A new six-bed unit dedicated to conducting Phase 1 clinical trials for new drugs will be set up at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital, with the help of funding from the 小蓝视频 government.
At a press conference today, the 小蓝视频 government announced $4.2 million for the new six-bed clinical trial unit, and $2.4 million for the University of 小蓝视频 for the recruitment of a new research chairperson who will lead the new clinical trials unit and U小蓝视频’s new clinical pharmacology program.
Phase 1 clinical trials involve small cohorts of patients who volunteer to have new drugs tested on them. These Phase 1 trials are mainly to test new drugs for safety and to determine things like proper dosage levels. Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials involve much larger groups of patients. Life sciences companies can spend well over $100 million taking new drugs through clinical trials.
小蓝视频 has a thriving life sciences sector that has been developing new therapeutics and drugs. But these drugs are typically tested outside of 小蓝视频 or outside of Canada, simply due to a lack of expertise and capacity.
“This will help local life science sector companies to keep their teams and intellectual property here in beautiful British Columbia,” said Brenda Bailey, minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation. “And U小蓝视频’s clinical pharmacology research chair and program will build capacity and strengthen 小蓝视频’s talent pipeline.”
小蓝视频 is also investing in creating new wet lab space and biomanufacturing capacity.
About four per cent of clinical trials happen in Canada, said Fiona Dalton, CEO Providence Health Care, which operates Mount Saint Joseph Hospital.
“That’s really great, but however Canada and 小蓝视频 have traditionally lacked Phase 1 capacity, which is really vital step of an early trial to determine whether to continue or terminate development of potential therapeutics," Dalton said. “And because of this gap, this has led to a substantial loss of economic activity, training opportunity and patient benefits in Canada.”
Dalton added the next step will be to expand to Phase 1 through 3 clinical trials unit.
Gail Murphy, vice-president of Research and Innovation at U小蓝视频, noted that 小蓝视频 research universities are responsible for spinning out several successful biotech companies.
“Expanding clinical trial capacity and expertise will allow university researchers and local companies -- like AbCellera, Acuitas Therapeutics and Precision Nanosystems, all of which came out of U小蓝视频 research labs – to grow and develop their technologies create new blockbuster drugs here in 小蓝视频," Murphy said.
“This is going to be transformative for 小蓝视频’s life sciences eco-system and for the health of patients in British Columbia. And most importantly, it means British Columbians will have access to life-saving medical treatments sooner.”
“With this new investment, more end-to-end development of medicines discovered in 小蓝视频 can take place on home soil,” said Anne Stevens, vice president of AbCellera (Nasdaq:A小蓝视频L).
“This will also help to speed the integration of these medicines into our health care system, ensuring that 小蓝视频 patients benefit sooner from innovation discovered here and around the world.”
