Biologics research facility receives nearly $1M in funding

Vancouver, BC – The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) has received $900,000 in funding from Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) to establish a Biologics Division at its research facilities located at the University of British Columbia.

The CDRD is an independent, not-for-profit public-private organization that provides drug development expertise and infrastructure to enable researchers from academic and health research institutions to advance promising, early-stage drug candidates. It combines a drug development platform with a commercial arm, which licenses technologies from affiliated institutions and establishes working collaborations with other biotech companies.

The integration of biologics into the organization’s existing drug development platform is expected to increase avenues for commercialization of research in a growing area of new therapeutics and provide additional resources accessible to the local research community and biotechnology sector.

The biologics division will focus on the discovery and optimization of monoclonal antibodies – the most successful and fastest growing class of biologics, against a significant number of molecular targets in a wide range of diseases. The funding will allow purchase and commission of several pieces of scientific equipment and software, as well as the hiring of highly skilled personnel.