VANCOUVER and TORONTO, July 28,
2015 /CNW/ - Two of Canada's leading drug research and
commercialization centres have announced a call for proposals to
help bring new cancer treatments to patients through collaborative
technology-development projects from academic investigators across
Canada.
The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and the
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) are providing
opportunities for Canadian academic investigators at the cutting
edge of cancer research to translate and advance their early-stage
technologies and discoveries through pre-clinical development in
order to ultimately bring new therapies to patients.
This unique partnership offers unprecedented access to
commercialization resources and infrastructure to de-risk and
validate new disease-modifying therapies for oncology. The partners
are looking to collaborate on projects that will advance the
preclinical development of novel therapeutics that focus on
innovative targets or therapeutic approaches including small
molecules, biologics and cell based therapies.
Unlike traditional grants, CDRD and OICR will work in
partnership with academic investigators to develop collaborative
project plans addressing the critical steps that are required to
advance cancer therapies from the lab towards the clinic and
patients who will benefit. Projects will be milestone-driven with
clear go/no-go decision points with budgets depending on the scope
of the project.
CDRD President and CEO, Karimah Es Sabar commented, "We are very
pleased to be partnering with OICR, and to be bringing together
resources from across the country to help bring new cancer
treatments to the market. By utilizing and leveraging our
complementary expertise and infrastructure, we are excited to be
accelerating the development of safe and effective treatments for
cancer patients."
Dr. Rima Al-awar, Director of OICR's Drug Discovery Program
said, "Collaboration is essential to bringing innovative research
ideas to patients. OICR is proud to partner with the CDRD to help
academic investigators move their most promising discoveries to the
clinic and to help move cancer research forward."
The program is open and currently seeking pre-proposals. More
information can be found here: www.cdrd.ca/news.
About The Centre for Drug Research and Development
(CDRD):
CDRD is Canada's
fully-integrated national drug development and commercialization
centre, providing expertise and infrastructure to enable
researchers from leading health research institutions to advance
promising early-stage drug candidates. Its mandate is to de-risk
discoveries stemming from publicly-funded health research and
transform them into viable investment opportunities for the private
sector — thus successfully bridging the commercialization gap
between academia and industry, and translating research discoveries
into new therapies for patients. Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence
Program has recognized CDRD as a Centre of Excellence for
Commercialization and Research (CECR). www.cdrd.ca
About the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
(OICR):
OICR is an innovative cancer research and development institute
dedicated to prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment
of cancer. The Institute is an independent, not-for-profit
corporation, supported by the Government of Ontario. OICR's research supports more than
1,700 investigators, clinician scientists, research staff and
trainees located at its headquarters and in research institutes and
academia across the Province of Ontario. OICR has key research efforts
underway in small molecules, biologics, stem cells, imaging,
genomics, informatics and bio-computing. For more information,
please visit the website at www.oicr.on.ca.
SOURCE Ontario Institute for Cancer Research