Vancouver: A Major Innovation Hub For Nanomedicines and

Personalized Medicine

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Dr. Pieter Cullis,DirectorLife Sciences Institute, UBC

Vancouver is a Major Innovation Hub For Nanomedicines

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Lipid nanoparticle delivery systems to reduce toxicity,

enhance potency of conventional drugs, enable

RNA, DNA-based drugs to be used as therapeutics

TitleCOMPANY PRODUCT

EMPLOYEES

(in Vancouver)

Arbutus BioPharmaLipid nanoparticles (LNP) to treat

hepatitis B>100

Acuitas Therapeutics

LNP systems to treat genetic

diseases and for vaccine

applications

>10

Celator Pharmaceuticals

(acquired by Jazz Pharma in

May, 2016 for $1.5B)

LNP containing cancer drugs to

treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML)~10

Precision NanoSystemsMicrofluidic systems for

manufacturing LNP systems>40

Transferra NanoSciences

(acquired by Evonik Industries

in June 2016)

Contract research organization

(CRO) for formulation of biologically

active agents into LNP systems

>50

Key Nanomedicines Companies

Title

Case Study: Precision NanoSystems Invent microfluidic mixing technology to form lipid nanoparticles

(2010)

Convince University-Industry Office to patent itForm company

(“NewCo”) and raise seed funds

License patent from University into Precision

Put research contract in place between Precision and UBC (all

improvements flow to company)

Write grants for translational funds to move Precision technology

forward (>$2M)

Move Precision out of lab when products are mature enough to

secure outside funding

Raised $14M USD in Series A financing (2015)

NAME PRODUCTEMPLOYEES

(in Vancouver)

GenXys

Healthcare

Clinical decision support system to guide

drug prescription to avoid adverse reactions. ~10

Contextual

Genomics

Personalized chemotherapy for cancer

treatment~30

Cyon

TherapeuticsPersonalized treatment for sepsis ~10

Microbiome

Insights

Microbiome analyses for personalized

medicine~10

Personalized

Biomarkers IncPersonalized treatments for diabetes ~3

Molecular You

Corporation

Omic (genomic, proteomic, metabolomic,

microbiomic) dataclouds to practice

personalized medicine

~15

Key Personalized Medicine Companies

Case Study: Molecular You Corp.

Molecular data-clouds for each individual

Well people, disease cohorts

Disease stratification

Better matching of treatment to disease

Identification of new biomarkers/targets associated with disease

Early detection

Effective preventive medicine

Case Study: Molecular You Corp. Realized need for molecular profiling (Leroy Hood)

Disease stratification

Preventive medicine

Formed MYCo, raised seed funds ($250K)

Identified resources to do genomic, proteomic, metabolomic

and microbiomic analyses

Accessed funding for demonstration projects on 11 healthy

volunteers

Identified resources to interpret the data

Developed ability to present data in user friendly format

Raised more seed funds ($1M)

Roll out product (February 2017)

SUMMARY

Vancouver global innovation hub for nanomedicines

3 of 10 approved nanomedicines in Vancouver

10 companies employing over 200 people

Aggregate market capitalization > $0.5B

Vancouver aspiring global hub for personalized medicine

Two products (clinical decision support system and MYCo

profiling) about to be marketed to consumers

6 companies employing ~75 people

Aspirations to be the personalized medicine capital of the

world