TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 6, 2015) - In under four years, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) has established an industry consortium of 45 companies, from around the globe, including Big Pharma and Canadian startups, that cover the key sectors in regenerative medicine (RM). These include companies like Canadian success story STEMCELL Technologies, and multinational firms such as GE Healthcare, Pfizer, Amgen, Lonza and Thermo Fisher, that specialize in reagents, devices, therapeutics and cells as tools. To date, CCRM has initiated 12 co-development partnerships with its industry members and more strategic projects are planned for the near future.
"CCRM is now fielding requests, on a weekly basis, and from around the world, from companies wanting to join our industry consortium," says Michael May, President and CEO of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine. "CCRM's value proposition, over traditional translation centres, is our focus on co-development and investing in technologies and companies with our stakeholders. Our industry consortium represents tremendous RM leadership and new companies want access."
"The RM field is on the verge of reaching its potential. CCRM, along with strategic industry partners, is putting initiatives in place that are addressing bottlenecks in RM product pipelines and our collaboration model is key to our success," explains Dr. May.
One new industry partner is Invetech, specialists in manufacturing scale-up and commercialization of RM technologies. "Invetech is proud to join CCRM's industry consortium and to contribute to the advancement of regenerative medicine. The issues around transferring manual, open laboratory cell processes to industrialized automated commercial solutions is an ongoing challenge for companies moving towards clinical scale-up," says Richard Grant, Global Vice President Cell Therapy. "CCRM and the industry consortium provide an opportunity for Invetech to support members in defining the problems and identifying their best solutions."
New companies to the industry consortium, and those not previously announced, include the following:
Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics
For a full list of the industry consortium, please visit: http://www.ccrm.ca/industry-consortium.
About the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM)
CCRM, a Canadian not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence program and academic partners, supports the development of technologies that accelerate the commercialization of stem cell- and biomaterials-based technologies and therapies. A network of academics, industry and entrepreneurs, CCRM aims to translate scientific discoveries into marketable products for patients with specialized team funding and infrastructure. CCRM launched in Toronto's Discovery District on June 14, 2011. CCRM is hosted by the University of Toronto.
CCRM sources and conducts diligence on intellectual property from around the globe, performing fee-for-service and development projects with academia and industry in the areas of cell reprogramming and engineering, cell manufacturing and biomaterials. CCRM has a fully resourced, 6,000 square foot development facility used to advance technologies for out-licensing or company creation.
Contact Information:
Stacey Johnson
Director of Communications
647-309-1830
Stacey.johnson@ccrm.ca
www.ccrm.ca