs, especially those related to heart, lung and kidney disease as well as transplant rejection.
We begin by working with clinicians to identify a clinical need in which a new blood test could enhance care. From start to finish, we engage a variety of experts, including clinicians, health-care professionals, policy makers, economists, industry and government to ensure our tests address a pressing clinical need effectively.
Our patented biomarkers enable identification of disease presence (as a prognostic and/or diagnostic), ascertain the rate of disease progression and assess therapeutic responsiveness.
The PROOF Centre enables, facilitates and accelerates develop-ment of these cost-effective blood tests that address critical clinical needs and brings them to market. Along with our development partners, we deliver solutions to clinicians that will save lives, improve quality of life and save precious health-care dollars.
Meeting the growing demand
The diagnostics market size is substantial and growing. For example, diagnostics addressing the needs of the emerging practice of person-
-plant, COPD and heart failure tests are projected to save more than $3 billion per year in Canada alone, and increase patient quality of life (QALY) five years after test use.
Award-winning science grounded in clinical experience
Our competitive advantage lies in the PROOF Centre’s scientific strengths, grounded in clinical experience and in our product pipeline. Our fully-integrated team is internationally recog-nized for its ability to optimize laboratory and clinical data. The
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 29
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BRI BIOPHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH www.bripharm.com
BRI ... your drug development specialist“We strive to earn your trust and confidence”
metabolism studies including met-abolic stability, inhibition, induc-tion and ADMET-related plasma protein binding studies are often performed at BRI to define drug-like properties.
AAALAC accredited animal
facility with cytotoxic drugs
handling capability
BRI’s rodent facility is accredited by AAALAC and has performed numerous dose range finding, PK, bioavailability, metabolite excretion and mass balance studies. Dried blood spot assay technique is used to allow serial blood collection in small rodents to reduce variability of PK data.
With Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) and cytotoxic compound handling capabilities, cell-based and patient-derived xenograft models for oncology drug efficiency screening are offered at BRI. Its cell repository contains over 100 cancer cell lines, providinga wide selection and flexibility to its clients.
Thermo Watson™ LIMS data management system
To support IND-enabling animal TK/PK or clinical PK, the use of Thermo Watson LIMS for sample and data management is a plus. BRI’s bar code system enables BRI to store and manage thou-sands of samples and process its data effectively and efficiently.
To handle multiple site clinical studies, bar-coded labelled sample vials, customized sample collection kits, an ultra-lowtemperature freezer, an IATA and TDG specified shipping con- tainer, pre-filled waybills and commercial invoices are just a fewsolutions that BRI offers to allow smooth sailing of its clients’ clinical studies.
Stand out from the crowd
The clients of BRI benefit from a wide range of services includ-ing LC/MS/MS bioanalytical assay, ELISA assay, hybridization assay, in-vivo and in-vitro DMPK and efficacy xenograft models. These services are delivered by highly experienced scientists with specializations in the development of synthetic small molecules, microRNAs, RNAs, nucleotides and peptides drugs.
BRI is known for providing “fit-for-purpose” research in inte-grated drug development with competitive pricing. It has an out-standing record of client satisfaction and dedication to meet the highest standards in scientific “best practices,” integrity of data, timeliness and professional service.
Contact: Ms. Clara Faan, VP Business Development Phone: 604-432-9237 x224
or more than two decades, BRI has assisted hundreds of biotech and pharmaceutical
companies on their pre-clinical and clinical development programs.
Being one of the few privately owned CROs with capabilities in bioanalytical, in-vivo and in-vit-ro DMPK and xenograft animal models in Western Canada, BRI’s uncompromising study protocols, stringent quality control measures and relevant study design allows it to build trusted and long-lasting partnerships with itshighly valued clients.
The success stories
In 2004 and 2007, two virtual biotech companies located in San Francisco and Los Angeles engaged BRI for development of bio-analytical assays in support of their IND-enabling and clinical program. In 2009, both companies licensed their drug candidates to big pharmaceutical companies for $700 million and $900 mil-lion, respectively.
A Seattle biotech company approached BRI in 2008 for a series of in-vivo and in-vitro DMPK and mechanistic studies. This bio-tech company was acquired for $600 million in 2011.
BRI’s successful track record in providing accurate and qual-ity data while adhering to the strict guidelines of GLP, cGMP and FDA regulations has played an important role in these com-panies’ success.
GLP accreditation by Standard Council of Canada
BRI is accredited by the Standard Council of Canada for its GLP compliance while holding a current GMP Establishment Licence through Health Canada. All IND-enabling studies and clinical bioanalytical studies performed at BRI follow the following regu-lations and guidelines. This allows data generated at BRI to be submitted to the U.S.A., Canada, Japan and all OECD countries. United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA), 21 CFR Part 58
Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW), Ordinance No. 21
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Series on Principles of Good Laboratory Practice and Compliance Monitoring Monograph #1 to 15
14C nuclear substance licence
With a 14C nuclear substance licence, BRI can efficiently identify metabolites and determine tissue distribution using 14C-labelled compounds.
In additional to metabolite identif ication, other in-vitro
30 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
Biopharmaceutical Companies Please refer to www.lifesciencesbc.ca for further information on these companies
Stage of development Fields of study Tools Diseases
Organizations Drug
dis
cove
ry
Pre-
clin
ical
stu
dies
Phas
e 1
clin
ical
stu
dies
Phas
e 2
clin
ical
stu
dies
Phas
e 3
clin
ical
stu
dies
On m
arke
t
Bio-
prod
ucts
Bioi
nfor
mat
ics
Diag
nost
ics
Envi
ronm
enta
l
Ther
apeu
tics
Vacc
ines
Bio-
proc
essi
ng
Drug
del
iver
y
Gene
ther
apy
Geno
mic
s
High
-thro
ughp
ut s
cree
ning
Lab
reag
ents
Prot
eom
ics
Auto
imm
une
dise
ases
Canc
er
Card
iova
scul
ar d
isea
ses
Infe
ctio
us d
isea
ses
Infla
mm
ator
y di
seas
es
Met
abol
ic d
isea
ses
Neu
rolo
gica
l dis
ease
s
Alectos Therapeutics Inc.
Allon Therapeutics Inc
Amgen British Columbia Inc.
Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Augurex Life Sciences Corp.
BioMark Technologies Inc.
Boreal Genomics
Cardiome Pharma Corp.
Celator Pharmaceuticals
iCo Therapeutics Inc.
Inception Sciences Canada
Indel Therapeutics Inc.
Innovative Targeting Solutions Inc.
iProgen Biotech
Medicenna Therapeutics, Inc.
MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc.
MSI Methylation Sciences Inc.
Network Immunology Inc.
Neurodyn Inc.
OncoGenex Technologies Inc.
Ondine Biomedical Inc.
Pacific Rim Laboratories
Phyton Biotech
QLT Inc.
Qu Biologics Inc.
RepliCel
Sirius Genomics Inc.
Sirona Biochem Corp.
STEMCELL Technologies Inc
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation
viDA Therapeutics
Vifor Pharma
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Zymeworks Inc.
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 31
Providence Health Care Research Institute is committed to improving the health and treatment of aging and vulnerable populations and of people at risk of or suff ering from heart, lung, renal diseases or HIV/AIDS.
Th e full range of methodologies from basic research tools to population health approaches are being used to discover real health solutions.
For more information on our services, visit: www.providenceresearch.ca
The Rare Disease Company
Contract Research Organizations Please refer to www.lifesciencesbc.ca for further information on these companies
Preclinical Services Clinical Services General Services
Organizations Drug
dis
cove
ry
Bioi
nfor
mat
ics
Bioa
naly
tical
ser
vice
s
Anal
ytic
al s
ervi
ces
Path
olog
y se
rvic
es
Toic
olog
y
Phas
e I c
linic
al s
tudi
es
Phas
e II
clin
ical
stu
dies
Phas
e III
clin
ical
stu
dies
Phas
e IV
clin
ical
stu
dies
Stud
y m
onito
ring
and
repo
rtin
g
Data
man
agem
ent a
nd s
tatis
tics
Stra
tegi
c co
nsul
ting
Regu
lato
ry
Cont
ract
man
ufac
turin
g
Prod
uct d
evel
opm
ent
cGM
P/GL
P co
mpl
ianc
e
Qual
ity a
ssur
ance
Teac
hing
and
trai
ning
Applied Biological Materials Inc.
