Montreal – December 14, 2021 – CQDM is delighted with Monday’s announcement by Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of the Economy and Innovation and Minister responsible for Regional Economic Development, at the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal’s Strategic Forum on the Pharmaceutical Industry. Through the FACS, the Quebec government will provide $35 million in funding for four major initiatives based on close collaboration between the public and private sectors.
CQDM would like to congratulate the four recipient consortia who will lead these initiatives, and to thank the Quebec government, which, through this funding, has reiterated the importance of these investments in supporting Quebec’s life sciences sector. These initiatives are part of the sector’s economic recovery, and will support the development of Quebec’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
These four initiatives, worth a total of $74 million, involve 8 public institutions, 28 SMEs, 5 pharmaceutical companies and a dozen other partner organizations. The objectives of the initiatives are to:
- increase the maturity and competitiveness of innovative SMEs in the life sciences sector, both nationally and internationally;
- strengthening the sector’s innovation chain, by speeding up and improving the efficiency of development and maturation processes for innovations from Quebec companies;
- developing or strengthening a promising niche;
- attracting private and foreign investment.
These four initiatives are :
- “Paradigm shift in the conduct of clinical trials”, a project led by Jean-Claude Tardif (Montreal Heart Institute), with six public collaborators and eleven private partners. Total value of the project: $21.47 million.
- “Neuro-CERVO Alliance for drug discovery in brain diseases”, a project led by Edward Fon (McGill University), in conjunction with two academic institutions and seven private partners. Total project value: $15.32 million.
- “Acuité Québec Consortium: predicting and visualizing drug action”, a project led by Philippe Sarret (Université de Sherbrooke) and carried out in conjunction with four public-sector collaborators and eighteen private-sector partners. Total value of the project: $27.05 million.
- The “Consortium québécois de soins intelligents”, a project led by John Kildea (McGill University Health Centre), and carried out in conjunction with three academic institutions and six private partners. Total project value: $10.18 million.
CQDM, which evaluated and selected the proposals, will coordinate the scientific and financial follow-up of the selected initiatives.
“The initiatives funded under this FACS call for proposals will generate innovations for Quebec companies and help transform and strengthen Quebec’s life sciences sector over the long term. The FACS is a powerful economic development tool for Quebec, as it relies on collaboration and the pooling of expertise between the public and private sectors,” emphasizes Diane Gosselin, President and CEO of CQDM.
About the Health Collaboration Acceleration Fund (HCAF)
A flagship measure of the 2017-2027 Quebec Life Sciences Strategy (QLSS), the FACS aims to support ambitious initiatives that stimulate public-private collaborations. Beyond the private and foreign investment they attract, the initiatives strengthen the innovation chain, increase the maturity of Quebec SMEs and help meet the needs of Quebec’s health and social services network.
About CQDM
CQDM is a biopharmaceutical research consortium whose mission is to fund the development of innovative technologies and tools to accelerate the discovery and development of safer, more effective medicines. CQDM brings together the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, several Canadian biotech companies, top researchers from the public and private sectors, and the governments of Quebec and Canada. CQDM’s collaborative approach meets the need for innovation funding in both the academic and private sectors, particularly in the early stages of research.
Information – Website: www.cqdm.org, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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For further information, please contact
CQDM
Philippe Viel
Manager – Communications and Marketing
pviel@cqdm.org
C. 514 570-4502
