AmacaThera, a 2017 OBIO CAAP company who presented at the 2018 OBIO Investment Summit, has raised $10.3 million and was featured in the Globe and Mail. The funds will be used to take their injectable gel product that can improve post-surgery pain treatment into human safety trials this year.
Notch Therapeutics Closes $85 Million Series A Financing
Notch Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company developing renewable, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell therapies for cancer, announced the closing of an oversubscribed U.S. $85 million Series A financing. Proceeds from the financing will support the continuing development of Notch’s portfolio of iPSC-derived T cell therapeutic product candidates and clinical readiness of the company’s proprietary Engineered Thymic Niche (ETN) platform.
Microbix Introduces Viral Transport Medium
Microbix Biosystems Inc., a life sciences innovator and exporter, announced the commercial availability of its viral transport medium (VTM) to support Canadian RT-PCR (molecular) testing for the virus causing COVID-19 disease. Microbix has created a secure and locally-based supply of high-quality VTM and has begun VTM production at 50,000 vials per week using semi-automated methods and is targeting more-automated production of over 400,000 vials per week by the end of its fiscal 2021.
Richardson Wealth and Bloom Burton & Co. Announce Strategic Alliance to Expand Wealth Solutions in Healthcare Sector
Richardson Wealth Limited and Bloom Burton & Co. Inc., two of Canada’s premier independent financial services firms, have entered into a strategic alliance dedicated exclusively on the healthcare sector. This strategic alliance helps unlock growth potential for both firms.
WELL Health Technologies to Acquire CRH Medical for $373 Million
British Columbia’s WELL Health Technologies is set to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of fellow Vancouver health services company CRH Medical for $373 million CAD ($292.7 million USD). WELL Health plans to finance the transaction with a non-brokered private placement equity offering.
OIRM Kick-start Innovation Investment Program
OBIO is proud to partner with the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine (OIRM), the Centre for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy and Regenerative Medicine (C3i), BioInnovation Fund, Bloom Burton & Co., and Versant Ventures to ensure made-in-Ontario technologies get the strategic support they need to succeed.
Kick-Start will support successful applicants with resources to create an incorporated business, along with market assessments and an IP/commercialization plan. Investment funding of up to $100,000 and expert guidance from partners will help researcher attract early-stage investment and build value for the new company. The program will also link applicants with investors and other private sector expertise needed to attract funding and to develop and market the proposed technology.
Flosonics Medical Closes US$14M Financing Round and Expands Board of Directors
Flosonics Medical announced the close of a $14 million USD funding round led by Arboretum Ventures. The financing also included participation from existing investors iGan Partners and Genesys Capital. Dan Kidle, Partner at Arboretum Ventures, will join the board of directors.
The Globe and Mail highlights RBC's investment in new Lumira venture fund
The Globe and Mail recently profiled Royal Bank of Canada's undisclosed investment in the country’s largest life sciences venture capital fund in two decades. Lumira is raising its fourth fund with a target of reaching US$200-million to back Canadian and U.S. drug and medical technology developers.
Globe and Mail features Providence Therapeutics in column, ‘Now we know why we need a vaccine industry in Canada'
The Globe and Mail featured a column this week by Campbell Clark which featured Providence Therapeutics and argued why investing in made-in-Canada vaccines is important. Providence Therapeutics will be presenting at this year’s OBIO Investment Summit.
Satellos Receives $1 Million Investment from Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy
Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), a nonprofit organization leading the fight to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne), announced a $1 million programmatic investment in Satellos Bioscience to support the development of a new regenerative medicine for the therapeutic treatment of Duchenne.
Flosonics receives funding to hire software developers
Flosonics Medical will receive $500,000 from the federal government to help commercialize its FDA-cleared FloPatch. Flosonics Medical will use the funds to hire a team of software developers and industry experts to develop the IT infrastructure needed to roll out its FDA-cleared FloPatch medical device.
VoxNeuro featured on CBC Marketplace
VoxNeuro and their Cognitive Health Assessment™ was featured on an episode of CBC Marketplace. Susie Goulding, founder of COVID Long-Haulers Support Group Canada, spoke how COVID-19 has affected her brain function.
Health Canada authorizes Virocule’s COVID-19 rapid home test for sale
Markham-based Virocule recently received approval from Health Canada for their ANOSMIC COVID-19 Smell Test, an all-natural spray producing a characteristic odour, which has been established through clinical studies to be a screening marker for COVID-19.
Vasomune Therapeutics Announces Initiation of the First-in-Human Clinical Trial of a Potential Vascular Normalization COVID-19 Treatment
Vasomune, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced the first subjects have been dosed in a Phase 1 study of AV-001 in healthy subjects. AV-001 is a first-in-class therapeutic that targets the Tie2 tyrosine kinase receptor, a key regulatory protein in the vasculature responsible for maintaining normal vascular function. Should the benefit demonstrated in animal studies translate to the clinic, AV-001 has the potential to improve survival and shorten the duration of hospitalization for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Microbix and Copan Italia Execute Strategic Agreement
Microbix Biosystems Inc., a life sciences innovator and exporter, and Copan Italia S.p.A., the global leader in specimen collection technologies, announced their execution of a strategic agreement in relation to Microbix’s quality assessment products (QAPs™) and Copan’s flocked devices (FLOQ®). Twelve such FLOQ-based QAPs SKUs have already been created and introduced. Of those, fully IVD-regulated REDxFLOQ controls are now available to support lab-based molecular-test workflows for the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the cause of COVID-19 disease).
MCI Onehealth Closes $30 Million Initial Public Offering
MCI Onehealth, a Toronto-based healthtech company, has closed $30 million CAD for its initial public offering (IPO). The company is working on several software products, including an artificial intelligence-enabled technology aimed to increase the rate of detection for chronic disease and improve overall clinical standards.
ExCellThera gets EMA Priority Medicines designation for ECT-001 cell therapy
ExCellThera’s ECT-001 cell therapy for patients with blood cancers and disorders requiring stem cell transplants has received a Priority Medicines designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
ManagingLife's digital solution helps manage chronic pain disability claims
ManagingLife, a private developer of the digital pain management solution, Manage My Pain, announced the publication of its first case study of its solution being used by clients with disability. The case study highlights Manage My Pain's impact on clients receiving disability benefits from RBC Insurance in terms of their claims experience and claim durations.
7D Surgical expands into European market
7D Surgical, a Toronto based medical device company developing advanced, cutting-edge optical and machine-vision technologies for surgical navigation, announced that it is expanding its footprint into the European Market with multiple units already placed.
Ripple Therapeutics secures Licensing Agreement and Series A Financing led by Théa Open Innovation
Ripple Therapeutics Corporation, a clinical stage, ophthalmology-focused developer of novel therapeutics, announced the signing of an exclusive Licensing Agreement for the rights to their lead product, IBE-814, for North America and Europe with Théa Open Innovation ("TOI") a wholly owned subsidiary of Laboratoires Théa, the leading independent ophthalmology pharmaceutical company in Europe. In addition to the Licensing Agreement, Ripple announced that TOI is leading their Series A Financing.