BioDiscovery Toronto: Driving Early Stage Pre-Commercial Projects

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By Shawn Lawrence

University and hospital research make up 30% of Canada’s R&D effort, which compliments industry’s 50% contribution.

Together these two sectors cover 80% of Canada’s innovative capacity in a broad range of fields of national importance ranging from energy to health. In addition to R&D capacity, the higher education sector also creates skilled people, facilities and resources that are accessed by industry. The challenge is to effectively link the innovative capacity of the higher education sector with industry and economic contributions, while at the same time facilitating industry/VC access to Canadian biotechnology.

That’s where an organization like BioDiscovery Toronto (BDT) enters the picture. BDT is an organization linking 10 of Toronto’s internationally recognized biomedical research institutions. It provides both the people and the funding to drive early-stage pre-commercial projects and has been successful in raising and deploying funds from several sources ranging from government, industry partners and members to promote the development of the most promising advances coming from Toronto’s universities and hospitals.

“BDT is really designed to assist and to maintain a healthy flow of innovations from our biomedical research institutions,” states BDT executive director David Shindler. “The goal is to move projects to a point where they are commercially validated and therefore of more interest to company or venture receptors – and in some cases we can form new companies around those opportunities that provide a terrific benefit to the community.”

The organization concentrates on several gaps, specifically on the earlier stages of the innovation process.

“We have selected and funded 35 high potential projects in the biomedical field and an equal number through an allied effort at the University of Toronto network in the non medical fields. These are projects that have been supported specifically because of their future commercial potential. Two really important sources of funding for propelling these pre-commercial opportunities are the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation’s ‘Ontario Research Commercialization Program’ (ORCP) and the federal Intellectual Property Management (IPM) program.”

According to Shindler, BDT’s concentration from the onset is on deal flow, which means the development of technologies and ventures that have an economic impact on industry and the health sector. The deal flow aspect is particularly important in challenging economic times because companies are facing greater challenges to maintain their research and development activities.

The problem BDT faces in 2009 is that all the sources of funding that BDT has employed to foster innovation and deal flow are under review. This includes the IPM Fund, and the ORCP at the Ontario level, along with core funding for BDT from the Ontario Research Innovation Networks Program. Coupled with the economic downturn, the gains in capacity and deal flow over the past five years may disappear, just as the members of BDT have achieved about 80% of the Canadian national benchmarks of tech-transfer capacity.

According to Shindler, the official federal announcement in February that the IPM program has been cut underlines the urgency of the situation. BioDiscovery Toronto’s members received $1.7 million from 2006-2009, and “it is really difficult to see how that core is going to be replaced. This cut will also have a devastating impact on the smaller institutions across Canada that rely on IPM to support core professional staff.”

However, Shindler remains hopeful that BDT’s funding will continue based on the organization’s strong performance, but what’s at risk is a third of the new capacity if these programs are not sustained for long enough to achieve their objectives.

“We’ve made our initial investment over the last three years, but we need to sustain that. We need programs like ORCP and IPM funding to be continued in a more robust fashion, perhaps on a broader base for a much longer period of time. Likewise I think we will have to be very creative about how we mobilize investment capital and incubate the opportunities, so that our opportunities and ventures can be positioned to emerge as investment capital starts to flow again. It is critical in the current economic environment that we position our deals for future success,” he said.

But funding is only part of the equation Schindler says. The other part is having the right people in place to assist with these projects, essentially the commercial expertise that goes with that funding.

Without the skilled people - typically associated with the ‘Tech-transfer/industry liaison/business development’ offices at the university or hospital - to guide these projects toward commercial objectives, many of the projects would not attain the commercially-relevant milestones.

“These skilled people are really special and are in short supply as mediators and mentors who understand both research and business and who are able to successfully operate in this nexus between academia and business. They have to understand intellectual property and the regulatory environment as they chart the steps necessary to achieve a new product or service,” Shindler explained.

If the above needs are met, Shindler is certain BioDiscovery Toronto can continue as a vehicle in driving successful early stage pre-commercial projects.

“I think one of the really important things that BDT has done is cement relationships among and between the research institutions in Toronto. We’ve broken down barriers and provided unprecedented levels of collaboration between the institutions and certainly between the technology development offices. Remember we’re in competition with the rest of the world and there are many opportunities out there so it’s up to us to drive our own opportunities and to make sure that they’re as successful as they can be.”