In one of the biggest biotech deals in Canada, UHN and its partners announced the launch of its latest startup company, Northern Biologics. The company has licensed research from Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Senior Scientists Drs. Benjamin Neel, Bradly Wouters and Robert Rottapel and University of Toronto researchers Drs. Sachdev Sidhu and Jason Moffat to pursue drug leads and a novel antibody generation platform focused on advancing antibody-based treatments for cancer and fibrosis.
Antibody-based therapies are a class of drugs generally capable of treating disease in a more targeted manner and with fewer side effects compared to chemical compounds. They are already being used successfully to treat diseases such as arthritis, Crohn disease and breast cancer. “The development of antibody-based therapies holds great promise for the treatment of cancer and other chronic diseases that carry an enormous socioeconomic burden,” says Dr. Bradly Wouters. “The formation of Northern Biologics creates an opportunity to translate discoveries made from investments in basic research and team science into products that can benefit patients.”
Northern Biologics is the first spin-out company from Blueline Biosciences, a Canadian biotechnology incubator backed by Versant Ventures. It was developed using a “build-to-buy” model pioneered by Versant Ventures, in which R&D capital is provided by seed funding and financial support from a big pharma company; once certain milestones are met, a structured exit strategy to buy the company is in place. Under an existing agreement with Blueline, Celgene Corporation has the right to negotiate an R&D collaboration with Northern Biologics, under which additional upfront capital and undisclosed future payments would be provided to the company.
“This is a transformational deal which had many moving parts and took several months of hard work by all the parties to execute,” says John Reid, Director of UHN’s Technology Development & Commercialization Office. “This is a big win for Canada and I hope it kicks off a new era of successful biotech north of the border. The investment in Northern Biologics validates the great science and technology available in Toronto, creates new R&D jobs, provides short and long term financial returns to the institutions and demonstrates that we can find innovative solutions to execute complex deals in the Toronto biomedical ecosystem.”
Northern Biologics will be based in the MaRS Discovery District and expects to fast-track its most promising drug candidates to prepare for human clinical trials within the next two years.
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