API: Building Capacity for the Canadian Life Sciences Industry

In Canada, many life science companies and innovators find support to develop their ideas and secure funding locally, but are unable to find support expanding their operations. This requires the company or innovator to move their operations to locations or seek partners outside of Canada. Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API), a not-for-profit institution based in Edmonton, Alberta, is focused on securing support for product development and large-scale manufacturing within Canada, using a network of collaborating organizations.

API’s expert interdisciplinary team works with its network to provide a wide range of services for industry and innovators who are pursuing the commercial development of life sciences discoveries. To support industry and innovators, API’s works on three goals: provide industry with opportunities to access world-class expertise and services, lend researchers and startups with the expertise needed to take their idea from discovery to successful phase II clinical trials, and create training opportunities for post-doctoral fellows and students that builds capacity for the Canadian life sciences industry.

API is founded on the principal that in order to truly build an innovative and vibrant life sciences sector, we must provide a framework that trains highly personnel on industry projects at the pace of industry, while pulling together the expertise of Canadian research-intensive institutions. Not only is adding skilled labour and jobs important to API, it also contributes significantly to the diversification of Alberta’s economy. Alberta is home to Canada’s largest integrated health system, providing an ideal setting for health research. The province is also a world leader in artificial intelligence and oil and gas production. The pharmaceutical development and manufacturing sector is unique in its ability to make use of all of these strengths.

Over the past year, API has added 30 new highly skilled trainees to the Canadian Life Sciences Industry. API has also supported 22 innovators at varying stages of commercial development over the past year. These projects have contributed to adding more than $23 million in value to the province of Alberta.

One of the projects contributing to these numbers is API’s involvement with Entos Pharmaceuticals, a Canadian company in the midst of COVID-19 vaccine development and testing. API provided an enhanced space which allowed the Entos team to more than double in size. API also started local GMP production of inputs for clinical trial manufacturing, securing Canadian-based manufacturing resiliency for Entos. The project embodies API’s larger objectives of providing translational capacity for life sciences companies. Applying these efforts to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis instantly demonstrates the affect pharmaceutical development and manufacturing could have on our region, and Canada, in a concrete manner.

To find out more about Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation, visit appliedpharma.ca.

 


 

        Article provided by Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation