The challenge: Each year millions of patients receive radiopharmaceuticals – drugs that contain a medical isotope used to both diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases. However, scientists in the field of radioimmunotherapy – which combines radiation therapy and immunotherapy – face barriers to make their discoveries accessible to health care providers and global markets. Too often, their ground breaking innovations remain locked in research labs.
The response: Since its launch in 2008, CPDC has worked closely with industry partners to address this commercialization gap. The centre has leveraged its internal research and development pipeline to spin-off three new companies, build a rapidly expanding manufacturing business, and supply radiopharmaceuticals for more than 40 clinical trials. One of those promising new drugs, FPX-01, is designed to diagnose and treat chemotherapy resistant cancer. FPX-01 is being commercialized by Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc., a CPDC spin-off that, in February 2017, raised USD $25 million in series A financing led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation. FPX-01 is expected to start phase 1 clinical trials early in 2018.