LifeSciences BC Announces Recipients of the 2010 LifeSciences British Columbia Awards
March 10, 2010
Vancouver, British Columbia – LifeSciences British Columbia today announced the recipients of the 2010 LifeSciences British Columbia Awards. They are:
Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence:
- Drs. Marco Marra, Rob Holt, and Steven Jones – Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
Innovation & Achievement:
- Dr. Andy Hoffer – Lungpacer Medical
Leadership Award:
- Mr. Don Avison
Medical Device Company of the Year:
- Neoteric
Life Sciences Company of the Year:
- Cardiome Pharma Corp.
These awards are presented annually by LifeSciences British Columbia to recognize individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the development of British Columbia’s life sciences industry across all sub-sectors, from biopharmaceuticals and medical devices to bioproducts and bioenergy – sectors which are critical to the economic future of the province and country.
“The theme of our 2010 LifeSciences BC Awards is ‘Bridges to the Future’, and each of these recipients has brought us new knowledge, leadership, innovation and technologies to create a better future for humankind,” commented Karimah Es Sabar, President of LifeSciences British Columbia. “We thank and applaud each of them for their tremendous efforts, insight, and commitment to a better future through great science and the commercialization and adoption of that science achieved right here in British Columbia.”
The awards will be presented at a gala ceremony Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 in front of an audience of approximately 600 biopharmaceutical, medical device, bioproducts, bioenergy and greater life sciences community and public policy leaders at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Please visit www.lifesciencesbc.ca for full details.
The LifeSciences British Columbia Awards are presented by Ernst & Young; Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy, LLP; Genome British Columbia; and Rx&D (Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies). Media sponsor: Business in Vancouver Magazines.
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For further information, contact:
Barry Gee
Director, Operations and Communications, LifeSciences British Columbia
Tel: 604-602-5226
Email: bgee@lifesciencesbc.ca
About LifeSciences British Columbia
LifeSciences British Columbia supports and represents the biopharmaceutical, medical device, bioproducts, bioenergy and greater life sciences community of British Columbia through leadership, advocacy and promotion of our world-class science and industry. Via active facilitation of partnering and investment into the life sciences sector, British Columbia is fast becoming a global life sciences leader. LifeSciences British Columbia is a not-for-profit, non-government, industry-funded association.
Backgrounder
About the recipients:
Drs. Robert Holt, Steven Jones and Marco Marra – Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence
Drs. Robert Holt, Steven Jones and Marco Marra hold key leadership roles at Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre (GSC) at the BC Cancer Agency which they have collectively helped to transform into one of the world’s most advanced and productive centres for development and application of genomics, bioinformatics and related technologies. Their combined efforts, along with collaborations with the BC Cancer Agency and other local, national and international researchers and organizations, have led to several major scientific breakthroughs over the past decade.
By becoming the best in the world at early adoption of genomics technologies in a rapidly emerging field and by embracing a culture of inclusiveness with all disciplines of the sciences, they have established a unique resource that has been and will continue to be the foundation upon which BC scientists and companies can build their achievements in the ongoing genomics revolution. In particular, because of their willingness to integrate the physical sciences with their work (engineers and computational sciences), the GSC is poised to be a catalyst for translation of genomics to end-users in various economic sectors.
The team gained international attention when they became first in the world to sequence the SARS coronavirus genome. They subsequently participated in several key international sequencing efforts where, in the majority of cases, they were the sole Canadian contributors. Since then, they have played pivotal roles in international consortia to sequence a variety of organisms, including the mouse, rat, poplar and bovine genomes, as well as pioneering the use of indispensable tools for experimental medicine and drug development. In the past year alone, the team has been credited with several more ‘firsts’, leading to articles published in leading international journals. Partnering with clinicians at the BCCA, the team played a key role in the first ever discovery of a gene mutation occurring in a prevalent type of ovarian cancer – findings published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. They also led the first sequencing of a breast cancer genome, a breakthrough featured on the cover of Nature. Most recently, they were first to identify a mutation in a specific gene linked to B-cell lymphomas, a significant finding subsequently published in Nature Genetics.
