The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) team up to advance cutting-edge new cancer treatments

VANCOUVER and TORONTO, July 28, 2015 /CNW/ - Two of Canada's leading drug research and commercialization centres have announced a call for proposals to help bring new cancer treatments to patients through collaborative technology-development projects from academic investigators across Canada.

The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) are providing opportunities for Canadian academic investigators at the cutting edge of cancer research to translate and advance their early-stage technologies and discoveries through pre-clinical development in order to ultimately bring new therapies to patients.

This unique partnership offers unprecedented access to commercialization resources and infrastructure to de-risk and validate new disease-modifying therapies for oncology. The partners are looking to collaborate on projects that will advance the preclinical development of novel therapeutics that focus on innovative targets or therapeutic approaches including small molecules, biologics and cell based therapies.

Unlike traditional grants, CDRD and OICR will work in partnership with academic investigators to develop collaborative project plans addressing the critical steps that are required to advance cancer therapies from the lab towards the clinic and patients who will benefit. Projects will be milestone-driven with clear go/no-go decision points with budgets depending on the scope of the project.

CDRD President and CEO, Karimah Es Sabar commented, "We are very pleased to be partnering with OICR, and to be bringing together resources from across the country to help bring new cancer treatments to the market. By utilizing and leveraging our complementary expertise and infrastructure, we are excited to be accelerating the development of safe and effective treatments for cancer patients."

Dr. Rima Al-awar, Director of OICR's Drug Discovery Program said, "Collaboration is essential to bringing innovative research ideas to patients. OICR is proud to partner with the CDRD to help academic investigators move their most promising discoveries to the clinic and to help move cancer research forward."

The program is open and currently seeking pre-proposals. More information can be found here: www.cdrd.ca/news.

About The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD):

CDRD is Canada's fully-integrated national drug development and commercialization centre, providing expertise and infrastructure to enable researchers from leading health research institutions to advance promising early-stage drug candidates. Its mandate is to de-risk discoveries stemming from publicly-funded health research and transform them into viable investment opportunities for the private sector — thus successfully bridging the commercialization gap between academia and industry, and translating research discoveries into new therapies for patients. Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence Program has recognized CDRD as a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). www.cdrd.ca

About the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR):

OICR is an innovative cancer research and development institute dedicated to prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The Institute is an independent, not-for-profit corporation, supported by the Government of Ontario. OICR's research supports more than 1,700 investigators, clinician scientists, research staff and trainees located at its headquarters and in research institutes and academia across the Province of Ontario. OICR has key research efforts underway in small molecules, biologics, stem cells, imaging, genomics, informatics and bio-computing. For more information, please visit the website at www.oicr.on.ca.

SOURCE Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Julia White, Manager, Communications, CDRD, [email protected], Telephone: [phone], Mobile: [phone]; Christopher Needles, Manager, Strategic Communications, OICR, [email protected], Telephone: [phone], Mobile: [phone]