Friday | January 6th, 2023

CEO MESSAGE

Happy New Year!  

  

We hope you enjoyed a lovely holiday season. We are excited to launch a new year of programming in 2023, starting with Career Connect Day on January 20th, bringing together life sciences employers, job seekers, and post-secondary students for expert-led presentations and networking.   

  

We are delighted to welcome a new LSBC team member, Joanna Caraan, Executive Assistant & Office Manager. Joanna brings over 15 years of experience working with executive teams in the life sciences sector, and we are thrilled to have her on board. We also welcome a new Memberships Co-op student, Grady Krohman, and say a fond farewell to departing co-op student Cameron Razempour and wish him well as he completes his studies at SFU.  

  

I am looking forward to joining many of you at next week's JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. For those attending, Novateur Ventures, in partnership with BIO, have created the free Guide to JPM '23 app for easy access to all the events and receptions.  

  

Member News 

  

The Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL) has launched its 2023 Short Course Calendar, covering all aspects of the biopharmaceutical manufacturing process.  

  

Researchers at UBC's Life Sciences Institute are featured in Molecular Biomedicine. They share their findings on a promising compound for halting infections from a range of coronaviruses, including all variants of SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold, revealing a potential path for the antiviral treatment of many different pathogens. 

 

Applications are open for the 2023 CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research Health System Impact Fellowship (HSIF) program, in partnership with Michael Smith Health Research BC. The application deadline is March 2nd, 2023. Learn more and see the 2022 awardees here.  

  

Industry News 

  

Brenda Bailey, Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation, recently announced $4.3 million in funding via the BC Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) for 18 new projects at the University of British Columbia's Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, and Vancouver Island University. As part of the announcement, Minister Bailey stated, “Bettering the lives of people through research and innovation is an important part of our StrongerBC Economic Plan and a personal passion of mine.”

  

Candidates have until January 31st to apply to MedTech Innovator 2023, the world's largest and highest-performing accelerator of medical technology and the MedTech industry's premiere showcase and competition for innovative medical device, digital health, and diagnostic companies. 

  

Kudos 

  

Dr. Allen Eaves, O.C., President and CEO of STEMCELL Technologies, and Dr. Paula Gordon, O.C. of the University of British Columbia's Department of Radiology, have been appointed to the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest honours recognizing people for their extraordinary contributions to Canadian society. 

  

Acuitas co-founder Dr. Pieter Cullis was recently awarded the Alumni Award of Distinction at the Alumni UBC Achievement Awards. Learn more about his revolutionary work that made the COVID-19 vaccines possible here.     

  

Congratulations to our members listed as the Top 25 Healthcare Technology Leaders of Vancouver for 2022 in The Healthcare Technology Report.  

  

Kudos to Alpha-9 Theranostics, whose Series B financing news was highlighted by Nasdaq on the big screen in Times Square! Congratulations also to Zymeworks for lighting up Times Square as they launch ZYME on the Nasdaq! Zymeworks has also announced that their collaboration with Jazz Pharmaceuticals is going forward and that Jazz has exercised its option to continue with its exclusive development and commercialization rights to Zymeworks’ zanidatamab in key markets. Learn more.  

  

Dr. Anita Palepu, of Providence Health Care and a St. Paul's Foundation board member, has been inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. AstraZeneca CEO, Pascal Soriot, was awarded the honour of a knighthood by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his services to UK life sciences and leadership in the global response to the COVID pandemic. Congratulations to Dr. Stephen Choi at the University of British Columbia's department of Urologic Sciences, one of the eight 2022 Mitacs Award winners. 

  

Congrats to Cytiva for being named Top Company in Bioprocessing & Manufacturing Technology and Equipment of the Year, and to AstraZeneca for Best Vaccine Efforts of the Year by the BioSpectrum Asia Excellence Awards 2022. 

  

Dr. Dermot Kelleher has been appointed as an inaugural member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's (CIHR) new Standing Committee on Science.  

