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BC Cancer Agency
“Positioning for Excellence &
Partnership with Industry”
Dr. Samuel Abraham
Vice-President Strategic Relationships &
Vice-President Research
BCCA – A Living Laboratory for Cancer Research
Whitehorse, Yukon
•
Best outcomes in Canada - BC
has the lowest age standardized
mortality and incidence per
100,000
•
Diverse population of ~ 4.61 million
people
•
Province-wide screening programs
•
13 networked tumour groups
•
A single population-based cancer
control program
Cancer Centre and
Research Centre
Centre
Consultative Clinic
Screening
Mammography
Centres, Cervical
Cytology Screening
Program
Prince Rupert
Terrace
Kitimat
Dawson
Creek
Prince
George
Kamloops
Vernon
Powell River
Kelowna
Penticton
Nelson
Campbell River
Comox
Port Alberni
Nanaimo
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A centralized database of all
Cranbrook cancer outcomes
Chilliwack Trail
Fraser Valley (Surrey)
Vancouver Island Vancouver Abbotsford
(Victoria)
•
Creston
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Research at BCCA (FY 2015)
•
$270,316,062 in research funding in the past five years (does not include
Clinical Trials)
•
319 researchers - 120 of these are clinician/researchers
•
519 trainees (masters, doctoral, post-doc fellows, practicum and co-op
students)
•
524 journal articles published, up 22% from the previous year
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Partnerships
• Academic partnerships
– Affiliations with UBC, SFU, UVic, UNBC, CDRD, Genome BC
– Inter-institutional Agreements with academic centers across the globe
• Research Partnerships with Pharma and Biotech
– Collaborative partnerships
– Clinical Trials
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Research Strategies
• People – to attract, train and retain top caliber research personnel
• Platforms – to leverage and strengthen the platforms in place and
advance them to next-generation for the enhancement and sustainability of
the research enterprise
• Programs – to draw on the BCCA tumor site specific programs and
population-based system to extract critical data for research & to translate
new ideas and technologies into practice via the test-bed of a living
laboratory at the BCCA
• Partnerships – to create appropriate internal and external partnerships to
drive the research mandate
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Integration of BCCA Research
Pipeline for Drug Discovery
Genes
Identification
of Targets
Validation of
Targets
Screening
against
compound
libraries
Pre Clinical
Testing
Clinical Testing
BCCA has research platforms to move technologies from the lab to the clinic
Patient
Genome
Sciences
(Lymphoma, POG,
Centre (GSC)
Breast, etc)
Programs
Bioinformatics
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Centre for
Investigational
Drug Research
Drug
& Development
Program
Clinical Trials
Facility
Functional
Imaging
Research Platforms
Bioinformatics Platform - GSC; Molecular Oncology; Terry Fox Laboratory
Clinical Trials Platform – across all BCCA sites
Drug Development Platform- Investigational Drug Program (IDP)
Functional Imaging – PET, Radiopharmaceutical Development
Genomics Platform - Genome Analysis Platform at GSC
Health Economics - Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC)
Materials, Data and Tissue Platforms - Tumour Tissue Repository (TTR); BC Generations Project;
Centre for Lymphoid Cancer; Genetic Pathology Evaluation Centre (GPEC); Epidemiology
Permission to Contact Platform - Personal Response Determinants in Cancer Therapy (PREDICT)
Personalized OncoGenomics Program – GSC, clinic
Proteomics Platform - GSC
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Clinical Trials Platform
• BCCA has been performing clinical trials for over 30 years
• Clinical trial capabilities available at all six cancer centres
• High rates of enrollment: 9% of patients enroll in studies (Vancouver site)
• Consistent enrollment (~300 patients in ~40 new trials per year)
• Longitudinal follow-up of patients
• Internationally renowned clinical researchers across multiple tumour groups
• Close collaboration with researchers
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Investigational Drug Program (IDP)
BCCA operates a Drug Research Institute in partnership with the
Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD)
• Dr Marcel Bally (Head of Experimental Therapeutics at BCCA) is
also CDRD Pharmacology and Toxicology Division Chair
• IDP contributes to CDRD studies
• Includes operational space (office and lab) and support of optical
imaging
IDP provides drug manufacturing products & services:
• cGMP to fabricate and test in injectable format
• cGLP compliant rodent safety testing (SCC accredited)
• Analytical testing including stability studies
• QA & QC monitoring
• Clinical Trial Protocol Assistance and Support Services
• Pre-Clinical Drug Evaluation Services
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Genome Sciences Centre (GSC): A National Platform
Clinical Genomics
Dr Marco Marra (Director)
• Since 2001, 593 projects totalling $772M with 25%
international funding
• 13 Illumina HiSeq 2500 sequencers
• 10,000 cores, 8+ petabytes storage
• GSC #5 in list of 10 best research facilities in Canada
(Backbone Magazine, March 2013)
• In silico drug development efforts led by Dr Steve
Jones with a focus on chromatin remodeling
• Cell survival/autophagy research led by Dr Sharon
Gorski
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BCCA Tumour Tissue Repository (Materials Platform)
•
Dr Peter Watson (Director)
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Tissue Processing and Storage Laboratory:
– state-of the-art : high resolution imaging system+ LaserAssisted Micro-dissection system
