Vancouver Researcher-Physicians Win Top $100,000 EnCana Principal Award

Calgary, AB (September 29th, 2006) — A combination stent-drug delivery vehicle developed by two Vancouver MDs is saving the lives of cardiovascular disease patients worldwide.

In recognition of their contribution, William Hunter, MD, and Lindsay Machan, MD, of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have won this year's $100,000 EnCana Principal Award, sponsored by EnCana Corporation—the top prize from the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation.

Hunter and Machan's invention, the TAXUS™ drug-eluting stent, props open clogged arteries and delivers medication to the blood vessel wall. The stent went on the world market in 2003 and made $2.6 billion in its first year of sales. In the United States alone, over one million people now receive a drug-eluting stent every year.

Angiotech's drug-eluting stent has revolutionized the treatment of coronary artery disease, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke.

Following balloon angioplasty, stents are used to prop open arteries so that blood can flow to the heart. However, scar tissue often grows through the mesh of the stent and reblocks the artery.

The TAXUS™ stent solves this longstanding medical problem because the drug it releases prevents scar tissues from growing into the implant. Approximately 20 percent of patients with bare metal stents need to return for a repeat procedure, but the TAXUS™ stent is over 96 percent effective.

Hunter and a colleague in Hamilton did the groundwork to find a drug that would prevent scar tissue from reforming. The drug that worked best was paclitaxel, or Taxol®, an anti-cancer drug derived from the Pacific yew tree.

Hunter and Machan's innovation was not only finding the right drug, but also getting it onto the stent.

"The invention isn't the drug;" says Hunter, "the invention isn't the device...the invention is the combination of those two."

The TAXUS™ drug-eluting stent represents a transformation in drug delivery. Pharmaceuticals taken as pills, patches or injections typically enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body, often affecting unintended targets. The drug-eluting stent is a system of targeted drug delivery, which puts pharmaceuticals right where they are needed, when they are needed—for example, at the time of surgery.

"We thought there was an opportunity here to take the drugs and administer them at the time of surgery to solve the problems that the surgeon was trying to solve," Hunter explains.

The same concept could be applied to the treatment of other diseases using various drugs. Notes Machan, "There are so many other drug-device combinations that are possible that can extend the same kinds of benefits to patients."

Machan adds that the drug-eluting stent significantly reduces the need for risky repeat surgeries, which benefits patients as well as the healthcare system.

Having grown up in small town Alberta, Machan says that recognition from the Manning Foundation is especially significant. "I am enormously proud to win a Manning Award," he says.

This year, the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation will award a total of $165,000 in prize money. Four awards, totaling $145,000, will go to leading Canadian innovators. Another $20,000 will go to Young Innovators with winning projects at the 2006 Canada-Wide Science Fair.

The winners of the 2006 Manning Innovation Awards will be announced throughout September. All will be honoured at the annual gala awards dinner, September 29th, 2006 in Calgary.

The Foundation was established in 1980 in the name of prominent Alberta statesman, Ernest C. Manning, to promote and support Canadian innovators. Since 1982, the Foundation has presented over $3.6 million in prize money through its annual awards program (www.manningawards.ca).