CDRD absorbs its commercialization arm as second phase of strategic plan ramps up

The commercialization arm of Vancouver-based Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) is returning to the fold as the organization enters its second phase for derisking and commercializing promising health research discoveries. CDRD Ventures Inc (CVI) is being absorbed back into CDRD while the recently established Accel-Rx will assume the role of creating and growing start-ups based on promising health technologies.

The reorganization comes as CDRD seeks new funding to execute the next five-years of its 15-year strategic plan. With funding from the Province of British Columbia, the federal government (through the Networks of Centres of Excellence program), not-for-profits and industry, CDRD has built up an impressive range of alliances and now says it requires a unified focus to attract new funding that will ramp up its de-risking and proof-of-concept activities.

The integration of CDRD and CVI began with the merger of their two boards, followed by a reorganization of management that sees CDRD president and CEO Karimah Es Sabar head up the merged organization. CVI president and CEO Natalie Dakers will be assume the leadership of Accel-Rx — a national accelerator comprised of five Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research in association with the Business Development Bank of Canada.

"It's now a seamless piece from research and evaluation to commercialization or scale," says Es Sabar. "We've been thinking about this for the past 18 months because it was happening organically anyway. We've beefed up our commercialization team and integrated it into CDRD as well as strengthening our small molecule and biologics programs."

The merger presents no changes to how CDRD is funded. While it has relied primarily on provincial and federal funding for its operation, CVI is closer to the market, driven by industry funding to reach agreed-upon milestones.

A unified organization will also make it easier to compete and collaborate with similar commercialization-focused organizations in other countries through the Global Alliance of Leading Drug Discovery and Development Centres, of which CDRD is a member. As founding chair, Es Sabar says CDRD has already benefitted from its participation in the alliance, establishing best practices and avoiding unnecessary duplication. But she argues that without greater funding, it will be difficult for CDRD to maintain its status as one of the top three centres globally.

To date, CDRD and its affiliates have received $54 million from the BC government, $23 million from the NCE's Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research program and $11 million from the Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program.

"We have a leadership position but nowhere near the scale of investments that the others get from public funding. We're public-private whereas the others get between $100 million and $200 million (in public funding) over 10 years which makes it easier to ramp up commercialization quickly. Just one or two successes can make these organization sustainable," says Es Sabar. "CDRD and CVI are looked at as models but in terms of commercialization we can't ramp up fast enough."

Last year, CDRD/CVI filed a pre-Budget submission for $140 million over five years to support phase II but the 2015 Budget was silent on the request. Es Sabar says CDRD plans to submit a funding request for inclusion in the 2016 Budget and is confident it will be more positively received.

"That $140 million would leverage $200 million from other sources. We've already brought in $45 million and we're still at the early de-risking stage," she says. "The government's role should be as a catalyst and it (new funding) would kick-start a world-leading organization."

Es Sabar points to the re-focused National Research Council as an example of how government can assist in developing an organization that's national in scope and supported by both public and private funding. As a member of the NRC governing council, she has seen first-hand the proactive role the federal government took in assisting the NRC in its transformation and says CDRD is ready for a similar push.

"I pushed to make CDRD national. Innovation and commercialization need public-private partnership," she says. "We're in our eighth year and at a critical point where we need to go to the next level (but) the bulk of the funding needs to be from government," says Es Sabar.

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