IRIC - Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer

Published on April 7, 2017

The Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer — Commercialization of Research (IRICoR) is pleased to announce that its clinical-stage spin-off company, ExCellThera, won the $20,000 first prize in the Pharma & Biotech category at the HealthKick Challenge, which took place in Toronto, Ontario, on April 5th.

ExCellThera, the result of IRICoR’s collaboration with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), develops product and service solutions based on the novel proprietary intellectual property related to the expansion of stem cells developed by Dr. Guy Sauvageau, from the Université de Montréal’s (UdeM) Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), and Dr. Peter Zandstra at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering. A Phase I/II clinical trial, designed to test the ability of ExCellThera’s stem cell expansion approach, is ongoing at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal, and will include other centers in the near future. The trial will enroll up to 25 patients suffering from hematological malignancies who require stem cell transplants for the treatment of their disease.

“We are delighted that ExCellThera has been recognized by an international panel of investors as one of Canada’s most promising companies,” emphasized Dr. Nadine Beauger, CEO of IRICoR. “The HealthKick prize further demonstrates the value of IRICoR in developing new therapeutic approaches to treating diseases with high unmet medical needs, and then transferring these assets to companies such as ExCellThera who will further their development.”