IRIC - Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer

Published on February 8, 2013

Major investments in drug discovery in academia were announced this week at IRIC in the presence of representatives of both levels of government, the biopharmaceutical industry and the academic community. These investments were made public during a special event organized by IRIC and IRICoR, its Centre of Excellence in Commercialization and Research, on the theme ” Academy-Industry Partnerships in Drug Discovery: A model for the future”.
The Canadian Foundation for Innovation awards the equivalent of 10.5 million dollars to IRIC for infrastructure.

M. Jean Belzile Assistant Deputy Minister of the ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur, Recherche, Science et Technologie du Québec and Pierre Normand, Vice-President at the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced the award to IRIC of this major grant obtained through the 2012 competition of the Leading Edge Fund of the CFI. The CFI and the Government of Québec each contribute 4.2M$ while several manufacturers of high tech equipment contribute the equivalent of 2.1M$. This award will serve to put in place an integrated ultra-high-throughput platform for Chemical Systems Biology (CSB). This infrastructure will complement IRIC’s already extensive existing drug discovery platform with new ultra-high throughput screening technologies and single molecule detection capabilities.

The project led by Dr. Mike Tyers, Principal Investigator at IRIC and professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Montréal, is based on the integration of multiple technological innovations and will allow a more comprehensive exploration of chemical and target space while allowing a saving of time and cost, thereby increasing the productivity of the entire chain of discovery. The innovative character of the project comes from the integration of new approaches in computer modeling, compound synthesis, and screen assays based on confocal imaging, single molecule detection, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry. “Our goal is not only to make the process more efficient, but to create a new paradigm for the systematic identification of bioactive molecules against many different biological targets” said Mike Tyers.

The combination of approaches that characterizes this new research infrastructure will allow researchers to develop chemical probes against the complex networks of interactions between the thousands of proteins in our cells. According to Mike Tyers “It is clear that it is the lack of understanding of complex biological systems that most often leads to the failure of drug candidates in clinical trials. Thanks to these innovative approaches and a better understanding of the control systems of the cell, we will be able to better predict all the effects of bioactive small molecules much earlier in the drug development process.” The new Chemical Systems Biology platform will be a major asset for basic research on the molecular mechanisms that underpin cancer.

The IRIC-Bristol-Myers Squibb Partnership, a model to emulate.
Dr. Carl Decicco, Senior Vice President, Discovery, Chemistry and Optimization Candidates at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) presented a lecture entitled “Academic Partnerships and Innovation in Drug Discovery.”
The highlight of this presentation was the announcement of a major license agreement and collaborative research partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb for the development of two innovative projects in oncology from IRIC.
Under the terms of the agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb will fund aspects of the pre-defined research activities for both IRIC programs and will employ its internal resources to supplement IRIC’s activities on the programs. Once drug candidates have been identified, Bristol-Myers Squibb will be responsible for all further development and commercialization. IRICoR will receive milestone payments based on the progress of the research and development of each program, and will be eligible to receive royalties on the sales of any products resulting from the collaboration, sums that will be reinvested to support IRIC’s drug discovery activities.

IRICoR, a non-profit organization created by the University of Montréal (UdeM) with a mandate to accelerate the commercialization of discoveries in oncology from IRIC and the Université de Montréal, has played a crucial role in the conclusion of this agreement. With support from IRIC’s partners from the private sector, IRICoR funded projects and allowed them to mature to a sufficiently advanced stage to consolidate the commitment of Bristol-Myers Squibb. “We look forward to continue working closely with Bristol-Myers Squibb to optimize the value of both programs and ensure they advance as quickly as possible towards the clinic.”, said Dr. Michel Bouvier, CEO of IRICoR.
During his presentation, Dr. Decicco emphasized the growing importance of this type of partnership for the biopharmaceutical industry facing significant restructuration. He reminded his audience that Bristol-Myers Squibb has already been working with IRIC for several years and stated that he was impressed not only by the quality of the research done here, but also the professionalism of the IRIC/IRICoR team in projects management. He sees this partnership as a model to emulate.
Dr. Guy Sauvageau, Director of IRIC agrees. “It is clear that in addition to excelling in basic research, a center like ours must also take its place further downstream in the drug discovery chain, in those steps of development that the industry is increasingly interested in sharing with academia. Today’s announcement clearly demonstrates that this is what IRIC has accomplished, in large part due to the remarkable work of the IRICoR team since its inception less than 5 years.”