In a move that signifies the heightened focus on mRNA as a key tool in human health, Precision NanoSystems and Replicate Bioscience will enter a licensing agreement to accelerate the creation, scale-up, and delivery of self-replicating RNA (srRNA) therapies. Precision NanoSystems is a leading provider of technologies, services, and solutions for the development of lipid nanoparticle genomic medicines, and Replicate Bioscience pioneers ways to prevent drug resistance in cancer and to treat...READ MORE

BC Cancer researchers are playing a central role in a new international collaboration aimed at developing innovative treatments for osteosarcoma — a highly malignant bone cancer that commonly affects children and adolescents. Many Canadians will recognize osteosarcoma as the disease that claimed the life of Terry Fox. Much like in Terry’s case, the cancer often forms in the bones around the knee before spreading to other parts of the body...READ MORE

InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a leader in the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of rare cannabinoids, provided an update on its Phase 2 clinical trial using investigational drug INM-755 cannabinol cream for the treatment of patients with epidermolysis bullosa...READ MORE

Pfizer Canada and BioNTech filed a New Drug Submission with Health Canada for an Omicron-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine candidate, based on the BA.1 sub-lineage, to be administered as a booster dose in individuals 12 years of age and older. This application follows guidance from Health Canada to work towards the introduction of an Omicron-adapted bivalent vaccine candidate to address the continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2. The safety and efficacy of this NDS is still under investigation and market authorization has not yet been obtained...READ MORE

What if you could print healthy brain tissue, or brain tumour cells, and use it to spur future breakthroughs in cancer research? That’s all in a day’s work for the Victoria-based Axolotl Biosciences, a startup founded out of UVic. Since 2020, the biotech company—led by Stephanie Willerth, Laila Abelseth, and Laura De la Vega—has been producing “turn-key reagents” from biopolymer inks to 3D tissue models, and they’ve built a clientele and audience that spans from the US, to Japan, to Australia...READ MORE

Roche announced that the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion recommending the approval of Vabysmo®️ (faricimab) for the treatment of neovascular or “wet” age-related macular degeneration and visual impairment due to diabetic macular edema. Based on this recommendation, a final decision regarding the approval of Vabysmo is expected from the European Commission in the near future...READ MORE

The quest to repair severed spinal cords has brought together the brightest minds from across institutions and disciplines in a spinal cord injury research program, Mend the Gap, that was recently awarded $24 million in government funding from Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund. SFU Beedie’s Invention to Innovation (i2I) program played a key part in landing this funding for Mend the Gap because the training advances research as well as broadening researcher career paths...READ MORE

Researchers are a step closer to understanding how Parkinson’s disease develops and progresses thanks to chemical biological tools developed at Simon Fraser University. New research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and spearheaded by SFU researchers Matthew Deen and Yanping Zhu, outlines new technology and methods to measure the activity of lysosomal glucocerebrosidase...READ MORE

This fall, University of Victoria’s Biomedical Engineering, in partnership with the Gustavson School of Business and the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, is pleased to offer a short program on Project Management for Biomedical Device Development. Gain industry-relevant training in project planning and economic management, intellectual property and regulatory frameworks, and effective and inclusive communication, and earn Professional Development Units from the Project Management Institute...READ MORE

The Canadian B2B SaaS Market Accelerator will help 10 Canadian startups evaluate and prepare for expansion into the Washington state and the United States markets. This virtual accelerator will last eight weeks and will include a mix of curriculum, introductions, and mentorship to help participants grow their entrepreneurial skills and begin market validation in the USA...READ MORE

Do you excel at corporate communications? Do you have a passion for event marketing? Are you digitally savvy and excited by the power of social media? Would building a community and assisting in growing an ecosystem for Canada’s fast growing life sciences sector motivate you? Does creating compelling messaging and editorial content, as well as media outreach with leading publications energize you? You may be Life Sciences BC’s next Manager of Marketing & Communications! Please click here for more information.

At Xenon, we are advancing an exciting pipeline of neurology-focused therapies, with a particular emphasis on novel treatments for both adult and pediatric patients with epilepsy. XEN496 is currently being evaluated in the Phase 3 “EPIK” clinical trial in young patients with KCNQ2-DEE, a rare and severe form of childhood epilepsy. Late-stage development plans are also underway for our XEN1101 program, building upon the compelling data from the Phase 2b “X-TOLE” study in adult patients with focal epilepsy. We are also proud of the leading-edge science coming out of our discovery labs, with many early-stage research programs underway. In addition to Xenon’s proprietary programs, we have ongoing collaborations with our valued pharmaceutical partners.