AbbVie and U Toronto collaborate to give Canadian biotech startups a boost
The AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award provides resources, including lab space and strategic guidance, to foster innovation in Canada (Issue #300, 1,200 words, 6 minutes)
The AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award, initiated by AbbVie in partnership with the University of Toronto's "SpinUp" program, aims to encourage innovation and assist nascent biotechnology startups in Canada. This award offers one Canadian biotech startup a year of complimentary laboratory space, equipment, and access to SpinUp's entrepreneurial programming. Additionally, the awardee will gain mentorship from AbbVie's scientific and business leaders, providing essential support to propel their innovative projects forward.
SpinUp, based at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus, is a purpose-built wet lab incubator providing subsidized lab space, core facilities, and entrepreneurship programming. Raquel De Souza [pictured below], Director of Partnerships & Innovation at the University of Toronto Mississauga and inaugural director of SpinUp, highlighted the incubator’s role in addressing the specific needs of early-stage startups. “Early-stage startups are well-versed in the science, but they often need support with commercialization and strategy,” she said in an interview with NPC Healthbiz Weekly. She noted the award will grant the selected startup a full year of free access to SpinUp’s facilities, significantly reducing financial burdens.
The AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award seeks to bridge the gap between research and commercialization, offering a promising platform for Canadian biotech startups. “The impact of the innovations will measure the success of the award brought to light by the selected startup,” said Rami Fayed [pictured below], Vice President and General Manager of AbbVie Canada, in an interview with NPC Healthbiz Weekly. “If we have something that can impact patients’ lives and bring solutions to some of the complex, devastating diseases that we see in Canada and around the world, we would call that a big success.”
“The winner needs to fit one of the AbbVie priority areas,” De Souza explained. “So, it needs to be within immunology, oncology, neuroscience, or eye care, and it needs to be an early-stage company in the biotech space.” The selected startup will benefit from mentorship on both the scientific and business fronts, a feature of the award that she says distinguishes it from other initiatives in the industry. De Souza highlighted that AbbVie sought a partner with SpinUp’s capabilities to implement this program in Canada. AbbVie appreciated that SpinUp is embedded within the University of Toronto and can provide access to a community of researchers, state-of-the-art facilities, and entrepreneurial support, which sets it apart from other biotech incubators in the country.
According to Fayed, collaboration is the cornerstone of advancing healthcare innovation. He highlighted the need for multiple elements to contribute to the biotechnology ecosystem. “If we look back at how innovations used to evolve, much of it was driven by large pharmaceutical companies doing in-house research, but now innovation is no longer confined to a single lab or one big pharma company,” he said. “With advancements in AI and technologies worldwide, bringing these together is crucial. No entity can do it alone; it requires many collaborations, so partnerships are critical to bringing innovations to life.”
Applications for the AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award are currently open and will close on January 17, 2025. The semi-finalists will be notified in March, followed by a pitch event in April, where four finalists will present their innovations. The winner will be announced on the same day, and SpinUp facility will begin to be utilized in May 2025. There are no specific age or experience limitations for applicants.
THIS WEEK 10/01/24
Health Canada granted marketing authorization to Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ exagamglogene autotemcel (PrCasgevy) for the treatment of patients 12 years of age and older with sickle cell disease with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises or transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia.
The U.S. FDA approved Bristol Myers Squibb’s xanomeline and trospium chloride (Cobenfy) for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced that Health Canada has accepted for review its New Drug Submission for vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor, a once-daily triple combination therapy for patients with cystic fibrosis ages six years and older who have at least one F508del mutation or another responsive mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene.
The U.S. FDA approved IntraBio Inc.’s levacetylleucine (Aqneursa) fotreatingof neurological manifestations of Niemann-Pick disease type in adults and pediatric patients weighing at least 15 kg.
NOW LISTEN UP
In season 12 of the NPC Podcast, Brian Bloom, CEO of Bloom Burton & Co., gives insights into changes in the Canadian Healthcare investment landscape, the return of the generalist investor, and the rise of consumer empowerment in healthcare. Hear him in conversation with podcast hosts Mitch Shannon, Jim Shea, and Mark McElwain.
HEALTHBIZ REWIND
This feature of NPC Healthbiz Weekly looks back at some of the most insightful moments from previous NPC Podcast episodes. In Healthbiz Rewind, you’ll read bold life sci predictions made during the renowned “Prognostication Korner” segment of the NPC Podcast.
Nancy White
Chief Executive Officer & Member of the Board
Inagene Diagnostics Inc.
Toronto
Season 01, episode 08
Listen to this episode here
What has changed with Covid-19 for you? (This episode was recorded in August of 2020)
I say: everything and nothing. The ‘nothing’ is that we’re working harder than ever before. The ‘everything’ is that we were certainly hit with multiple challenges when Covid-19 arrived. We had to pivot—not just our business model and the tactics we wanted to us, but also our key targets for business-to-business partnerships. With everyone grappling during Covid-19, it was about how to not only build our business but also sustain it. We’ve had to pivot, but through it, we’ve uncovered new opportunities. It required resilience, flexibility, and agility to rapidly change our strategy, then regroup and tweak things to optimize the opportunities in front of us. It's been busy. Some people tell me they’ve experienced more of a lull during Covid-19, but I don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard as I have these last several months.
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