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A program that helped Ottawa scientist Jean-Simon Diallo take potentially life-saving research from his lab at the University of Ottawa Research Institute to the commercial world, is being shut down by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
The small Proof of Principle program is the latest focus of criticism about reforms at the billion dollar federal health research funding agency.
Diallo is working on research that could save lives by boosting vaccine production and preventing the kind of shortages seen during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. The small Proof of Principle grant program helped him apply for a patent and write a business plan, the initial steps to commercializing the research.
That program is being shut down as part of ongoing changes at the agency. Scientists looking for help commercializing their research are told to apply to a more general grant program designed for all types of research and knowledge translation projects. Officials with CIHR say commercialization projects will be fairly assessed by reviewers with suitable expertise and will have even greater access to money than they do now. But Diallo and others involved in the Proof of Principle program fear the reforms will make it more difficult for individual researchers, like him, to bridge hurdles in order to commercialize promising research.
They have added their voices to those who say reforms at Canada’s billion-dollar biomedical research funding agency are doing harm.
The CIHR said Thursday its support for commercialization is stronger than ever. A CIHR spokesperson the agency has a “proven track record” of supporting commercialization through several programs. In addition to the Foundation and Project investigator driven grant programs, which will replace Proof of Principle, the agency has separate initiatives, including the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, which has received $2 billion in federal funding in the past five years. In fact, the CIHR argues its reforms provide an “expanded opportunity for successful commercialization projects as they are no longer constrained by specific program limits.
“The commercialization of health research discoveries is an important part of the research process. As Canada’s federal health research funding agency, CIHR has an important role to play in this area.”
But Kathleen Marsman, an Ottawa patent agent who chairs the soon-to-be-disbanded peer review committee for the Proof of Principle program, said ending it will leave a crucial gap. It represented a necessary bridge for scientists between their labs and the commercial world. The funding helps researchers apply for patents, set up business plans and contact commercial partners, among other things. Without it, some projects might never make it out of the lab, she said.
The Proof of Principle grant program has handed out about $5.5 million a year. Now, instead of having a separate pool of money and reviewers with expertise in commercialization and patents, everyone will compete for the same pot of money. Marsman is skeptical that many proof of principle proposals will get funding. Under the old system, she said, applications were part business plan. The new application process is more general and everyone competes for the same pot of money.
In response to Marsman’s concerns, a CIHR spokesman wrote that the agency agrees the Proof of Principle program supports an important aspect of research and wants to make sure that is reflected in the new project scheme. Among other things, it will make sure reviewers have suitable experience in knowledge translation and commercialization.
Reforms at the CIHR have been the focus of criticism in recent days.
Some researchers have told the Citizen they no longer see science as a viable career option because of dire prospects for funding. Others say they may be forced to close their labs.
Dr. Michael Rudnicki, one of Canada’s leading stem cell researchers, said many scientists believe there should be more progressive leadership at the CIHR in light of reforms that have distorted the way research is assessed and grants are handed out. As a sign of these growing concerns, the December issue of the Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease was partly devoted to stories from researchers about their struggles to get funding in Canada.
Changes to the peer review system for determining who should get funding are a major focus of the concerns. The result, many scientists told the Citizen, is that some researchers who should get funding are not.
Diallo’s work uses viral sensitizers, which have the potential to improve industrial scale vaccine production with little to no added infrastructure costs.
The small molecules were initially discovered as part of a technology developed for cancer-fighting viruses, in the lab of Dr. John Bell, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute who has done groundbreaking work on viruses that fight cancer.
Diallo took the sensitizer technology and applied it to viruses that could be used for vaccines, such as influenza. Production increased massively, something that “garnered the interest of industry.”
“A major barrier for vaccine industries remains the ability to reliably produce sufficient vaccine doses in a timely manner, highlighted by the shortcomings of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccination campaign,” he wrote. “As a solution to this we have discovered and developed viral sensitizer technology, a growing collection of compounds with the potential to improve industrial-scale vaccine production.”
Currently, Diallo said, there are only enough flu vaccines produced each year to cover about one-seventh of the world’s population. The ability to speed up the growth of viruses to be made inactive and used for vaccines, has huge implications.
Not only does the technology have a global health benefit, but the potential for profit is very big, he said. Some of that profit would return to the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, which owns the patent. And, crucially, because he could test the research on a variety of vaccines, it can be made widely available, including to developing countries. Money from the CIHR’s Proof of Principle program allowed him to pay for patent costs, to meet with industry and, eventually, to establish a research agreement with a pharmaceutical company. In all, he received a total of about $300,000 CIHR funding under the program.