Apart from cancer research, the dynamic team at the GSC has supported or overseen key advances in genomics effecting a broad range of areas, including deciphering the genome of the Atlantic salmon to better understand reproduction, growth and disease resistance; uncovering the biological processes that regulate wood formation and pest resistance in forest trees, such as their seminal work with the vector responsible for the devastating Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak; and identifying traits underlying berry quality in grapevine.
As leaders of one of only a handful of facilities in the world to establish next-generation sequencing technologies and the corresponding analysis of the massive volumes of complex data it generates, the team is ensuring they remain current and leaders in their field, thereby facilitating the deployment of the technologies to research problems of relevance to BC and Canada. These efforts have enabled them, along with researchers in BC and around the world, to tackle scientific questions formerly untouchable, and to ensure BC has the capabilities to lead in the coming wave of translation of genomics technologies to the end users, both in the public and private sectors.
Dr. Andy Hoffer – Innovation and Achievement
During his doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University in the 1970s, SFU biomedical physiologist Andy Hoffer developed the first implantable device that recorded peripheral nerve activity, and used it to study how muscles are controlled during normal movements. Hoffer devoted the next 30 years to perfecting nerve activity sensing methods and developing clinical applications to help people with motor disabilities. He pioneered ways to make safe, stable, permanent connections with nerves, to reanimate paralyzed muscles by delivering small electrical currents, and to control movements by extracting feedback information from signals that travel in sensory nerves. In the 1990s, Hoffer developed advanced multi-channel nerve cuff electrodes that both pick up signals from, and selectively activate, multiple targets within a nerve bundle, and demonstrated in animals the long-term safety and efficacy of these methods. These breakthroughs led to the formation of the SFU spinoff company Neurostream Technologies in 1997 and the development of the Neurostep assistive system for walking in people with hemiplegia and foot drop.
Neurostep is the first and only medical device that activates the paralyzed foot to enable walking and is completely implanted inside the thigh, like a pacemaker. Another unique feature is that Neurostep directly monitors nerve activity patterns generated by the natural sensory receptors in the foot sole, from which the device detects changes in foot loading while walking. When weight is taken off the affected foot, the device automatically stimulates the nerves that activate the paralyzed leg muscles, causing them to flex the ankle and lift the foot. Hoffer explains that the device “in effect replaces lost or malfunctioning neural control circuitry in the brain.”
In 1997, Hoffer assembled a multidisciplinary team to develop commercial fabrication methods. Clinical applications became possible by 2002, when the Neurostream team succeeded at laser-fabricating nerve cuff electrodes, designing chip-based, low-power, low-noise amplifiers capable of resolving 1 microVolt nerve signals, and embedding these in an implantable system. The first patient trial was conducted in 2003 over eight months in a hemiplegic subject in Vancouver.
Neurostream Technologies was bought in 2004 by Victhom Human Bionics, a publicly traded Canadian company. Victhom carried out Neurostep trials in three clinical sites and obtained the first CE mark approval of its kind for a closed-loop system that uses signals sensed directly from peripheral nerves. Otto Bock HealthCare, the world’s largest prosthetics company, acquired 55.6% ownership of Neurostream in 2009 and is marketing the Neurostep, with first sales in Europe expected in 2010.
Neurostream Technologies is now working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials in the United States. By extending the technology to applications for people affected by loss of control functions such as urinary incontinence, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis, the patient pool that could benefit from the Neurostep core technology is estimated to be at least 2.5 million worldwide.
Meanwhile, in 2007 Hoffer conceived a new therapeutic approach to preserve the strength of the diaphragm in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. Ventilation can be life-saving, but can also cause rapid, profound disuse atrophy of the diaphragm muscle. Of 1.8 million intensive care unit (ICU) patients in USA and Canada who were mechanically ventilated in 2008, about 30% failed to wean and became ventilator-dependent. Patients on prolonged ventilation have higher incidence of hospital-borne re-infections, require longer, costlier ICU stays, and are 7-fold more likely to die in hospital. Patients requiring ventilation for 3 weeks or longer, alone, account for 15% of entire hospital in-patient annual budgets.