Aurora Biomed Inc.
BC Cancer Agency’s Investigational Drug Program (IDP)
BC Preclinical Research Consortium (BC PRC)
BRI Biopharmaceutical Research Inc.
Covance Inc.
Optum
Healthmetrx (CEQAL)
Insception Lifebank Corp.
Maxxam Analytics
MPI Research, Inc.
Northern Lipids Inc.
inVentiv Health
PharmEng Technology
Syreon Corp.
Viva Pharmaceutical Inc.
Wax-it Histology Services
32 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
BioPrinciples Online
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LifeSciences BC Members - $199Non-Members $249
www.biotechprimer.com/lifesciencesbc
Corporate Headquarters:Suite 720 –999 West BroadwayVancouver, British ColumbiaCanada V5Z 1K5
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Medical Devices Please refer to www.lifesciencesbc.ca for further information on these companies
Fields of Study Company type
Organizations Dent
al D
evic
e
Med
ical
Equ
ipm
ent
Med
ical
Sup
plie
s
Test
ing
Inst
rum
ents
Imag
ing
Devi
ce d
esig
n
Othe
r (s)
ple
ase
spec
ify
Man
ufac
ture
r
Dist
ribut
or
Deve
lope
r
Biolux Research Ltd.
Critical Systems Labs Inc. Risk management, software V&V
Farabloc Development Corp.
Heart Force Medical Inc.
Innovatek Medical Inc.
Kardium
LED Medical Diagnostics
LifeScan Canada Ltd. Diabetes
LightIntegra Technology Transfusion
Lungpacer Medical, Inc. Implantable, Transvascular, Stimulation
Neovasc Inc. Contract Manufacturing
Novadaq Technologies Inc.
Response Biomedical Corp. Cardiac
Sorin Group Canada Inc., Mitroflow Division Contract Manufacturing
StarFish Medical Airway management
SterileCare Inc. Antimicrobial lock for a Venous Access Device
Verisante Cancer
ViewsIQ
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 33
Biggest life-sciences companies in B.C.Source: Business in Vancouver
Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in the List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Researched by Richard Chu , 604-608-5114.
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 35
BIOTECHNOLOGY’S TRANSFORMATION
Recently the Federal Drug
Administration in the United
States cleared the way for ingest-
ible sensors that are the size of a
grain of sand to be embedded
into an inert pill or pharmaceut-
ical. Once in contact with the
digestive fluids of the stomach, these “digital
pills” can pass information from inside the
user’s body to a patch worn on the skin that
can wirelessly transmit key metrics, such as
heart rate or whether the patient is taking
their medications at the prescribed time and
frequency. With the patient’s consent, it is
possible for an individual to remotely monitor
the condition of a child or aging parent from
his or her smartphone.
This is the kind of future that is coming from
biotechnological research. For most people,
biotechnology is a term that is not fully under-
stood. In short, it revolves around biological
processes and, thus, impacts forestry, agricul-
ture, energy, the environment and fisheries.
Even the wine we enjoy with a good meal has
been touched by biotechnology. However, it is
the connection between biotechnology and
health care that is most prominent in people’s
lives, which is increasingly changing how our
health-care system operates.
Biotechnology is causing a transformation
that will enhance the relationship between the
patient and health-care professional, which is
the essence of our health-care system. Such
change can and should ensure sustainability
of our system, provided we have the willing-
ness to adapt.
Another example that typifies how biotech-
nology is changing our health-care system:
Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google’s creator,
founded 23andMe, a company that analyzes
your genetic makeup. For about $300 and
a saliva sample, the company will provide
insight into your risk for developing a dis-
ease such as Alzheimer’s, the probability of
transmitting a disease to your children and
your response to drug therapies. This is revo-
lutionary in its simplicity, especially when one Do
min
ic S
chae
fer
Ph
oto
gra
ph
y
DON M. ENNS
36 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
considers that the human genome was only
characterized approximately 10 years ago
with the aid of a $3.8 billion investment from
the U.S. government in the Human Genome
Project. Studies have shown that from this
investment, $796 billion in economic activity
has resulted in the U.S. Interestingly, it was
British Columbia’s own Nobel laureate, Dr.
Michael Smith, who foresaw the potential of
genomics in the 1980s.
There are many examples that can be cited,
but the essential points are:
biotechnology and associated technologies
are and will continue to have a transforma-
tional impact on the way our health-care
system is delivered, provided we are pre-
pared to enter into a constructive dialogue
around its use. These technologies will
allow the system to be more proactive as
opposed to reactive; more emphasis will
be placed on patient engagement; it will
stratify populations so that health-care
providers can “customize” treatment op-
tions; and, if deployed appropriately, these
technologies will help lessen the cost in-
creases of our healthcare system, which
consumes almost 50 per cent of provincial
revenues; and
The delivery of a publically funded health-
care system is not at odds with
an economic development
strategy that focuses on the
growth of knowledge-based in-
dustries, such as biotechnology.
In fact, the relationship is sym-
biotic if we confront the reality
that our current health-care
system cannot be economically
sustained without change, in
which biotechnology will play
an increasingly important role.
B.C. can take a leadership pos-
ition in the transformation of
health-care delivery, given the
foundational elements we have in
place to build upon. For example,
the province has the largest longi-
tudinal health-linked database
of its type in the world, which is attractive
to clinical research organizations. In addition,
B.C. has developed several health-related
research organizations that are recognized for
their expertise and global influence, such as
the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS, the
BC Cancer Agency’s Michael Smith Genome
Sciences Centre and the PROOF (Prevention
of Organ Failure) Centre. Finally, our provincial
ecosystem that brings together academia,
industry, regulators and patients
has not escaped the attention of
companies like Merck, a global
health-care company, which has
committed in excess of $1 bil-
lion to strategic partnerships in
Vancouver – more than anywhere
else in North America.
With this transformation that
is taking place, society’s ability
to understand its ramifications
must be addressed if we are to
realize the potential benefits.
Issues around privacy, health-
disease predispositions, cost and
individual versus collective rights
must be discussed in an open and
constructive manner. Nonetheless,
it remains my opinion that change
is forthcoming in light of technological ad-
vances, patient outcomes will continue to
improve, there will be significant economic
benefits and B.C. can play a leading national
and international role.
Don M. Enns is a 25-year veteran of British
Columbia’s biotechnology sector, and
president of LifeSciences BC. Originally pub-
lished in the Vancouver Sun.
With the
patient’s
consent, it is
possible for
an individual
to remotely
monitor the
condition
of a child or
aging parent
from their
smartphone
2012 Year in Review – HighlightsJANUARY: EnWave Corp. founder Timothy
Durance receives the Investment
Agriculture Foundation of B.C.’s award of
excellence for EnWave’s innovative work
in food dehydration.
FEBRUARY: Genome BC’s Proof of
Concept program awards John Webb of
the BC Cancer Agency’s Deeley Research
Centre in Victoria funding to develop a
broad-spectrum “therapeutic” vaccine
against HPV.
MARCH: OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
announced a $50 million public offer-
ing, which successfully closed on March
27 with the exercise of an overallotment
that garnered a total of $53.8 million for
the company’s coffers.
APRIL: The US National Institutes of
Health awards SFU professor and Canada
Research Chair Jamie Scott and three
international collaborators $2.7 million
to improve the effectiveness of a DNA-
based vaccine for HIV-AIDS.
MAY: The BC Clinical Research
Infrastructure Network announces two
public surveys to address the lack of
public awareness and enrolment in clini-
cal trials. These surveys are first steps
toward greater public engagement
regarding clinical trials in B.C.
JUNE: The Province of B.C. announces
$39 million in funding for the life-
sciences sector, with $29 million allot-
ted to the Centre for Drug Research
and Development and $10 million for
Genome BC.
JULY: The BC Clinical Research
Infrastructure Network announces
Canada’s first clinical research profession-
als certification program. The program
supports clinical research professionals
in B.C. who wish to obtain certification
through the Society for Clinical Research
Associates’ internationally recognized
certification program.
