Joint call targets cancer research commercialization

Vancouver, BC and Toronto, ON – The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) have announced a call for proposals to help bring new cancer treatments to patients through collaborative technology-development projects from academic investigators across Canada. The call provides opportunities for Canadian academic investigators at the cutting edge of cancer research to translate and advance their early-stage technologies and discoveries through pre-clinical development in order to ultimately bring new therapies to patients.

The partners say the joint effort offers unprecedented access to commercialization resources and infrastructure to de-risk and validate new disease-modifying therapies for oncology. They say they are looking to collaborate on projects that will advance the preclinical development of novel therapeutics that focus on innovative targets or therapeutic approaches including small molecules, biologics and cell based therapies.

Unlike traditional grants, CDRD and OICR will work in partnership with academic investigators to develop collaborative project plans addressing the critical steps that are required to advance cancer therapies from the lab towards the clinic and patients who will benefit. Projects will be milestone-driven with clear go/no-go decision points with budgets depending on the scope of the project.

The program is open and currently seeking pre-proposals. More information can be found at www.cdrd.ca/news/cdrd-oicr-team-up-to-advance-cutting-edge-new-cancer-treatments.