  

The year is off to a great start, and we look forward to continuing to work together in advancing the life sciences in 2023,  


Wendy and the LSBC team

PLATINUM SPONSORS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sustained Therapeutics Advancing Clinical Trials for Novel Drug Delivery Platform

A Vancouver-based therapeutics company has received regulatory approval to begin the second Phase II trial of its novel long lasting non-opioid pain medication. Sustained Therapeutics is evaluating a sustained release platform technology that could revolutionize how we treat pain and significantly improve the lives of individuals living with chronic pain. Sustained Therapeutics’ patented medication is a designed to relieve both acute and chronic pain over longer periods with fewer side effects than the current standard of care. A successful Phase I clinical trial resulted in a reduction in pain scores for three quarters of participants, with the effects lasting up to four weeks from a single dose...READ MORE

 

Zymeworks Provides Corporate Update On Key Strategic Priorities And Outlook For 2023

Zymeworks Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel, multifunctional biotherapeutics, announced updated key strategic priorities and provided updated financial guidance for the 2023 calendar year. Highlights include:

  • updated key priorities and focus on enterprise value framework
  • Closing of Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Jazz) collaboration in fourth quarter completes financial transformation initiatives originally planned for 2022
  • Announces additional financial guidance on expected cash runway; provides unaudited cash and cash resources balance as of December 31, 2022
  • Announces recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D) for zanidatamab zovodotin (ZW49)...READ MORE
 

Algernon Pharmaceuticals Forms Private Subsidiary to Advance Company’s Psychedelic DMT Stroke Program; Files Form 1-A Offering Statement with U.S. SEC for Regulation A+ Offering

Algernon Pharmaceuticals, a Canadian clinical stage pharmaceutical development company, is pleased to announce that it has established Algernon NeuroScience (AGN Neuro), a new wholly-owned private subsidiary of AGN Pharma, to advance the Company’s psychedelic DMT stroke program. The Company has valued the psychedelic DMT research program at USD $20M and has formally completed an asset transfer and trademark license agreement, transferring all DMT research program assets into AGN Neuro...READ MORE

 

Aurinia Announces LUPKYNIS® (voclosporin) Patent Challenge Settlement Reached With Sun Pharmaceuticals

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. announces it has entered into a settlement agreement with Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc., Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd., and Sun Pharma Global FZE that involves both Aurinia and Sun Pharmaceuticals filing a joint motion to terminate the ongoing Inter Partes Review directed at Aurinia’s U.S. Patent No. 10,286,036, as well as settlement of the ongoing patent infringement litigation in the United States related to Sun’s CEQUA® product...READ MORE

 

STEMCELL Technologies President and CEO Dr. Allen Eaves Appointed to the Order of Canada

STEMCELL Technologies announce its President and CEO, Dr. Allen Eaves, has been appointed to the Order of Canada by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, the Governor General of Canada. One of the nation’s highest forms of recognition, the Order of Canada recognizes people who make extraordinary contributions to Canadian society...READ MORE

 

Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Zymeworks Announce Jazz has Confirmed Opt-In and Advances Partnership for Zanidatamab

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and Zymeworks Inc. announced that Jazz has exercised its option to continue with its exclusive development and commercialization rights to Zymeworks’ zanidatamab in key markets, including the U.S., Europe and Japan, pursuant to the license and collaboration agreement entered into in October 2022...READ MORE

 

The Cervix Screening HPV Pilot Implementation Team Receives BC Cancer Excellence Award for Innovation and Discovery in Action

The BC Cancer Excellence Awards provide an opportunity to shine a light on the inspiring people and teams who help ensure that British Columbians receive world-class, patient-centred cancer screening, treatment and support, and benefit from new discoveries that are helping change the face of cancer...READ MORE

 

Bioasis Technologies Inc. Announces Amendments to Arrangement Agreement with Midatech Pharma plc

Bioasis Technologies Inc., a multi-asset rare and orphan disease biopharmaceutical company developing clinical stage programs based on epidermal growth factors and a differentiated, proprietary xB3™ platform for delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier and the treatment of central nervous system disorders in areas of high unmet medical need, announced the following amendments to the terms of the previously announcement arrangement agreement with Midatech Pharma plc...READ MORE

 

CASTL Launches 2023 Short Courses Training Calendar

The Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences, a national initiative to address the future skills needs of the fast-growing biomanufacturing sector, has launched its 2023 Short Course Calendar. Delivered virtually and in-person at the new CASTL Biomanufacturing Training Facility in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the instructor-led short courses cover all aspects of the biopharmaceutical manufacturing process...READ MORE