“I thought was a great vehicle for moving forward things that have a commercial potential,” he said.
epayne@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
The small Proof of Principle program is the latest focus of criticism about reforms at the billion dollar federal health research funding agency.
Diallo is working on research that could save lives by boosting vaccine production and preventing the kind of shortages seen during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. The small Proof of Principle grant program helped him apply for a patent and write a business plan, the initial steps to commercializing the research.
That program is being shut down as part of ongoing changes at the agency. Scientists looking for help commercializing their research are told to apply to a more general grant program designed for all types of research and knowledge translation projects. Officials with CIHR say commercialization projects will be fairly assessed by reviewers with suitable expertise and will have even greater access to money than they do now. But Diallo and others involved in the Proof of Principle program fear the reforms will make it more difficult for individual researchers, like him, to bridge hurdles in order to commercialize promising research.
They have added their voices to those who say reforms at Canada’s billion-dollar biomedical research funding agency are doing harm.
The CIHR said Thursday its support for commercialization is stronger than ever. A CIHR spokesperson the agency has a “proven track record” of supporting commercialization through several programs. In addition to the Foundation and Project investigator driven grant programs, which will replace Proof of Principle, the agency has separate initiatives, including the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, which has received $2 billion in federal funding in the past five years. In fact, the CIHR argues its reforms provide an “expanded opportunity for successful commercialization projects as they are no longer constrained by specific program limits.
“The commercialization of health research discoveries is an important part of the research process. As Canada’s federal health research funding agency, CIHR has an important role to play in this area.”
But Kathleen Marsman, an Ottawa patent agent who chairs the soon-to-be-disbanded peer review committee for the Proof of Principle program, said ending it will leave a crucial gap. It represented a necessary bridge for scientists between their labs and the commercial world. The funding helps researchers apply for patents, set up business plans and contact commercial partners, among other things. Without it, some projects might never make it out of the lab, she said.
The Proof of Principle grant program has handed out about $5.5 million a year. Now, instead of having a separate pool of money and reviewers with expertise in commercialization and patents, everyone will compete for the same pot of money. Marsman is skeptical that many proof of principle proposals will get funding. Under the old system, she said, applications were part business plan. The new application process is more general and everyone competes for the same pot of money.
In response to Marsman’s concerns, a CIHR spokesman wrote that the agency agrees the Proof of Principle program supports an important aspect of research and wants to make sure that is reflected in the new project scheme. Among other things, it will make sure reviewers have suitable experience in knowledge translation and commercialization.
Reforms at the CIHR have been the focus of criticism in recent days.
Some researchers have told the Citizen they no longer see science as a viable career option because of dire prospects for funding. Others say they may be forced to close their labs.
Dr. Michael Rudnicki, one of Canada’s leading stem cell researchers, said many scientists believe there should be more progressive leadership at the CIHR in light of reforms that have distorted the way research is assessed and grants are handed out. As a sign of these growing concerns, the December issue of the Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease was partly devoted to stories from researchers about their struggles to get funding in Canada.
Changes to the peer review system for determining who should get funding are a major focus of the concerns. The result, many scientists told the Citizen, is that some researchers who should get funding are not.
Diallo’s work uses viral sensitizers, which have the potential to improve industrial scale vaccine production with little to no added infrastructure costs.
The small molecules were initially discovered as part of a technology developed for cancer-fighting viruses, in the lab of Dr. John Bell, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute who has done groundbreaking work on viruses that fight cancer.
Diallo took the sensitizer technology and applied it to viruses that could be used for vaccines, such as influenza. Production increased massively, something that “garnered the interest of industry.”
“A major barrier for vaccine industries remains the ability to reliably produce sufficient vaccine doses in a timely manner, highlighted by the shortcomings of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccination campaign,” he wrote. “As a solution to this we have discovered and developed viral sensitizer technology, a growing collection of compounds with the potential to improve industrial-scale vaccine production.”
Currently, Diallo said, there are only enough flu vaccines produced each year to cover about one-seventh of the world’s population. The ability to speed up the growth of viruses to be made inactive and used for vaccines, has huge implications.
Not only does the technology have a global health benefit, but the potential for profit is very big, he said. Some of that profit would return to the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, which owns the patent. And, crucially, because he could test the research on a variety of vaccines, it can be made widely available, including to developing countries. Money from the CIHR’s Proof of Principle program allowed him to pay for patent costs, to meet with industry and, eventually, to establish a research agreement with a pharmaceutical company. In all, he received a total of about $300,000 CIHR funding under the program.
“I thought was a great vehicle for moving forward things that have a commercial potential,” he said.
epayne@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
