BioCanRx Invests C$10 Million in Cancer Immunotherapy Research and Biomanufacturing

BioCanRx, Canada’s Immunotherapy Network, announced funding of C$10M for 14 cancer immunotherapy research projects and eight core and biomanufacturing facilities.

In addition to BioCanRx’s investment, matching partner contributions of C$16.5M increase the total investment in Canadian translational cancer immunotherapy research and manufacturing facilities to C$26.5M.

“We’re collaborating and building teams across Canada to find new ways for the body’s immune system to outsmart and kill cancer. This new funding is helping to bridge the research gap between lab discoveries and clinical trials to ultimately benefit patients,” said John Bell, PhD, BioCanRx’s scientific director and a senior cancer research scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa.

 

The focus of the newly funded projects includes highly innovative and novel approaches to cancer treatment, targeting difficult to treat cancers where current options are limited, according to Bell. The project investment portfolio includes cross-disciplinary teams from across the country working on new, rational combination approaches and cell, vaccine/virus-based and antibody immunotherapies.

Investments in Canada’s biomanufacturing capacity also feature prominently and additional sites across the country will be added to a point-of-care cell manufacturing network to enhance access to life-saving therapies to patients across the country, continued Bell.

BioCanRx has leveraged C$62M in partnered funds and established core and biomanufacturing facilities. One investment enabled the building of Canadian capacity for point-of-care CAR T cell manufacturing.