The Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer — Commercialization of Research (IRICoR) is pleased to announce that its clinical-stage spin-off company, ExCellThera, won the $20,000 first prize in the Pharma & Biotech category at the HealthKick Challenge, which took place in Toronto, Ontario, on April 5th.
ExCellThera, the result of IRICoR’s collaboration with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), develops product and service solutions based on the novel proprietary intellectual property related to the expansion of stem cells developed by Dr. Guy Sauvageau, from the Université de Montréal’s (UdeM) Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), and Dr. Peter Zandstra at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering. A Phase I/II clinical trial, designed to test the ability of ExCellThera’s stem cell expansion approach, is ongoing at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal, and will include other centers in the near future. The trial will enroll up to 25 patients suffering from hematological malignancies who require stem cell transplants for the treatment of their disease.
“We are delighted that ExCellThera has been recognized by an international panel of investors as one of Canada’s most promising companies,” emphasized Dr. Nadine Beauger, CEO of IRICoR. “The HealthKick prize further demonstrates the value of IRICoR in developing new therapeutic approaches to treating diseases with high unmet medical needs, and then transferring these assets to companies such as ExCellThera who will further their development.”
To read the ExCellThera press release clic here
About the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer – Commercialization of Research (IRICoR)
As Université de Montréal’s drug discovery and project maturation cluster, IRICoR is a not-for-profit organization based at IRIC, with the mandate to accelerate the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies in cancer, immunotherapy and related fields. Since its creation in 2008, IRICoR successfully invests in and supports cutting-edge projects with disruptive technologies to rapidly translate innovation into patient-accessible therapies, through either co-development partnerships with industry or company creation. IRICoR seamlessly integrates business-related expertise with industry-level drug discovery in a world-renowned research institute, providing academics with access to a full drug discovery chain with one of the largest academia-based medicinal chemistry groups in Canada. For more information about IRICoR: www.iricor.ca