AUGUST: Welichem Biotech Inc. sells
rights to its worm bacteria-based pso-
riasis cream to global pharmaceutical
giant GlaxoSmithKline for $230 million.
The sale is a landmark deal for B.C.’s life-
sciences sector in a year offering a gen-
erally tough financing and employment
picture.
SEPTEMBER: Indel Therapeutics Inc.
becomes the industry partner of
researchers at UBC and SFU for a new
genomics-based research project to fight
drug-resistant pathogens.
OCTOBER: UBC spinoff Lionsgate
Technologies Inc. announces the launch
of a software application that transforms
smartphones, tablets and laptops into
mobile medical diagnostic tools capable
of real-time vital-signs monitoring.
NOVEMBER: UBC microbiologist Robert
Hancock receives the Prix Galien 2012
Research Award, widely considered the
most prestigious honour in Canadian
pharmaceutical research and innovation.
The award recognizes Hancock’s pio-
neering work unravelling the complex
interactions between antibiotics and
bacteria.
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 37
From radical medical breakthroughs to incremental improvements to existing treatments, GlaxoSmithKline believes that every step forward is a step in the right direction. As one of Canada’s leading research-based pharmaceutical companies, we believe in
from medical advancements, big or small. At GSK, we stay ahead by staying committed to progress. Discover more at GSK.ca
STAYING AHEAD BY STAYING AT THE FOREFRONT OF INNOVATION.
BEST IN CLASSResearch excellence and unique partnerships in B.C.’s life-sciences sector
BY NOA GLOUBERMAN
HAART of gold
For years the BC Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS has focused on highly active anti-
retroviral therapy (HAART) under its director,
Julio Montaner.
“Early on we had the opportunity to be
involved in a search for the effective treat-
ment of HIV,” says Montaner. “We ended
up with the landmark clinical trial to fully
suppress the virus: an international clinic trial
developed right here in Vancouver. It worked,
and we showed the world that within a
matter of months the death rates from AIDS
in B.C. had gone down dramatically.”
Expanded coverage with HAART – a cock-
tail of three drugs that hinders HIV from
progressing into AIDS – can help control
the spread of the disease.
“HAART, which was partially discovered in
our centre, is highly effective in lowering
the viral load in HIV-positive patients, to
the point that they’re less likely to transmit
the virus to their partners,” he explains. “The
wider use of HAART can curb the spread of
HIV in entire communities, saving hundreds
of millions of dollars by preventing new
infections and averting future treatment
costs.”
Montaner also champions a made-in-B.C.
approach to treating vulnerable populations,
such as injection-drug users and sex-trade
workers. The Seek and Treat for Optimal
Prevention of HIV/AIDS initiative includes
normalizing HIV testing to help find those
who are infected and do not know it, harm-
reduction programs like supervised injection
sites and needle exchanges, and contacting
hard-to-reach individuals.
While the HIV epidemic continues to grow
elsewhere, Montaner says B.C. “stands alone
as the only Canadian jurisdiction to see a
significant decline in new HIV diagnoses,
from approximately 900 cases per year in
the early 1990s to 289 in 2011.”
There is still work to do. In a Globe and Mail
column published in July 2012, Montaner
wrote, “Without the political will to expand
antiretroviral treatment to everyone in need
… infection may spiral out of control once
again.”
He says there are 34 million people living
with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and that only 8
million of the 15 million eligible people in re-
source-limited countries are being treated.
Several North American jurisdictions,
however, are following B.C.’s lead. People
in Washington, D.C., for instance, can get
Julio Montaner, director, BC Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS: B.C. has seen a
significant decline in new HIV diagnoses,
from approximately 900 cases a year in
the early 1990s to 289 in 2011
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 39
Find out how by visiting
www.cfenet.ubc.ca/about
TREATMENT AS PREVENTION combines the testing, treatment, care, and support we know
work. This groundbreaking strategy, pioneered by Dr. Julio Montaner and his team at
the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, has led to a marked decrease in morbidity,
mortality, and HIV transmission in B.C. Our laboratory and research programs,
comprehensive clinical education and training, and urban health initiatives here and
internationally, have placed B.C. at the epicentre of HIV/AIDS research and treatment.
director Bruce McManus.
PROOF recently granted Arizona-based
HTG Molecular Diagnostics the exclusive
rights to commercialize its gene-expression
blood tests for the prognosis of patients
with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD) who will experience frequent lung
attacks.
Lung attacks are the leading cause of hos-
pitalization among chronic-disease sufferers,
accounting for over $5.7 billion in direct
health-care costs each year in Canada. It is
difficult to predict which COPD patients will
suffer frequent attacks, and the ability to
identify these individuals earlier will enable
physicians to better tailor treatment to pre-
vent future attacks.
The centre is also developing tests to speed
up clinical trials that investigate the effective-
ness of allergic-disease drugs. Using blood
samples from the AllerGen network, PROOF
researchers will identify biomarkers pre-
dictive of chronic inflammatory responses
in allergic asthmatic adults.
“People with allergic asthma respond
differently to allergen exposure such as
pollen, mites or moulds,” McManus explains.
[A] blood test that can accurately predict
late-phase allergic responses could be
groundbreaking.”
High-tech health
Vancouver-based Telus Corp. is a leading
provider of health care-related e-tools for
chronic-disease management, pediatric care
and more. Patients can use the company’s
Health Space service to manage their health
online, while doctors can share updates fol-
lowing appointments.
Essential to building a more ef ficient
health-care system are electronic medical
records (EMRs) – computerized accounts of
patient data. But, according to Telus senior
vice-president of health solutions Paul
Lepage, Canada’s EMR penetration rate of
about 32 per cent “lags behind other OECD
[Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development] countries.”
To address this issue Telus acquired two
leading cloud-based EMR providers – Wolf
Medical Systems and KinLogix – in 2012. Now,
a team of EMR experts will work to help doc-
tors co-ordinate and share information with
their extended health-care team, as well as
patients and their families.
LePage says the two acquisitions have
strengthened Telus’ reach to physicians
and will facilitate health-records integration
across Canada.
tested for HIV in motor-vehicle of fices,
grocery stores and high schools. In San
Francisco, where the treatment-as-preven-
tion approach has been adopted, signifi-
cant declines in new diagnoses are being
reported.
Adds Montaner, “It is truly heartening to
see more and more communities implement
evidence-based policies to combat HIV.”
Hitting the biomark
Vancouver’s Centre of Excellence for the
Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF) de-
velops blood and urine biomarkers – mo-
lecular signals that aid in the prevention and
early detection of major diseases causing
heart, lung and kidney failure. The centre
leads the way in finding practical, profitable
solutions to the expanding burden that
major-organ failure imposes on Canada’s
health-care system.
“From replacing risky and costly biopsies
with a simple, non-invasive blood test to
personalizing care for patients, biomarker-
guided prevention, detection and treat-
ment will significantly decrease the costs
to society and improve the quality of life for
those faced with these diseases,” says centre
At the Centre of Excellence for the
Prevention of Organ Failure, director
Bruce McManus works to develop blood
and urine biomarkers that aid in the
prevention and early detection of major
diseases causing heart, lung and kidney
failure
40 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
Dr. Don Rix Award for
Lifetime Achievement
Dr. Joseph M. Connors, clinical
professor, University of
British Columbia, and clinical
director, BC Cancer Agency
Centre for Lymphoid Cancer
Joseph M. Connors, MD, obtained his medical
degree at Yale University, trained in internal
medicine at the University of North Carolina
in Chapel Hill and completed his medical
oncology fellowship with Dr. Saul Rosenberg
at the Stanford University Medical Center
from 1979 to 1981. He then joined the staff
and faculty at the BC Cancer Agency and
UBC, with the focus of his clinical activities
and research efforts in the area of under-
standing lymphoid cancers.
Dr. Connors is highly regarded for his
research into the biology and treatment
of Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin
lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leuk-
emias and multiple myeloma. He serves as
a member of the executive committee of
the Hematology Site Group for the National
Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials
Group, as a councilor for the American
Society of Hematology and on the scientific
advisory board of the Lymphoma Foundation
Canada.
