Alberta putting $81.5M toward goal of making its own pharmaceuticals, therapeutics
In chasing its ambitions to make vaccines and other pharmaceuticals and therapeutic products within its boundaries, Alberta is committing more than $80 million to its life sciences industry.
The dollars were announced in the spring, when Jason Kenney's government began soliciting proposals related to vaccine development and manufacturing.
Revealing the successful applicants Wednesday -- researchers at the University Alberta, as well as three private companies -- Premier Jason Kenney said "vaccine nationalism" seen earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies the significance of biosecurity.
"Those jurisdictions assured themselves first access to available vaccines early on, so we were not the first in the queue. And that, frankly, cost lives," he told reporters, speaking at the U of A's Li Ka Shing Centre of Health Research Innovation.
"Moreover, I think with the global constraints on supply chains right across the world and every sector of the economy, I think there's a renewed appreciation of the need for us to onshore production of essential products."
'CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY'
The U of A's Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology will receive the largest chunk of the provincial government cash: $55.1 million.
Dr. Matthias Götte, who helped write the grant application, said some of the money will be put toward upgrading the U of A's Biosafety Level 3 lab and the Alberta Cell Therapy Manufacturing facility.
Another portion will be dedicated to building a facility for cryogenic electron microscopy. Essentially a microscope, the technology allows researchers to "zoom into the virus" and look at its structures that could potentially be targeted by a vaccine or therapy, Götte explained.
"This is cutting-edge technology. It is vital. It is extremely important that we have this technology here in Alberta," he said. "The entire structural biology, worldwide, will move into this direction."
He said he expects his teams to deliver results very soon from work they started two years ago, and by leveraging that and the provincial investment, to be able to raise more funding from Ottawa or institutions like the National Institutes of Health Informatics.
Alberta's 2021 budget renewed $20 million over four years for the Li Ka Shing institute, whose director was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2020 for his part in the discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 1989, for which the researchers have since moved on to making a vaccine.
INVESTMENT IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
The rest of the money represents 10 per cent of project funding for three other proposals, contingent on the applicants also securing money from the federal government.
A total of $15.5 million will be provided to Entos Pharmaceuticals to establish a commercial manufacturing facility in Edmonton. The company builds genetic medicines with its own drug delivery system, with which it developed a COVID-19 vaccine that is entering second-phase clinical trials.
"It's one thing to discover and develop an innovative therapy, but it's another thing entirely to manufacture it at scale necessary both for late-stage clinical trials and ultimately for treatments that you or I or anyone of our family can take," CEO and co-founder Dr. John Lewis told media.
"So that's why Entos is so grateful for this announcement… The committed funding when paired with federal and private support will enable us to create a world-class facility that can produce not only COVID vaccines, but also future genetic medicines."
The company also recently signed an agreement to create candidate products for BioMarin Pharmaceuticals.
Another $5.6 million will go to Edmonton-based Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation to build a research, commercialization and manufacturing cluster, supporting growth of the Canadian Critical Drug Initiative.
Calgary's Northern RNA will receive $5 million to expand its capacity. The company, less than a year old, specializes in the manufacturing of essential raw materials needed for manufacturing messenger RNA. Co-founder and president Brad Stevens said his company can address one supply bottleneck by manufacturing lipids.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 'RECEPTIVE'
Although the provincial funding to the private companies is dependent on federal financial support, both Kenney and the CEOs expressed confidence they'd see Ottawa come through.
Kenney called the money from the Alberta government a way to "prime the pump, hopefully to attract that federal funding and we will be calling on the federal government to do just that."
"They are receptive, but no final decisions have yet been made."
"This funding sends a very, very critical message to federal partners that Alberta really sees its role in the supply chain," Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation CEO Andrew MacIsaac added.
"A lot of the investments in vaccine production around the world have come from the federal level, working in conjunction with the regional areas. So I think that this is a great first step and….will lead to tremendous benefits to the province."
The federal government has committed $2.2 billion to supporting biomanufacturing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.