Johnson & Johnson Innovation and its affiliate Janssen have entered into new collaborations with two Canadian early-stage drug technology development centers, NEOMED and MaRS Innovation, to discover and develop new bio/pharmaceutical technologies that have the potential to improve human health.
Under the deal, technical experts from the J&J Innovation Center will work with both the Canadian development centers to discover investment opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within academic institutions and biotechnology firms.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center head Robert Urban said, "These new collaborations will allow us to potentially advance important new clinical candidates against disease."
Janssen Canada vice president of Medical Affairs Paul Kershaw said, "These new relationships with NEOMED and MaRS Innovation are an extension of our commitment to Canada's innovative research community."
Montreal-based NEOMED is a not-for-profit, public-private Pharma alliance dedicated to drug discovery and development and is partially funded by the Ministère des Finances et de l'économie du Québec.
It is located within the NEOMED Institute, a research and development (R&D) facility in the Montréal Technoparc.
Toronto-based MaRS Innovation is the commercialization agent for Ontario's discovery pipeline from 16 leading academic institutions and it is supported by the Canada government through the Networks of Centres of Excellence, by the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Centres of Excellence, and by its 16 member institutions.
