Vancouver: A Major Innovation Hub For Nanomedicines and
Personalized Medicine
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Dr. Pieter Cullis,DirectorLife Sciences Institute, UBC
Vancouver is a Major Innovation Hub For Nanomedicines
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Lipid nanoparticle delivery systems to reduce toxicity,
enhance potency of conventional drugs, enable
RNA, DNA-based drugs to be used as therapeutics
TitleCOMPANY PRODUCT
EMPLOYEES
(in Vancouver)
Arbutus BioPharmaLipid nanoparticles (LNP) to treat
hepatitis B>100
Acuitas Therapeutics
LNP systems to treat genetic
diseases and for vaccine
applications
>10
Celator Pharmaceuticals
(acquired by Jazz Pharma in
May, 2016 for $1.5B)
LNP containing cancer drugs to
treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML)~10
Precision NanoSystemsMicrofluidic systems for
manufacturing LNP systems>40
Transferra NanoSciences
(acquired by Evonik Industries
in June 2016)
Contract research organization
(CRO) for formulation of biologically
active agents into LNP systems
>50
Key Nanomedicines Companies
Title
Case Study: Precision NanoSystems Invent microfluidic mixing technology to form lipid nanoparticles
(2010)
Convince University-Industry Office to patent itForm company
(“NewCo”) and raise seed funds
License patent from University into Precision
Put research contract in place between Precision and UBC (all
improvements flow to company)
Write grants for translational funds to move Precision technology
forward (>$2M)
Move Precision out of lab when products are mature enough to
secure outside funding
Raised $14M USD in Series A financing (2015)
NAME PRODUCTEMPLOYEES
(in Vancouver)
GenXys
Healthcare
Clinical decision support system to guide
drug prescription to avoid adverse reactions. ~10
Contextual
Genomics
Personalized chemotherapy for cancer
treatment~30
Cyon
TherapeuticsPersonalized treatment for sepsis ~10
Microbiome
Insights
Microbiome analyses for personalized
medicine~10
Personalized
Biomarkers IncPersonalized treatments for diabetes ~3
Molecular You
Corporation
Omic (genomic, proteomic, metabolomic,
microbiomic) dataclouds to practice
personalized medicine
~15
Key Personalized Medicine Companies
Case Study: Molecular You Corp.
Molecular data-clouds for each individual
Well people, disease cohorts
Disease stratification
Better matching of treatment to disease
Identification of new biomarkers/targets associated with disease
Early detection
Effective preventive medicine
Case Study: Molecular You Corp. Realized need for molecular profiling (Leroy Hood)
Disease stratification
Preventive medicine
Formed MYCo, raised seed funds ($250K)
Identified resources to do genomic, proteomic, metabolomic
and microbiomic analyses
Accessed funding for demonstration projects on 11 healthy
volunteers
Identified resources to interpret the data
Developed ability to present data in user friendly format
Raised more seed funds ($1M)
Roll out product (February 2017)
SUMMARY
Vancouver global innovation hub for nanomedicines
3 of 10 approved nanomedicines in Vancouver
10 companies employing over 200 people
Aggregate market capitalization > $0.5B
Vancouver aspiring global hub for personalized medicine
Two products (clinical decision support system and MYCo
profiling) about to be marketed to consumers
6 companies employing ~75 people
Aspirations to be the personalized medicine capital of the
world
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