Health innovation beat followups: Deals, drugs, and Dragons – Taproot Edmonton
Just because a story is written doesn’t mean it’s over. Here are some updates on health innovation stories we covered in 2022:
Entos and Lilly sign agreement to research and develop new brain-disease therapies (Jan. 10, 2022)
The original story: Entos Pharmaceuticals signed an agreement with Eli Lilly worth $50 million up front and up to $400 million in the future, granting the American pharmaceutical giant exclusive access to its Fusogenix PLV platform as well as an equity investment.
Then what?: Steve Chen, who was made the chief medical officer of Entos in March, spoke to PharmaVoice in April about what the Eli Lilly deal means to the company, calling it “a major inflection point” on the path towards treating diseases he never would have imagined being treatable when he was in medical school. The company continued to work on a COVID-19 DNA vaccine using the Fusogenix platform, CEO John Lewis wrote in Drug Target Review in April. By September, 268 people in Burkina Faso were enrolled in a Phase 2 clinical trial, but a coup d’état interrupted that work, Folio reported in December; Lewis said the trial may be moved to Senegal, and the vaccine may be tested in Canada as a booster.
AltaML partners with venture capital firm to combine AI and life sciences expertise (Jan. 19, 2022)
The original story: AltaML formed a strategic alliance with Amplitude Venture Capital, which invests in life sciences and precision medicine.
Then what?: It’s not clear where this alliance stands right now, as a big part of the deal was making Alex Hope a shared team member between AltaML and Amplitude, and his LinkedIn profile indicates he left AltaML in October. Both companies had a busy 2022, however. Amplitude went on to participate in DrugBank’s $9-million seed round, tapping into Alberta’s AI ecosystem. AltaML announced more collaborations, including a public sector AI Lab called GovLab.ai, and it made the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and the Report on Business top growing companies lists.
PrairiesCan invests $17M to support innovation in Edmonton (May 3, 2022)
The original story: PBG BioPharma, headquartered in Leduc, received the largest share of the Prairies Economic Development Canada innovation funding announced in late April for the Edmonton region, garnering $5.39 million to increase its biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.
Then what?: In May, PBG BioPharma announced it had received a licence from Health Canada to deal with psilocin and psilocybin, two psychedelic compounds that have shown promise in the treatment of mental illness. It has also been pursuing the “untapped potential” of cannabis, though CEO Jacqueline Shan told Made in CA that regulatory challenges in Canada and abroad made expansion somewhat challenging. In September, the company announced a new line of natural health products.