Dr. Connors has published over 300 peer-
reviewed scientific articles addressing
various aspects of research into lymphoid
cancers and has been a senior co-investi-
gator on research grants totalling over $20
million while at the BC Cancer Agency. He
has been awarded the Terry Fox Cancer
Research Award by the British Columbia
Medical Association, the Bernard L. Schwartz
Memorial Award by the Scripps health system
in San Diego, the Canadian Cancer Society
John W. Whittick Memorial Award by the
Saskatchewan Medical Association and the
Karl Musshoff Award of the German Hodgkin
Lymphoma Study Group for lifetime achieve-
ment in Hodgkin lymphoma research.
Genome British Columbia Award
for Scientific Excellence
Dr. B. Brett Finlay, University of British
Columbia Peter Wall distinguished
professor, Michael Smith Laboratories
and the departments of microbiology
and immunology, and biochemistry
and molecular biology, UBC
Dr. B. Brett Finlay obtained a B.Sc. (honours)
in biochemistry at the University of Alberta,
where he also did his PhD. (1986) in biochem-
istry under Dr. William Paranchych, studying
F-like plasmid conjugation. Dr. Finlay’s post-
doctoral studies were performed with Dr.
Stanley Falkow at the department of medical
microbiology and immunology at Stanford
University School of Medicine, where he
studied salmonella invasion into host cells.
In 1989, Dr. Finlay joined UBC as an assistant
professor in the Biotechnology Laboratory,
where his research interests are focused
on host-pathogen interactions, at the mo-
lecular level. By combining cell biology with
microbiology, he has been at the forefront of
the emerging field of cellular microbiology,
making several fundamental discoveries in
this field and publishing over 400 papers.
Dr. Finlay’s laboratory researches several
pathogenic bacteria, with salmonella and
pathogenic E. coli interactions with host cells
being the primary focus.
Dr. Finlay is recognized internationally
for his work, and has won several presti-
gious awards including the E.W.R. Steacie
Prize, the CSM Fisher Scientific Award, CSM
Roche Award, a MRC Scientist, five Howard
Hughes International Research Scholar
Awards, a CIHR Distinguished Investigator, a
BC Biotech Innovation Award, the Michael
Smith Health Research Prize, the IDSA Squibb
Award, the Jacob Biely Prize, the prestigious
Canadian Killam Health Sciences Prize, the
Flavelle Medal of the Royal Society and the
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal,
is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
and the Canadian Academy of Health
Sciences, a member of the German National
Academy of Sciences and the UBC Peter Wall
Distinguished Professor. He is also an officer
of the Order of Canada and Order of British
Columbia.
Dr. Finlay is a co-founder of Inimex
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and director of the
SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative. He also
serves on several editorial and advisory
boards and is a strong supporter of com-
municating science to the public.
Milton Wong Award for Leadership
Kenneth Galbraith, general partner,
Ventures West Capital Ltd.
Kenneth Galbraith joined Ventures West
in 2007 and leads the firm’s biotechnology
practice. He has over 20 years of experience
acting as an executive, director, investor and
adviser to companies in the biotechnology,
medical device, pharmaceutical and health-
care sectors.
In 2006, Mr. Galbraith served as the
chairman and interim CEO of AnorMED, a
biopharmaceutical company focused on
new therapeutic products in hematology,
HIV and oncology, until its sale to Genzyme
Corp. Previously, he spent 13 years in senior
management with QLT Inc. , a global
biopharmaceutical company specializing
in developing treatments for eye diseases
and oncology, retiring in 2000 from his pos-
ition as executive vice-president and chief
financial officer.
Mr. Galbraith was a founding Director of
the BC Biotechnology Alliance and served as
chairman of the Canadian Bacterial Diseases
Network, one of Canada’s federally funded
Networks for Centres of Excellence. He
was also a director of the Michael Smith
Foundation for Health Research and the
Fraser Health Authority. Ken currently serves
as the past chair of the Vancouver Aquarium
Marine Science Centre and is a director with
Genome British Columbia.
Mr. Galbraith has served on the board of
several public and private biotechnology
companies located in B.C. and the U.S., in-
cluding Angiotech Pharmaceuticals and
Cardiome Pharma Corp., and is currently on
the board of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals. At
Ventures West, he currently serves as a dir-
ector of Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Aquinox
Pharmaceuticals, Celator Pharmaceuticals,
MacroGenics, NeurAxon and Presidio
Pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Galbraith earned a bachelor of com-
merce (honours) degree from UBC, and is a
chartered accountant.
Innovation and Achievement Award
Dr. Richard Harrigan, director,
laboratory program, British Columbia
Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
The faces of innovation
LIFESCIENCES BRITISH COLUMBIA AWARDS RECIPIENTS 2013
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 41
For more than a decade, Dr. Richard Harrigan
has been a local, national and international
leader in the development of cutting-edge
translational research with important im-
plications for the clinical management of
HIV. He has contributed extensively to our
understanding of HIV drug efficacy and
resistance, as well as the human and viral
parameters that influence HIV disease pro-
gression. Dr. Harrigan’s research in these
areas has played a key role in enabling the
significant improvements in quality and
duration of life afforded patients by Highly
Active Antiretroviral Therapy.
He developed a “next generation” sequen-
cing method to identify HIV-positive indi-
viduals who respond to maraviroc, the first
approved “CCR5 antagonist” drug, as well as
“ReCall” software for automated analysis of
HIV drug resistance. The test and software
have been adopted as the standard test
across Canada and in over 30 countries.
In addition to the Glen-Hillson professor in
clinical HIV virology, Dr. Harrigan holds the
CIHR-GSK research chair in HIV-AIDS at UBC,
and is associate professor in the division of
AIDS (Faculty of Medicine) at UBC as well.
Medical Technology
Company of the Year
STEMCELL Technologies Inc.
STEMCELL Technologies Inc. focuses on
the development, manufacture and distri-
bution of high-quality, standardized tissue
culture media, cell separation reagents and
instruments for customers in over 70 coun-
tries. With 95 per cent of sales from outside
Canada, their products support leading-edge
scientific research around the globe in stem
cell biology, cancer research, immunology,
cell therapy, regenerative medicine, tissue
engineering and drug discovery.
STEMCELL is a fully integrated company
with 525 staff in Canada, the United States,
the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Australia, Singapore and China. Distributors
make their products available to medical
researchers in 60 other countries. STEMCELL’s
head office, research and manufacturing
activities are all located in Vancouver, em-
ploying 425 people. Founded in 1993 by Dr.
Allen Eaves as a spinoff from the Terry Fox
Laboratory at the BC Cancer Agency, the
company has been profitable since inception
and remains private. Current annual sales
are $70 million and profits are re-invested to
support growth, which has averaged over 20
per cent per annum.
STEMCELL reinvests 14 per cent of annual
sales revenues into R&D and, as a result, holds
51 patents and 24 pending patent applica-
tions covering 24 significant independent
inventions. Close relationships with global
leaders in medical research has facilitated
over 80 licensing agreements to manufac-
ture products in Vancouver. Currently, the
company has over 30 collaborations with
scientists from around the world.
The high quality of STEMCELL’s products
can be attributed to the knowledge staff
has in raw-material qualification, processing,
device manufacturing and supply chain
logistics. Its processes are embedded in an
environment of extensive quality control and
quality assurance and are certified to the ISO
13485 standard. The success of the company’s
products in potential clinical applications
has moved it beyond the research-use-only
market to address demands coming from
the in-vitro diagnostic and cellular therapy
markets. The long-term success of STEMCELL
depends on the scientific knowledge of its
staff members, virtually all of whom have
post-secondary training in science, including
a PhD. (60), MSc. (55), BSc. (165) and other
degrees and certifications (110). STEMCELL’s
goal is to create wonderful jobs for people
passionate about medical science and help
turn Vancouver into “Science City”.
Life Sciences Company of the Year
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a privately
held biotechnology company that uses its
human genetics platform to develop novel
pharmaceuticals for rare diseases.
One of Xenon’s first technologies, which it
licensed for the gene therapy treatment of
a rare lipid disorder known as Lipoprotein
Lipase Deficiency, was recently approved
in Europe.
A deliberate business strategy for Xenon
has been to ensure a revenue stream to sup-
port a broader and deeper product pipeline.
In order to achieve this, the company has
entered into seven large pharmaceutical
alliances, two of which were announced in
2012. In January of 2012, Xenon announced
a $646 million partnership with Genentech
to develop novel drugs for treating pain.
