Pfizer injects $10M into public-sector fund for research in human health

Montreal, QC – Pfizer Canada and the Fonds de la recherche en sante du Quebec (FRSQ) have announced a partnership for the creation of the Pfizer-FRSQ Innovation Fund. The fund aims to stimulate public-sector research in human health in Quebec and to act as a catalyst for the commercialization of innovative research projects. Pfizer Canada will invest $10 million over a five-year period. The fund, managed by the FRSQ, will allow some 3,000 Quebec-based researchers in human health to submit research projects that match the needs of the population in Quebec and that offer a high potential for technology transfer and commercialization over the short and medium terms.

The goal of the Fund is to support and reinforce the potentially promising commercialization of public-sector research in human health in Quebec in areas that are critical to public health. These include AIDS and infectious diseases, mental illness, cancer, and inflammatory, cardiovascular, metabolic and chronic diseases.

Paul Levesque, president and CEO of Pfizer Canada, stated that “Pfizer Canada is proud to contribute to the acceleration of Quebec’s knowledge-based economy in an advanced sector such as medical and pharmaceutical research. Pfizer is creating this fund in collaboration with the FRSQ because it believes in the potential for R&D in Quebec and that it is crucial to develop better links between university research, patient needs, and society’s needs at large.”

“By creating this fund with Pfizer Canada’s contribution, the FRSQ aims to stimulate the business spirit of Quebec’s universities and hospital centres and to encourage researchers to promote their discoveries in order to accelerate their commercialization and their availability to patients,” said Dr Alain Beaudet, CEO of the FRSQ.

Each year, the FRSQ provides over $90 million in awards and grants for public-sector research in human health conducted in universities and the healthcare network’s research centres. The creation of the Pfizer-FRSQ Innovation Fund will provide Quebec’s researchers into human health a unique source of financing for large-scale research projects involving multiple disciplines and institutions.