Hoffer’s goal is to keep the diaphragm muscle strong by rhythmically “pacing” the phrenic nerves connected to it with a proprietary minimally invasive, disposable, intravenous electrode connected to a bedside control unit, in order to facilitate weaning from ventilation. With initial proof of concept, safety and stability data obtained in animals in 2009, Hoffer and SFU founded a new spinoff, Lungpacer Medical Inc., and reunited key Neurostep design engineers to accelerate the commercial development of the transvascular diaphragm pacing technology. Lungpacer’s “weaning solution” aims to help mechanically ventilated patients to breathe independently again and leave the ICU sooner, alive, in better health, and at far lower overall cost to hospitals and health care payors.
Don Avison – Leadership Award
Don Avison has been a highly-respected figure in not only BC’s life sciences sector, but across industries, epitomizing leadership by way of his numerous contributions to the province spanning many years.
Throughout his years of public service, he has garnered the highest level of respect from his peers. Most recently serving as the President of the Research Universities’ Council of BC, he was dedicated to representing our leading academic institutions, and ensuring they serve the people of the province in the most effective manner possible, while also being home to world-class research that forms the basis of our province’s knowledge-based industries.
Avison studied at Thompson Rivers University and Simon Fraser University before obtaining a law degree from the University of British Columbia in 1980. After practicing law in the Yukon and in BC, he joined the Federal Department of Justice, and was subsequently recruited to the Office of the Assistant Deputy Attorney General. In 1994, Mr. Avison was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice of the Government of the Northwest Territories, where he would also serve as a Deputy in the Office of the Premier. Mr. Avison returned to BC in 1997, when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Education, Skills and Training. He would later hold Deputy Minister positions in the Crown Corporations Secretariat and Ministry of Health before leaving government in 1999 to become the first President of the University Presidents’ Council of British Columbia. That organization evolved into what is now the Research Universities’ Council of BC.
While with the Council, Avison played key roles in the development of the Distributed Medical School Program now offered at U.B.C., UVic and at U.N.B.C. and with the doubling of seats in computer science, computer engineering and in electrical engineering. He championed the expansion of opportunities for graduate students and the building of stronger linkages with industry through initiatives like MITACS.
President Stephen Toope of UBC commented that “Don Avison has been a superb leader… and an articulate and passionate voice for higher education in Canada.”
In 2008, Avison served as Chairman of the BC Pharmaceutical Task Force that was assembled to engage in an exploration of the province’s pharmaceutical policy to provide advice to government on how best to maximize value for patients and value for money as well as examine ways to continuously improve the pharmaceutical approval process. The government accepted all 12 of the task force's recommendations in their entirety.
Then Minister of Health, the Honourable George Abbott commented that “The task force provided us with insightful analysis on improving patient care and enhancing the quality, safety and value of our world-class PharmaCare program. Their advice and recommendations will strengthen our significant investments in this vital area of the public health system, so that patients in B.C. continue to benefit from a public drug plan that is based on the best scientific evidence and sustainable for future generations.”
In 2006, Thompson Rivers University recognized Mr. Avison with their Distinguished Alumni Award for his contributions to public service, and he was also the recipient of the BCNET Lifetime Achievement Award for his exceptional support in raising the awareness of the importance of advanced networks. Avison has also dedicated his time to numerous not-for-profit Boards including that of LifeSciences BC, viatec (Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Centre), and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.
Neoteric Technology Ltd. (A Haemonetics Company) – Medical Device Company of the Year
Neoteric is a BC-based company with offices in Vancouver and England. In 1997, Neoteric set out to provide hospital blood chemistry laboratories a better way to accurately capture test orders at the bedside. In attempting to solve this problem, it became clear that there was a fundamental problem with accurate identification of patients. In 1999, a report titled “To Err is Human” that estimated that as many as 98,000 patients die every year in U.S. hospitals due to medical errors. These two factors defined Neoteric’s long term goal of ensuring that everything that is taken from or given to a patient in a hospital is linked to electronically readable positive patient identification.
This goal has resulted in a family of products for acute care hospitals that ensure that critical treatments are given to the right patient in the right way. Neoteric is now recognized as the world leader in blood transfusion management, mothers’ milk management, and blood sample collection. In April 2009, Neoteric was acquired by Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE). Haemonetics is a global healthcare company dedicated to providing innovative blood management solutions across the entire blood supply chain. Neoteric’s BloodTrack products now form a key part of this strategy.