The second deal, which was announced
in December of 2012, was a $376 million
partnership with Teva Pharmaceuticals, also
in the area of pain. The company received
$41 million up front as a licence fee and, in
addition, Xenon retained the option to co-
commercialize resulting products. Phase 2b
trials with Xenon’s XEN402 product will begin
shortly, with results expected in 2014.
These two partnerships add to the approxi-
mately $90 million that Xenon has raised
in non-dilutive R&D funding from alliance
partners in the past five years. This focus
on revenue generation has allowed the
company to continue to deliver novel prod-
ucts in what has been a very challenging
financing environment for privately held
biotechnology companies.
Xenon’s pipeline also includes a develop-
ment-stage product (XEN701) for treating
anemia of chronic disease, which has been
funded in part by Genome British Columbia.
The XEN701 product is expected to start
clinical trials this year, which would be a key
milestone not only for Xenon, but also for
Genome British Columbia.
All Xenon’s programs have been borne out
of the company’s genetic platform that, to
date, has delivered numerous novel drug
targets, which have been translated into
innovative medicines in development.
Emerging Life Sciences
Company of the Year
Zymeworks Inc.
Zymeworks Inc. is a world leader in antibody
design and development, and is committed
to building best-in-class protein therapeutics
for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune and
inflammatory diseases. The company’s plat-
form technology focuses on the development
of proprietary protein therapeutics, including
bi-specific antibodies and multi-valent pro-
teins. Zymeworks’ structure-guided protein
engineering platform approach generates
therapeutic candidates with best-in-class
drug-like properties and manufacturability.
The company’s business model centres on
strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical
companies, as well as the development of its
own pipeline of antibody and protein-based
drug candidates.
LIFESCIENCES BRITISH COLUMBIA AWARDS RECIPIENTS 2013
42 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
Academic & Research InstitutionsBC Cancer Agency 600 West 10th Avenue – Suite 2100, PO Box 6, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E6 Canada
604-877-6000 www.bccancer.bc.ca BC Institute of Technology 3700 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5G 3H2 Canada
604-434-5734 www.bcit.ca/ BC Preclinical Research Consortium 4145 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1W5 Canada
604-827-4369 www.bcprc.ca British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6 Canada
604-806-9093 www.cfenet.ubc.ca/ British Columbia Clinical Research Infrastructure Network 555 West 8th Avenue, Suite 500, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1C6 Canada
604-675-1023 www.bccrin.ca Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre 570 West 7th Avenue – Suite 100, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6 Canada
604-877-6086 www.bcgsc.ca/ Centre for Drug Research and Development 2405 Wesbrook Mall, Fourth Floor, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
604-221-7750 www.cdrd.ca iCAPTURE Centre #166-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6 Canada
604-806-8346 www.icapture.ubc.ca ICORD Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, 818 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9 Canada
604-675-8800 www.icord.org The Jackson Laboratory 600 Main Street, Bar Harbor, Maine 4609 United States of America
207-288-6000 www.jax.org
PROOF Centre of Excellence Room 166, Burrard Building, 1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6 Canada
604-682-2344 Ext. 66795 www.proofcentre.ca
Providence Health Care Research Institute St. Paul’s Hospital, 1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6 Canada
604-806-9608 www.providenceresearch.ca Research Universities’ Council of British Columbia 880 Douglas Street Suite 400, Victoria, BC V8W 2B7 Canada
250-480-4819 www.rucbc.ca Rick Hansen Institute 6th Floor, 818 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9 Canada
604-707-2100 www.rickhanseninstitute.org
Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 Canada
778-782-3111 www.sfu.ca Trinity Western University, Department of Biology 7600 Glover Road, Langley, BC V2Y 1Y1 Canada
604-513-2043 http://www.twu.ca/academics/science/biology// TRIUMF 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A3 Canada
604-222-1047 www.triumf.ca University of British Columbia 2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
604-822-2211 www.ubc.ca University of British Columbia – UILO 103-6190 Agronomy Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
604-822-8580 www.uilo.ubc.ca University of Northern BC 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9 Canada
250.960.5555 www.unbc.caUniversity of Victoria 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2 Canada
250-721-7211 www.uvic.ca
Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute Rm 100 – Willow Chest Centre – 2647 Willow Street, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3P1 Canada
604-875-5641 www.vchri.ca
AssociationsACCT Canada 130, 3553-31st Street NE, Calgary, AB T2L 2K7 Canada
403-270-2449 www.acctcanada.ca ACETECH 900-1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 Canada
604-683-5852 www.acetech.org/ AdvantageBC Suite 3093, Three Bentall Centre, 595 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V7X 1C4 Canada
604-683-6626 www.advantagebc.ca Ag-West Bio Inc. 101-111 Research Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 3R2 Canada
306-975-1939 www.agwest.sk.ca/ BC Cancer Foundation Suite 600 – 686 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1G1 Canada
604-877-6098 bccancerfoundation.com BC Technology Industries Association (BCTIA) Suite #900 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 Canada
604-683-6159 www.bctia.org BioTalent Canada 1100 – 85 Albert Street, ON K1P 6A4 Canada
613-235-1402 Ext. 229 www.biotalent.ca BIOTECanada 1 Nicholas Street, Suite 600, Ottawa, ON K1N 7B7 Canada
613-230-5585 www.biotech.ca
Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, (Rx&D) 55 Metcalfe Street, Suite 1220, Ottawa, ON K1P 6L5 Canada
613-236-0455 www.canadapharma.org DigiBC 900 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 Canada
604-602-5237 www.digibc.org
Genome British Columbia 500 – 555 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1C6 Canada
604-738-8072 www.genomebc.ca The Student Biotechnology Network Box 13, 2386 East Mall Gerald McGavin Building, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
604-767-4712 www.thesbn.ca Vancouver Board of Trade Suite 400, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, BC V6C 3E1 Canada
604-640-5484 www.boardoftrade.com Vancouver Economic Commission 134 Abbott Street, Suite #402, Vancouver, BC V6B 2K4 Canada
604-632-9668 www.vancouvereconomic.com Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association 1551 Eastlake Avenue E, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98102 United States of America
206-456-9567 www.washbio.org Wavefront Wireless Innovation Society of BC 1055 West Hastings Street, Suite 1400, Vancouver, BC V6E 2E9 Canada
778-331-7571 www.wavefrontac.com
BioinformaticsKinexus Bioinformatics Corp. Suite 1 – 8755 Ash Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 6T3 Canada
604-323-2547 www.kinexus.ca Oneworld accucracy Inc, (previously HealthMetrx Inc) 306-2083 Alma Street, Vancouver, BC V6R 4N6 Canada
1-800-665-7436 www.digitalpt.com STEMSOFT Software Inc. Suite 400 – 570 West 7th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1B3 Canada
604-668-0843 www.stemsoft.com/Home/
BiopharmaceuticalsAlectos Therapeutics Inc. 8999 Nelson Way, Burnaby, BC V5A 4B5 Canada
604-628-7129 www.alectos.com Alectos Therapeutics is dedicated to the discovery and development of novel small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of serious human diseases.
Allon Therapeutics Inc Suite 506, 1168 Hamilton Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 2S2 Canada
604-736-0634 www.allontherapeutics.com Allon Therapeutics Inc. (TSX: NPC) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on bringing to market innovative central nervous system therapies.
