CQDM set to ramp up drug development acceleration activities with new funding award

Business-Led NCE competition

The Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM) has emerged as the lone winner in the recent competition for extended funding of the Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) with a 46% increase over its initial funding allocation. (CQDM) will receive $11.7 million over five years to solidify its proven approach to multi-institutional, public-private projects and expand beyond its Quebec base.

CQDM was successful in demonstrating that its focus on the development of tools, processes and new molecule libraries required by industry to accelerate drug development and boost productivity is working. CQDM currently has seven pharmaceutical partners as well as linkages to contract research organizations and universities and research institutions representing more than 360 researchers. With the new funding, it expects to increase participating pharma companies to 12.

"Pharma must use these tools and that they are starting to. The results of three projects are being used by our pharma members, generating value for investigators. That's the beauty of these projects," says Dr Diane Gosselin, CQDM president and CEO. "We're open to any pan-Canadian initiative where our pharma members are willing to share results. These projects bring value to companies by having an impact on their research during development … The result will be better and safer drugs.

The BL-NCE program was designed to address the "mid-stage" of the R&D spectrum bridging proof-of-concept through early-stage development and initial product development by funding large-scale collaborative networks. Although private and public sector partners are equally engaged, companies take the lead in the design and conduct of the research. The BL-NCE is the only ederal research funding program in which companies can be funded directly.

"Our business model is based on a collaborative approach. All sponsors pool their money, share in the R&D costs and use it to fund research projects and all partners share the results," says Gosselin. "We achieved a leverage effect of 10 to 20 times (and) within five years it could increase to as much as 96 times. It will become very attractive to do projects with us because of that leverage factor and that will lead to sustainability."

In addition to NCE funding, CQDM also receives support from the Quebec government, which provided $3-4 million in annual support over its initial four-years of operation. But the decision of the recently elected Parti Quebecois to draft its own innovation policy and institute cuts has led to a delay in continuing support (see page 4).

CQDM funding comes in roughly equal parts from the federal government, province of Quebec and pharmaceutical partners. With the BL-NCE renewal, the federal share is greater than one third but Gosselin says the original ratio will be achieved if and when new provincial funding kicks in.

"We're in discussions. The new government wants to re do the strategy for innovation and will likely not renew CQDM for a long time. We're looking for bridge funding," says Gosselin.

In addition to cash, CQDM has secured considerable in-kind support, primarily through its mentorship service. During the first four years, 52 mentors — primarily senior industry scientists — have contributed their time and expertise, resulting in partnerships being established outside of CQDM.

The BL-NCE program is tightly aligned with the priorities of the 2007 S&T strategy although two priority areas (information and communications technologies and management, business or finance) were not represented in the initial slate of four networks. In an evaluation of the program, it was recommended that steps taken to solicit application in the non-represented areas when the next competition is held in 2014 would give the program a better alignment with the government's priority areas and industry needs.

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