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The market for products from medical genetics research includes a wide range of pharmaceutical, health care and biotechnolgy companies.
The biotechnology industry is characterized by ‘start-up’ companies and ‘growth’ companies.
CGDN’s commercialization strategy is to create value from its genetic discoveries by catalyzing the formation of new companies and the growth of existing companies..
START UP COMPANIES
Central to our strategy of creating start-up companies is the CGDN Strategic Fund. It provides funding for proof of principle work which is required to patent genetic discoveries. Without patent protection, discoveries have little or no commercial value. Once a discovery has been protected by a patent it can form the basis for a new biotechnology company.
Between 1998 and 2001, CGDN contributed to the start-up and growth of nine companies. It helped raise seed captial, negotiate licence agreements, form new collaborations, and provided access to spare capacity at its core facilities.
GROWTH COMPANIES
In 1997, CGDN had a target of $100 million for new investments in its start-up companies. Since 1997 these companies have raised $133.2 million and it is expected this number will exceed $200 million by 2005.
One of the challenges for Canadian biotechnology companies is to grow fast enough to compete internationally for investment capital, human resources and technology. A goal for CGDN was to catalyze the growth of a Canadian genetics company that could compete internationally. In 2000, the merger of Xenon Genetics Inc. and RGS Genome Inc., both CGDN start-up companies, accomplished that goal. With research facilities in both Vancouver and Montreal, Xenon is Canada’s first national genomic company. Prior to merging with Xenon, RGS had received a take over bid from a European company. CGDN supported Xenon in its successful bid to acquire RGS.
Click here for an overview of the start-up and growth of biotechnology companies – CGDN’s contribution to creating value for Canada from genetics research.
Click here for news on commercialization