Amgen British Columbia Inc. 7990 Enterprise Street, Burnaby, BC V5A 1V7 Canada
604-415-1800 www.amgen.ca Amgen British Columbia Inc., one of several research facilities operated by Amgen Inc., specializes in the discovery and development of human therapeutic antibodies.Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. Suite 430 – 5600 Parkwood Way, Richmond, BC V6V 2M2 Canada
604-629-9223 www.aqxpharma.com Aquinox Pharmaceuticals is committed to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel and targeted small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disease. Augurex Life Sciences Corp. 1423 Dempsey Road, North Vancouver, BC V7K 1S7 Canada
778-839-3319 www.augurex.com Augurex Life Sciences Corp. develops biomarker technologies such as 14-3-3 which is a novel biomarker and arthritis drug target. BioMark Technologies Inc. 600-1665 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6J 1X1 Canada
604-836-6950; 282-6567 www.biomarktech.com
BioMark is focused on the research, development and commercialization of its novel Acetylated Biomarker Assay (ABA) Red Alert technology platform. Boreal Genomics 302 2386 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
604-604-822-8268 www.borealgenomics.com
Boreal Genomics develops and commercializes high performance methods and instruments for bio-molecule purification, enrichment, and detection. Cardiome Pharma Corp. 405 6190 Agronomy Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
604-677-6905 www.cardiome.com Cardiome is a research-based biopharmaceutical company. Our lead clinical programs target the treatment of atrial fibrillation through cardiac ion-channel modulation.Celator Pharmaceuticals 810-1140 West Pender St, Vancouver, BC V6E 4G1 Canada
604-08-5858 www.celatorpharma.com Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc. is developing new carrier technology for targeting combinations of rationally selected chemotherapeutic agents to sites of disease. Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc. 1240 – 666 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2X8 Canada
604-558-0920 www.eupraxiapharmaceuticals.com Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc. is discovering, developing, and plans to market innovative technologies for some of society’s most prevalent diseases.
Growing Canada’s Bio-Economy
LIFE SCIENCES MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY 2013
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 43
iCo Therapeutics Inc. Suite 760 – 777 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1S4 Canada
778-2301675 www.icotherapeutics.com iCo Therapeutics Inc. is a Vancouver-based reprofiling company focused on redosing or reformulating drugs with clinical history for new or expanded indications. ImStar Therapeutics Inc. 1285 West Broadway, Suite 600, Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 Canada
www.imstartx.com ImStar Therapeutics is developing a breakthrough new approach to treat patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other related neurodegenerative disorders such as Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. Inception Sciences Canada 115 – 887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 Canada
604-396-4064 Inception Sciences Canada focus is creating high-value therapies with transformative potential to address diseases and disorders with significant unmet need. Indel Therapeutics Inc. 4068 West 11th Avenue, Suite 100, Vancouver, BC V6R 2L3 Canada
604-551-8464 www.indelrx.com Indel Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new drugs to address the global health crisis caused by antibiotic resistance. Innovative Targeting Solutions Inc. 309-4475 Wayburne Drive, Burnaby, BC V5G 4X4 Canada
604-433-6779 www.innovativetargeting.com
Innovative Targeting Solutions Inc. (ITS) is focused on the development of novel human antibody technologies. iProgen Biotech 126-11782 River Road, Richmond, BC V6X 1Z7 Canada
415-800-4392 www.iprogen.com iProgen Biotech Inc. is committed to the development and expansion of a new class of protein therapeutics using intracellular protein delivery technology. MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. 730 View Street, Suite 730, Victoria, BC V8W 3Y7 Canada
250-386-3000 www.med-genesis.com MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. is a company developing and commercializing innovative treatments for patients with serious neurologic diseases. Medicenna Therapeutics, Inc. 220 – 1075 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3C9 Canada Medicenna is focused on developing receptor targeted therapeutic fusion proteins (Fuzin™) to deliver pro – or anti-apoptotic treatment of cancer, or degenerative diseases, respectively. MSI Methylation Sciences Inc. 108-4475 Wayburne, Burnaby, BC V5G 4X4 Canada
604-435-515 www.methylationsciences.com
Methylation Sciences, Inc.(MSI) has patented a new formulation of a naturally occurring human molecule called S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAMe). Network Immunology Inc. 3311 Quesnel Drive, Vancouver, BC V6S 1Z7 Canada
778-847-7521 www.networkimmunologyinc.com
Network Immunology is developing an HIV vaccine, an organ transplant facilitation technology, and a therapeutic for autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes and lupus. Neurodyn Inc. 1260 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 Canada
604-619-0990 www.neurodyn.ca Neurodyn Inc. is developing and marketing early stage, pre-clinical, diagnostic and theraputic products to treat neurodegeneration.
OncoGenex Technologies Inc. 1001 West Broadway, Suite 400, Vancouver, BC V6H 4B1 Canada
604-736-3678 http://www.oncogenex.com/
OncoGenex Technologies Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing targeted therapeutics for Cancer. Ondine Biomedical Inc. 888 – 1100 Melville Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A6 Canada
604-669-0555 www.ondinebio.com Ondine Biopharma Corporation is focused on developing and commercializing innovative products using its patented photodisinfection technology. Pacific Rim Laboratories #103, 19575 – 55A Avenue, Surrey, BC V3S 8P8 Canada
604-532-8711 www.pacificrimlabs.com Pacific Rim Laboratories Inc. (PRL) is an ultra-trace organic laboratory by utilizing high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). Phyton Biotech 1527 Cliveden Avenue, Delta, BC V3M 6P7 Canada
604-777-2340 www.phytonbiotech.com Phyton Biotech is a global provider of chemotherapeutic agents including Paclitaxel and Docetaxel Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API’s) and Taxane intermediates.QLT Inc. 887 Great Northern Way, Suite 101, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 Canada
1-877-764-3131 www.qltinc.com QLT is dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative ocular products that address the unmet medical needs of patients and clinicians worldwide. Qu Biologics Inc. 887 Great Northern Way, Suite 150, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 Canada
604-734-1450 www.qubiologics.com Qu Biologics’ immunomodulators (SSIs) are designed to stimulate the body’s innate immune response to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disease. RepliCel Suite 2020 - 401 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V6B 5A1 Canada
604-248-8730 www.replicel.com RepliCel is developing an autologous cell-based procedure for the treatment of pattern baldness and general hair loss in men and women.Sirius Genomics Inc. 603 1125 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2K8 Canada
604-484-7195 www.siriusgenomics.com Sirius Genomics Inc. correlates patient genetics with clinical information to develop rapid, DNA-based companion diagnostic and pharmacogenetic tests for acute medical conditions. Sirona Biochem Corp. 950-789 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 1H2 Canada
604-641-4466 www.sironabiochem.com Sirona Biochem is developing diabetes therapeutics, cancer vaccine antigens, skin depigmenting and anti-aging agents for cosmetic use, and biological ingredients. Superna Life Sciences Suite 102, 577 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T 1E1 Canada
1-877-469-1254 www.supernapharma.com Superna Life Sciences is made up of industry veterans experienced in the approval and commercialization of hematology and oncology products. Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation 100 – 8900 Glenlyon Parkway, Burnaby, BC V5J 5J8 Canada
604-419-3200 http://www.tekmirapharm.com/
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation develops and commercializes proprietary drugs and drug delivery systems to improve the treatment of cancer and other diseases. viDA Therapeutics 115-887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 Canada
788-373-0916 www.vidatherapeutics.com viDA Therapeutics Inc. (viDA) focuses on the discovery and development of treatment of age-related and chronic inflammatory conditions.
Vifor Pharma #1203-4464 Markham Street, Victoria, BC V8Z 7X8 Canada
250-744-2488 www.viforpharma.com/en/ Vifor Pharma is a fully integrated speciality pharma company of the Galenica Group. It is based on two main pillars: the business units Rx (prescription products) and Consumer Healthcare (OTC products). Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. 3650 Gilmore Way, Burnaby, BC V5G 4W8 Canada
604-484-3363 www.xenon-pharma.com Xenon Pharmaceuticals is engaged in developing small molecule therapies based on the genetic causes of select metabolic, neurological and cardiovascular diseases. Zymeworks Inc. 540-1385 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 3V9 Canada
604-678-1388 www.zymeworks.com Zymeworks designs and develops best-in-class bi-specific antibodies and multi-valent protein therapeutics for the treatment of oncology, autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases.