•
Bioinformatics Clinical Research Database:
– IBM partnership
– convergence of patient lifestyle, tumour and molecular
data
Advantages for validating cancer biomarkers:
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•
comprehensive patient and molecular data collection: precise
tumour characterization and individualized patient therapy
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A core component of the Canadian National Tumour Bank
Network
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Personalized OncoGenomics Program
Project Leaders Dr Janessa Laskin, Dr Marco Marra
• A clinical research initiative
• embeds genomic sequencing into real-time treatment planning for
BC patients with incurable cancers
• A research study for cancer patients with metastatic disease currently on
first line treatment at the BC Cancer Agency
• Outcome data available for 78 patients
• results clinically informative in 65 cases (85%)
• 55 cases (70%) actionable
• 34 cases received treatment based on analysis
• 14 cases experienced clinical benefit
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Commercialization Metrics (FY 2011-2015)
FY 2011
FY 2012
FY 2013
FY 2014
FY 2015
Invention
Disclosures
36
44
45
41
48
Patent Applications
22
22
17
16
27
41
45
47
56
61
18
24
28
32
36
7
7
7
7
6
(Provisional)
Patents Issued
(Cumulative since 2000)
Active License
Agreements
(Cumulative since 2000)
Active Spin off
Companies
(Cumulative since 2000)
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Research Impacts
Top 10 Listings in Canada (June 2013)
• Patent applications per $M of research income:
– Institutions on average applied for 0.12 patents per $1M of research funding
– BCCA applied for 0.38 patents per $1M of research funding (Ranked #1)
•
Patents issued per $M of research income:
– BCCA received 0.14 patents per $M of research funding (Ranked #1)
•
Patent applications submitted:
– Top health organization - BCCA- applied for 22 patents
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Spin Off Companies
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Coastal Genomics
Verisante Technology
Essa Pharmaceuticals
Aquinox Pharmaceuticals
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp
LED Medical Inc.
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© Provincial Health Services Authority 2015
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Coastal Genomics
• Offers automation for Next Generation Sequencing for agarose
gel loading, size selection, and sample extraction.
• Ranger is only instrument to offer turnkey automation for
agarose gel loading, size selection, and sample extraction.
• Developed by Robin Coope at Genome Sciences Center
• Vancouver based company
• Start up: 2012
• Product placed at Beta sites
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© Provincial Health Services Authority 2015
Verisante Technology
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Commercial systems for the early detection of cancer
Focus on skin cancer diagnosis using Raman spectroscopy
Future products for GI, lung and cervix
Technology developed by Dr Haishan Zeng in Medical Imaging Dept
Vancouver based company
Start up: 2010
Approved for sale in Canada, EU,
and Australia
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Essa Pharmaceuticals
• Developing drugs to treat recurrent prostate cancer patients
• Developing drugs which selectively block the N-terminus of the
androgen receptor, by-passing mechanisms of Castrate-Resistant
Prostate Cancer
• Technology developed by Drs Marianne Sadar and Ray Anderson
• Vancouver based company
• Start up: 2009
• Pre-clinical development
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Aquinox Pharmaceuticals
• Novel and targeted small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of
inflammatory disease and cancer
• Target discovered by Dr Gerry Krystal
• Vancouver based company
• Start up: 2005
• Two Phase II trials completed 2013
• Other Phase II studies ongoing
• US $98 Million financing 2015
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Arbutus Biopharma
• Marqibo (vincristine sulfate LIPOSOME injection)
• For treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in patients
that test negative for the Philadelphia Chromosome (Ph-)
• ALL is a dangerous and rare type of cancer
– affects 4,000 new patients a year
– two thirds of the cases in younger children
– Due to the rarity of the disease, Marquibo has been granted
orphan drug status
• Marquibo is on the market as of September 2013
• Initial development by Dr Marcel Bally and colleagues at BCCA
• Arbutus Biopharma is a Vancouver based company
• Start up: 1999 (as Tekmira/Inex Pharma)
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© Provincial Health Services Authority 2015
LED Medical Inc.
• A leading developer of LED-based visualization technologies for
the medical industry
• Velscope assists in the discovery of oral abnormalities
• Co-developed by Peter Whitehead and the Cancer Imaging Dept
(now Integrative Oncology)
• Vancouver based company started in 1997
• The VELscope Vx product released for sale 2013
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© Provincial Health Services Authority 2015
Conclusion
Unique linkage between clinic and researchers is impacting the care of
cancer patients throughout the province
Deploying research discoveries into the marketplace and promoting
partnerships with industry is producing economic benefits and creating
employment and investment in British Columbia through development of a
strong technology sector
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© Provincial Health Services Authority 2015
Thank you
© Provincial Health Services Authority 2015