NEOMED and Mitacs Become Strategic Partners

Montreal – NEOMED, an organization whose mission is to bridge between academic research and the pharmaceutical industry in the drug development field, and Mitacs, an organization that is developing the next generation of innovators in Canada, are pleased to announce a new strategic partnership.

Under this agreement, NEOMED will benefit from the Mitacs suite of programs (Accelerate, Elevate, Step and Globalink) and provide funding and advanced training in the field of drug discovery and development for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

This agreement will allow for the recruitment of high-caliber students for research projects to be carried out in collaboration between industry and academia. These projects selected by NEOMED for their scientific merit, as well as, their commercialization potential will originate from academic research and will be developed, according to industry standards, to the stage of clinical proof-of-concept.

In addition, the two non-profit organizations will establish a new NEOMED-Mitacs research fellowship as well as a new program to finance the maturity of drug development projects whose scientific value is promising, but that are too premature to be developed within NEOMED.

“It’s really NEOMED’s philosophy to collaborate with the best partners to strengthen our key role in the ecosystem of drug development in Canada,” said Max Fehlmann, President and CEO of NEOMED. “But it’s also the best way to experience success in an environment based on innovation. I am delighted with this alliance which will generate long-term benefits”.

“This new partnership will give NEOMED access to top research interns allowing for further development of medicines of tomorrow, while giving students the opportunity to work on drug development challenges within the industry,” said Arvind Gupta, CEO and Scientific Director of Mitacs.

The first research internships under the new agreement will begin in September 2013.

-30-

About  NEOMED and the NEOMED Institute:

NEOMED is a not-for-profit, public-private Pharma alliance dedicated to drug discovery and development, acting as a foster home for promising assets emerging from academia and biotechnology companies. NEOMED provides industry-level expertise and funding to bring emerging therapeutic approaches up to human proof-of-concept, a stage where the projects will become attractive to the biopharmaceutical industry. NEOMED is jointly funded by AstraZeneca, Pfizer and the Ministère des Finances et de l’Économie du Québec.
NEOMED is established within the NEOMED Institute, a state-of-the-art R&D facility in the Montréal Technoparc. The Institute acts as an open-access drug discovery hub hosting commercial groups and providing a unique environment to foster innovation, collaboration and creativity.
For more information, please visit: www.neomed.ca

About Mitacs:

Mitacs is a national, private not-for-profit organization that develops the next generation of innovators with vital scientific and business skills through a suite of unique research and training programs, such as Mitacs-Accelerate, Elevate, Step, Enterprise and Globalink. In partnership with companies, government and universities, Mitacs is supporting a new economy using Canada’s most valuable resource – its people. Mitacs gratefully acknowledges the Government of Canada, the Networks of Centres of Excellence’s Industrial Research and Development Internship program and the Government of Québec through Le Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies for their support.
For more information on Mitacs, visit www.mitacs.ca.