BioProducts & BioEnergyDiacarbon Energy Inc. Unit 120 – 2250 Boundary Road, Burnaby, BC V5M 3Z3 Canada
604-291-0001 http://www.diacarbon.com/ Earth Renu 15500 Westminster Hwy, Richmond, BC V6V 1A6 Canada
604-521-6142 www.earthrenu.com EnWave Corporation Suite 2000 – 1066 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3X2 Canada
604-525-1128 www.enwave.net Functional Technologies Corp. 570-1285 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4B1 Canada
604-648-2200 http://www.functionaltechcorp.com
Solegear Bioplastics Inc. #300 – 108 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1G8 Canada
604-998-4058 www.solegear.ca
Business Consultants
Abnousi Corporate Finance Suite #900 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 Canada
604-218-4594 http://www.abnousi.com Advance Biomedical Inc. 2943 Wall Street, Vancouver, BC V5K 0A6 Canada
604-219-1356 www.advancebiomedical.ca Arazy Group Pier 32 Granville Island, 350-1333 Johnston Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 2S2 Canada
604-681-6888 www.arazygroup.com Christie Consulting Service 3715 West 30 Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6S 1W7 Canada
604-839-2581 www.christieconsultingservices.com
Emergo Group Suite 300, 1275 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 1A6 Canada
604-909-1265 www.emergogroup.com Intertox 600 Stewart Street, Suite 1101, Seattle, WA 98101 Canada
206-443-2115 www.intertox.com/
Malachite Management Inc. 375 West 5th Avenue, Suite #201, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1J6 Canada
604-874-4004 www.malachite-mgmt.com Metaphase Health Consulting Canada
604-224-5925 www.metaphase-consulting.com PR1ME Suite 475 – 425 Carrall Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 6E3 Canada
604-689-3446 www.pr1me.com QualMed Corporation 23 Forestview Drive, Cambridge, ON N1T 1V1 Canada
226-789-8420 www.qualmed.ca Rocket Builders 300– 1275 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 1A6 Canada
604-484-9491 www.rocketbuilders.com Technology Vision Group LLC 5200 Soquel Avenue, Suite 202, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 United States of America
831-464-4230 www.techvision.com TM Ventures North American Office: 16-39758 Government Road, Squamish, BC V8B 0G3 Canada
tmventures.com.au True North Synergy 5371 Kew Cliff Road, West Vancouver, BC V7W 1M3 Canada
604-922-1045 www.truenorthsynergy.com
World Courier of Canada Ltd. Suite 170, 3751 Shell Road Airport Executive Park, Building B, Richmond, BC V6X 2W2 Canada
604-232-9444 http://www.worldcourier.com/locations/canada
CommunicationsBusiness In Vancouver 102 East 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5T 1G2 Canada
604-688-2398 www.biv.com
Canister Creative Inc. 2440 East Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V5K 2J5 Canada
604-868-4838 canistercreative.com
Contract Research & Scientific ServicesApplied Biological Materials Inc. 8-13520 Crestwood Place, Richmond, BC V6V 2G2 Canada
604-247-2416 www.abmgood.com Aurora Biomed Inc. 1001 East Pender Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1W2 Canada
604-215-8700 www.aurorabiomed.com
BRI Biopharmaceutical Research Inc. #101-8898 Heather Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 3S8 Canada
604-432-9237 www.bripharm.com
Covance Inc. 3301 Kinsman Boulevard, Madison, WI 53704 United States of America
608-442-8200 www.covance.com
44 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
raeyco
inVentiv Health Clinique Inc 5160 boul. Décarie, 8th Floor, Montreal, QC H3X 2H9 Canada
514-978-0258 www.pharmanet.com Laporte Consultants Inc 112 W, 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Y 1N2 Canada
604-568-0180 www.laporteconsultants.com
Lifebank Corp. Suite 200 – 4475 Wayburne Drive, Burnaby, BC V5G 4X4 Canada
1-888-888-7836 www.lifebank.com Maxxam Analytics 4606 Canada Way, Burnaby, BC V5G 1K5 Canada
604-734-7276 www.maxxam.ca MPI Research 54943 North Main Street, Mattawan, MI 49071 United States of America
269-668-3336 www.mpiresearch.com MRM Proteomics 1275 West 6th Avenue, Suite 311, Vancouver, BC V6H 1A6 Canada
604-800-2296 www.mrmproteomics.com Northern Lipids Inc. 8855 Northbrook Court, Burnaby, BC V5J 5J1 Canada
604-222-2548 www.northernlipids.com
Optum 4 Innovation Drive, Dundas, ON L9H 7P3 Canada
1-866-722-6734 http://www.optuminsight.com/
PharmEng Technology 130 – 10691 Shellbridge Way, Richmond, BC V6X 2W8 Canada
905-415-3922 www.pharmeng.com SignalChem Pharmaceuticals Inc. Suite 550 – 5600 Parkwood Way, Richmond, BC V6V 2M2 Canada
604-232-4600 www.signalchem.com
Syreon Corp. 260 – 1401 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6H 1C9 Canada
604-676-5900 www.syreon.com Viva Pharmaceutical Inc. 13880 Viking Place, Richmond, BC V6V 1K8 Canada
604-718-0816 www.vivapharm.com Wax-it Histology Services 202 – 2386 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada
604-822-1595 http://www.waxitinc.com/
Facilities & Real Estate
CB Richard Ellis 600-1111 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4M3 Canada
604-662-3000 http://www.cbre.com/
Chernoff Thompson Architects 110 – 1281 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3J5 Canada
604-669-9460 http://www.cta.bc.ca Discovery Parks Trust #155 – 887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T 4T5 Canada
604-734-7275 www.discoveryparks.com Vancouver Island Technology Park #2201 – 4464 Markham Street, Victoria, BC V8Z 7X8 Canada
250-483-3200 www.vitp.ca
Financial Services & InsuranceAON 900 Howe Street, PO Box 3228, Vancouver, BC V6B 3X8 Canada
604-683-2561 www.aon.ca BDC-Venture Capital One Bentall Center 505 Burrard Street Suite 2100, Vancouver, BC V7X 1M6 Canada
604-666-7815 www.bdc.ca CMW Insurance 700-1901 Rosser Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5C 6R6 Canada
604-294-3301 www.cmwinsurance.com Ernst & Young LLP 700 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1C7 Canada
604-891-8200 www.ey.com KPMG LLP 777 Dunsmuir, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K3 Canada
604-691-3000 www.kpmg.ca Morneau Shepell Ltd. 2925 Virtual Way, Suite 310, Vancouver, BC V5M 4X5 Canada
604-642-5200 www.morneaushepell.com PwC 250 Howe Street #700, Vancouver, BC V6C 3R8 Canada
250-483-7011 www.pwcglobal.com RBC Knowledge Based Industries 1055 West Georgia Street, 36th Floor, Vancouver, BC V6E 3S5 Canada
604-665-8470 www.rbc.com
GovernmentBCIC 900 – 1188 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2 Canada
604-683-2724 www.bcic.ca British Consulate-General Vancouver 800-1111 Melville Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3V6 Canada
604-683-4421 www.ukincanada.fco.gov.uk
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research 200 – 1285 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 Canada
604-730-8322 www.msfhr.org National Research Council 4250 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1W5 Canada
604-221-3000 www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca NSERC Pacific Suite 407 – 138 Melville Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4S3 Canada
877-767-1767 www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca
International Pharmaceutical CorporationsAbbVie 8401 Trans-Canada Highway, St. Laurent, QC H4S 1Z1 Canada
514-832-7000 www.abbott.ca AstraZeneca Canada Inc. 1004 Middlegate Road, Mississauga, ON L4Y 1M4 Canada
905-277-7111 www.astrazeneca.ca Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. 5180 South Service Road, Burlington, ON L7L 5H4 Canada
905-639-0333 www.boehringer-ingelheim.ca
Celgene Corporation 6755 Mississauga Road, Suite 600, Mississauga, ON L5N 7Y2 Canada
1-877-923-5436Eli Lilly Canada Inc. 3650 Danforth Avenue, Toronto, ON M1N 2E8 Canada
416-694-3221 www.lilly.ca
Business in Vancouver Magazines LifeSciences 2013 45
Genzyme 2700 Matheson Boulevard East West Tower, Suite 800, Mississauga, ON L4W 4V9 Canada
905-625-0011 www.genzyme.ca
GlaxoSmithKline 7333 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 6L4 Canada
905-819-3000 www.gsk.ca Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. 2455 Meadowpine Boulevard, Missisauga, ON L5N 6L7 Canada
1-800-561-1759 www.rochecanada.com
Janssen Inc 19 Green Belt Drive, Toronto, ON M3C 1L9 Canada
1-800-387-8781 http://www.janssen.ca LEO Pharma Inc. 123 Commerce Valley Drive East, Suite 400, Thornhill, ON L3T 7W8 Canada
905-886-9822 www.leo-pharma.ca
Merck Suite 600-1285 Broadway W, Vancouver, BC V6H 3X8 Canada
