OICR-Big Ideas-Big Business

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By Frank Stonebanks

Big ideas - big business How OICR is helping Toronto become a global centre of excellence for innovative, early stage oncology development. The Toronto region is one of North America’s top four economic powerhouses, along with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and is ranked third for biomedical/biotechnology. The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research is a new arrival on the scene but has quickly established a reputation as an agile, innovative player in the R&D commercialization sphere.

Dr. Tom Hudson, president and scientific director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), shows visitors the view from the 8th floor of the South Tower of the MaRS Centre, in the heart of the Discovery District in downtown Toronto and tells them about the 5,000 scientists and physicians within walking distance, at the University of Toronto and in the hospital-based research institutes. They are surprised to find out how rich the Discovery District is in talent and accomplishment. It is one of Toronto’s best kept secrets.

Established in December 2005, OICR is a new, innovative cancer research & development institute dedicated to prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The Institute is an independent, not-for-profit corporation funded by the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Research and Innovation. OICR has 300 scientific staff (located at its headquarters and in research institutes and academia across the Province of Ontario) and an $85 million annual operating budget. It has key research efforts underway in small molecules, biologics, stem cells, imaging, genomics, informatics and bio-computing, from early stage research to Phase I clinical trials.

OICR’s global commercialization program identifies and develops opportunities to collaborate with corporate strategic investors and private equity players in oncology; spearheads the intellectual property program to maximize OICR’s extensive intellectual property pipeline, and identifies and accelerates transformative early stage research and development projects using novel business models.

Pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology firms looking to reduce their investment risk and create novel R&D partnerships with access to world class science and people find OICR an excellent choice. The Institute provides a low risk, variable cost, basic research to proof-of-concept approach which is producing a steady stream of novel products.

OICR’s Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization Program (IPDC) provides seed funding for late stage academic projects that meet specific market-oriented criteria. OICR takes an equity stake and/or royalty in the entity.

In return the technology gets funded, de-risked and the participating entrepreneurs gain access to OICR’s global commercialization team and its resources.

Despite the success of these early stage seed funds there is a gap between IPDC funding and clinical proof of concept (POC). OICR plans to close this gap with the introduction of a new POC accelerator.

This accelerator, developed by OICR and MaRS Innovation (MI), will provide selected entrepreneurs and their assets a proof of concept “sandbox” in which they can form a company, receive milestone-driven funding, development expertise and other resources, giving the entrepreneur the chance to take the offering to the next meaningful value inflexion point (Phase I/II POC), at which point it could be licensed, sold or spun out. Investors in the accelerator will have an option on these products.

OICR is a member of MI, which provides an integrated commercialization platform that harnesses the economic potential of the discovery pipeline of 14 leading Toronto academic institutions. A non-profit organization, MI is funded through the Government of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research, and through contributions from member institutions.

The effort will be jointly led by OICR and MI, and it will include strategic investors/partners such as pharmaceutical, medical technology and diagnostic firms, as well as leading private equity groups.

By co-investing with OICR, these external participants will gain access to the cutting edge oncology platforms, scientists and products as discoveries emerge from Ontario universities and hospital-based research institutes. The Province of Ontario also plays a key role as it provides OICR balance sheet stability, significant tax credits for foreign investors, access to a world class talent pool, and an entrepreneurial working environment in Toronto’s Discovery District.

OICR is meeting today’s challenges in the R&D environment and capital markets by offering a unique business model for partnership, tailored to reduce cost and risk, and support early-stage innovation. For more information, please visit the website at www.oicr.on.ca