AstraZeneca funds BC research programs

Mississauga, ON – AstraZeneca Canada is providing $4.6 million in funding to researchers in British Columbia. The funding includes a $1.6 million donation to the St Paul’s Hospital Foundation to establish Canada’s first Metabolic Syndrome Clinic; a $1 million grant to the BC Cancer Agency for translational and health economics research; and a $2 million investment in occupational and environmental lung diseases research at the University of British Columbia.

The Metabolic Syndrome Clinic will be under the auspices of the Provincial Heart Centre at St Paul’s Hospital. The clinic will focus on helping patients understand and reduce their risk of developing the health problems associated with this syndrome.

The BC Cancer Agency Grant will help facilitate health economics research and delivery of oncology treatment to patients in BC through research that will allow for the tracking of cases and analysis of blood and tumour samples to find factors relating to patient outcomes and can help find the best practices for individual patients.

The contribution to the Occupational and Environmental Lung Diseases Research section at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute will help facilitate research in occupational and environmental lung health. The research will be conducted in partnership with UBC’s department of medicine, respiratory division and its affiliated research centres at Vancouver General and St Paul’s Hospitals. The research program will also involve collaboration with the School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene at UBC. The research aims at better characterizing the epidemiology of occupational and environmental lung diseases with the subsequent development of interventions to minimize their impact on the health of the community.