By using very well established technology platforms, Neoteric is able to provide highly reliable, stable products that require little user training. This is reflected in the very rapid adoption of Neoteric’s systems at new sites. Neoteric’s Enterprise Architecture has proven its scalability in installations ranging from one computer in small hospitals of a few hundred beds, to regional blood management systems across entire cities, hundreds of clients and hospital groups of up to 3,800 beds. Several installations have achieved zero down time over a period of several years. Neoteric’s innovation is reflected in the allowance of three U.S. patents covering various aspects of blood transfusion management. Products: Neoteric’s BloodTrack® Transfusion management suite is now recognized and the most advanced blood transfusion management suit on the market. It provides full control over movement, storage, handling, and administration of transfusion blood. The newest module of the system (BloodTrack OnDemand) has been proven to greatly reduce the wastage and use of blood in surgery by providing ‘just in time’ inventory of blood in operating rooms.
Neoteric’s first market was the UK National Health Service, and has since installed one or more products in more than 180 hospitals in 5 countries. In the UK, systems are installed in more than 25% of hospital. Neoteric entered the North American market in 2007 and now has 10 sites in the US and Canada. A partnership with Mediware Information Systems and the recent acquisition by Haemonetics promises rapid growth in the US and other world markets..
The BloodTrack system has won Neoteric’s prime reference site, The John Radcliffe Hospital (Oxford, England) several awards, including overall first place in the 2007 GC Awards for Innovation in Information Technology, the Gaurdian Newspaper Public Service award for 2008 and the UK IT 2009 computing award for best public sector software project.
A study published in the AABB journal, Transfusion, showed dramatic time and cost savings achieved at hospitals that implement the BloodTrack system. At the John Radcliffe Hospital the average time to access blood in the operating room was reduced from 24 minutes to 59 seconds, and the time required for blood bank and clinical staff to manage blood preparation and delivery was reduced from 117 minutes to 34 minutes a day. At the same time, the number of blood units issued from the hospital blood bank was reduced by 52%. By implementing the BloodTrack system, the hospital was able to reduce the time to make blood available to patients and improve the efficiency of the hospital transfusion process. Similar results have been published by other hospitals, including Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, where overall blood bank workload was decreased by more than 50%.
Other Neoteric products include:
- LacTrack® suite ensures that mothers’ milk in intensive care nurseries is properly stored, ordered, prepared and is fed to the correct baby.
- PathCollect® system ensures that blood samples for testing are collected from the right patients, in the right way and accurately labelled.
Cardiome Pharma Corp. – Life Sciences Company of the Year
Cardiome’s demonstrated leadership in the British Columbia biotechnology industry and multiple successes in 2009 garnered it the title of Life Sciences Company of the Year.
The most significant success for Cardiome in 2009 was the signing of a license agreement with Merck & Co., Inc. for vernakalant, Cardiome’s investigational drug for treatment of atrial fibrillation. The agreement, which includes up to US$700 million in milestone payments, a US$100 million line of credit, and attractive royalties on sales, is the largest licensing deal ever signed by a Canadian biotechnology company, and the second largest deal ever for a cardiovascular drug in North America. The agreement provides Merck, a global leader in cardiovascular drug development, with exclusive global rights to the oral formulation of vernakalant for the maintenance of normal heart rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation, and exclusive rights outside of the United States, Canada and Mexico to the intravenous formulation of vernakalant for rapid conversion of acute atrial fibrillation to normal heart rhythm. Merck will be responsible for all future costs associated with the development, manufacturing and commercialization of vernakalant, and Cardiome has retained an option to co-promote vernakalant (oral) with Merck through a hospital-based sales force in the United States.
Following the signing of the Merck agreement, in July of 2009 Cardiome announced that Merck had filed a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) seeking marketing approval for vernakalant (iv) in the European Union, and receipt of a US$15 million milestone payment under the licensing agreement.
Finally in late 2009, Cardiome announced successful trial results from the Phase III AVRO study for vernakalant (iv), achieving statistical significance in demonstrating the superiority of vernakalant (iv) over amiodarone in the conversion of atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm. With the European review well underway, Cardiome and Merck look forward to an EMEA decision in 2010, and the potential to have vernakalant (iv) on the market by the end of the year.