 

Qu Biologics and Karolinska Institute Initiate Important New Collaboration to Validate Molecular Mechanisms of Qu Biologics’ First-in-Class Immunotherapy Platform

Qu Biologics Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing Site Specific Immunomodulators, a novel platform of immunotherapies designed to restore innate immune function, is excited to announce a new collaboration with Associate Professor Jonas Fuxe and his research team at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, to characterize the molecular targets of Qu’s SSI therapy at the tissue level that lead to resolution of disease...READ MORE

 

Pfizer and BioNTech’s Omicron BA.4/BA.5-Adapted Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Receives Health Canada Authorization for Children 5 Through <12 Years of Age

Pfizer Canada ULC and BioNTech SE announced that Health Canada has authorized COMIRNATY® Original & Omicron BA.4/BA.5 as a 10-μg booster dose for children 5 through <12 years of age. This booster is approved for use at least 6 months after completing the primary course of the companies’ original COVID-19 vaccine (COMIRNATY)...READ MORE

INDUSTRY NEWS
 
 

Apply to MedTech Innovator 2023

MedTech Innovator is the largest and highest performing accelerator of medical technology in the world and the medtech industry’s premiere showcase and competition for innovative medical device, digital health and diagnostic companies. The accelerator is remote-friendly, having operated as a virtual program since 2015. MedTech Innovator is a founder-friendly nonprofit and do not require equity or fees for participation. Companies that have raised up to a Series C are eligible to apply...READ MORE

 

Research, Innovation Make People’s Lives Better

A new, artificial intelligence-guided point-of-care ultrasound imaging platform is under development at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as one of 18 new research projects funded by the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) to improve the lives of British Columbians. Through the BCKDF, the Government of B.C. is providing more than $4.3 million for projects at UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, UVic, SFU and VIU in fields such as health, natural resources and technology...READ MORE

 
GOLD SPONSORS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Manager, Analytical Sciences


Manager of Analytical Sciences is a key leader with cross-functional responsibilities in manufacturing, process development, formulation development, QA, regulatory and supply chain to plan, coordinate, and execute analytical development activities and quality control. Collaborate with process R&D, technology transfer teams, and troubleshooting method related issues and root cause analysis for analytical deviations and investigations. The candidate will also ensure that method development and validation timelines and budgets are met, and drive for operation excellence in data review, batch release testing, stability studies, and laboratory investigations.




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Product Manager, Laboratory Operations


As the Product Manager on the Laboratory Operations team, you will play a key role in understanding the challenges that arise for people who work in laboratories that focus on genomic sequencing, research and diagnostics. Reporting to the Head of Product Management, you will be responsible for creating product roadmaps, identifying pain points and potential improvements to address with our software, and making challenging decisions about feature priority. Ultimately, your goal is to work with various stakeholders to determine whether the solutions we build make the cut, solve the problem, and further enable the work of the customers: molecular diagnostics laboratories. 



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SILVER SPONSORS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
New Member Welcome

Seagen is a global biotechnology company that develops and commercializes transformative cancer therapies, driven by a singular mission—to make a difference for people impacted by cancer.


As an industry leader in antibody–drug conjugate(ADC) technology, Seagan pioneered the science of harnessing antibodies designed to deliver cell-killing agents to cancer cells. Three of their four approved medicines are built on this technology.


Seagan also focuses their research efforts on novel targeted small molecule therapies building a portfolio of proprietary immuno-oncology agents.









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Member Spotlight
 
 

VoxCell is creating an extraordinary line of solutions for the drug development industry and the field of Oncology research by creating vascularized cancer tissue models.


Voxcell's tissue models will increase confidence in new drug candidates, decrease the failure rate (currently more than 95% of drugs in the pipeline fail), and impact the speed for new therapies to get to market.














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BRONZE SPONSORS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Post a Job on the LSBC Website!

LSBC Membership Discounts on Job Postings

 

As an LSBC member, your first five job postings EARN a free repost on BioTalent Canada's The Petri Dish. After your first five posts, you will also receive 25% off all job postings on The Petri Dish. Want more info? Contact talent@lifesciencesbc.ca.

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