514-428-8600 www.merckfrosst.ca Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. 385 Bouchard Boulevard, Dorval, QC H9S 1A9 Canada
514-631-6775 www.novartis.ca Pfizer Canada Inc. 17300 Trans-Canada Highway, Kirkland, QC H9J 2M5 Canada
514-695-0500 www.pfizer.ca Sanofi Canada 2905 Place Louis-R.-Renaud, Laval, QC H7V 0A3 Canada
1-800-363-6364 en.sanofi.com/ Takeda Canada, Inc. Suite 101 435 North Service Road West, Mississauga, ON L6M 4X8 Canada
905-469-9333 www.takedacanada.com UCB Canada Inc. 401 – 2060 Winston Park Drive, Oakville, ON L6H 5R7 Canada
905-287-5129 www.ucb.com/
Legal ServicesBorden Ladner Gervais LLP 1200 – 200 Burrard Street, PO Box 48600, Vancouver, BC V7X 1T2 Canada
604-687-5744 www.blg.com Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP 3000 Royal Centre, PO Box 11130, 1055 West Georgia, Vancouver, BC V6E 3R3 Canada
604-687-6575 www.bht.com
Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness 1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2800, Seattle, WA 98101-2347 United States of America
206-682-8100 www.cojk.com
DuMoulin Black LLP 10th Floor – 595 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2T5 Canada
604-687-1224 www.dumoulinblack.com
Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP 25th Floor, 700 West Georgia Street PO Box 10026, Pacific Centre South, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1B3 Canada
604-684-9151 www.farris.com Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP 2900-550 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 0A3 Canada
604-631-3131 www.fasken.com Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP 550 Burrard Street Suite 2300, Bentall 5, Vancouver, BC V6C 2B5 Canada
604-683-6498 www.gowlings.com MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP. 700 West Pender Street, Suite 700, Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8 Canada
604-669-4350 www.mbm.com/ McCarthy Tétrault LLP Suite 1300, 777 Dunsmuir Street PO Box 10424, Pacific Centre, Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K2’ Canada
604-643-7100 www.mccarthy.ca
Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP 480 – 601 West Cordova Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1G1 Canada
604-669-3432 www.patentable.com
Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5400, Seattle, WA 98104 United States of America
206-622-4900 www.seedip.com
Medical DevicesBiolux Research Ltd. 220-825 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1H7 Canada
604-669-0674 www.bioluxresearch.com Biolux Research Ltd. is a world leader in innovative Light Accelerated Regeneration technology and products for use in dentistry markets. Critical Systems Lab Inc. 618 – 475 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 2B3 Canada
604-688-2754 www.criticalsystemslabs.com
Farabloc Development Corp. 211-3030 Lincoln Avenue, Coquitlam, BC V3B 6B4 Canada
604-941-8201 www.farabloc.com Farabloc Development Corporation was incorporated in 1983 for the purposes of research and development focused on the product Farabloc.
Heart Force Medical Inc. Suite 305 – 1818 Cornwall Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6J 1C7 Canada
604-566-8200 www.heartforcemedical.com
HeartForce Medical Inc. is dedicated to researching, developing and commercializing products and services for general physicians and cardiologists, specifically for Seismocardiographic and Ballistocardiographic assessments of patients. Innovatek Medical Inc. #3 – 1600 Derwent Way, Delta, BC V3M 6M5 Canada
604-522-8303 www.innovatekmed.com Innovatek Medical Inc. is a Canadian company selling rapid diagnostic kits in the areas of women’s health, drugs of abuse and infectious diseases. Kardium Suite 100 – 12851 Rowan Place, Richmond, BC V6V2K5 Canada
604-248-8891 www.kardium.com Kardium is a technology pioneer developing new medical devices to address cardiovascular diseases, particularly focused on developing a novel ablation catheter for treating atrial fibrillation. LED Medical Diagnostics Inc. 235-5589 Byrne Road, Burnaby, BC V5J 3J1 Canada
604-434-4614 www.velscope.com LED Medical Diagnostics inc. recently launched the VELscope Vx Enhanced Oral Assessment system that helps dental practices screen patients for oral cancer and other oral disease.Life Scan Canada Ltd. #300 – 4170 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, BC V5C 6C6 Canada
604-293-2266 www.onetouch.ca LifeScan Canada Ltd. provides a unique system of products and services tailored for the diabetics and health care professionals. LightIntegra Technology 650-999 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K5 Canada
604-734-3548 www.lightintegra.com LightIntegra Technology Inc. is developing ThromboLUX, a medical device that analyzes the quality of platelets immediately prior to a transfusion. Lungpacer Medical Inc. 8888 University Drive, Room L9003 Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 Canada
778-782-3141 www.lungpacer.com/ Lungpacer’s mission is to develop and commercialize a novel therapeutic system to prevent diaphragm atrophy and lung damage from mechanical ventilation. Neovasc Inc. 13700 Mayfield Place, Suite 2135, Richmond, BC V6V 2E4 Canada
604-270-4344 www.neovasc.com Neovasc Inc. develops, manufactures and markets cardiovascular products such as the Reducer™, Tiara™ and a line of advanced implantable biological tissues. Novadaq Technologies Inc. 13155 Delf Place, Unit 250, Richmond, BC V6V 2A22 Canada
604-232-9861 www.novadaq.com Perceptronix Medical Inc. (PMI Labs) 555 West 8th Avenue, Ste. 400, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1C6 Canada
604-629-8785 Ext.408 www.perceptronix.com
Response Biomedical Corp. 1781 – 75th Avenue West, Vancouver, BC V6P 6P2 Canada
604-456-6010 www.responsebio.com/index.html# Response Biomedical commercializes the world’s only immunoassay platform with lab quality information in a matter of minutes, anywhere, every time.
Sorin Group Canada Inc. 5005 North Fraser Way, Burnaby, BC V5J 5M1 Canada
604-412-5650 www.sorin.com The Sorin Group develops, manufactures and markets medical technologies for cardiac surgery and for the treatment of cardiac rhythm disorders. StarFish Medical 455 Boleskine Road, Victoria, BC V8Z 1E7 Canada
250-388-3537 www.starfishmedical.com StarFish provides medical device development services, from business, market, and product planning to proof of concept to manufactured devices. SterileCare Inc. 115 – 887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T4T5 Canada
778-285-6645 www.sterilecareinc.com/ SterileCare is leading innovation with a simple solution to improve quality of health through innovative sterilization methods. Traumis Surgical Systems Inc. 1950 Graveley Street, Vancouver, BC V5L 3B4 Canada
604-367-0700 www.traumis.com Traumis Surgical Systems Inc. aims to improve and accelerate surgical procedures with a minimum need for adaptation of tooling, procedures, or operating environment.
Verisante Technology, Inc. #306 – 2309 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6M 2A3 Canada
604-605-0507 www.verisante.com Verisante (TSX-V: VRS) is a medical device company dedicated to skin cancer detection. The company’s award-winning device, AuraTM, is approved for sale in Canada, Europe and Australia. ViewsIQ #115-887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC V5T4T5 Canada
1-855-847-7226 viewsiq.ca/ ViewsIQ is a Canadian healthcare technology company that develops microscopy imaging solutions for academic institutions, research and clinical laboratories.
Scientific SuppliersAirgas Bay 133, 3016 10th Avenue NE, Calgary, AB T2A6A3 Canada
360-944-4000 www.airgas.com GE Healthcare Life Sciences 500 Morgan Boulevard, Baie d’Urfé, QC H9X 3V1 Canada
1-800-463-5800 http://www.gelifesciences.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Home/en/GELifeSciences-CA// Iotron Industries Canada Inc. 1425 Kebet Way, Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 6L3 Canada
604-945-8838 www.iotron.com K’(Prime) Technologies Inc. Unit 105, 90 Freeport Boulevard NE, Calgary, AB T3J 5J9 Canada
403-226-5897 www.kprime.net/ STEMCELL Technologies Inc. 570 West Seventh Avenue, Suite 400, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1B3 Canada
604-877-0713 www.stemcell.com VWR International Ltd. 2360 Argentia Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 5Z7 Canada
1-800-932-5000 www.vwrsp.com
46 LifeSciences 2013 Business in Vancouver Magazines
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