Medical devices sector receives $15 million in new CECR funding to boost commercial output

The Medical Devices Commercialization Centre (MDCC) is hoping there's gold in the rapidly growing global market for medical devices, but first it must successfully confront obstacles and indifference that has left Canada with a massive trade deficit in the sector. As one of the new five Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) (see story below), MDCC is aiming to use its $14.9-million award to leverage an additional $50 million from a variety of partners eager to translate promising medical device technologies into globally marketed products.

MDCC has been years in the making, led by Dr Tofy Mussivand — a pioneering medical devices researcher with years of experience in the management and commercialization of research. As director of the Univ of Ottawa's Medical Devices Innovation Institute, he has held several summits in the past three years, engaging industry, academia, investors and hospitals to establish a national strategy.

The global market for medical devices is being driven by an aging population and rising prosperity in many emerging nations, especially China where growth is estimated at 24% over the next several years.

By developing a revenue stream with licensing royalties and other financing sources, the goal is to make MDCC self-sustaining within 10 years.

"The global market is nearly $500 million now and will be a $1-trillion market in five years but Canada is not performing very well in this sector. We're near the bottom," says Mussivand, who is also a professor of medicine and engineering at the Univ of Ottawa. "We've developed a national strategy and we have 600 stakeholders from all sectors. CECR support is seed funding but we need more. The provinces and industry need to make this a high priority."

In addition to market pull, Mussivand says the objectives of MDCC are to support new and innovative devices targeting diseases and functions for which there are no devices currently available, and improve existing devices with greater functionality and fewer adverse effects.

MDCC will co-invest in viable medical devices, provide value-added services for risk mitigation (engineering, clinical trials, regulatory approval, product launch, etc) and establish preferred providers for manufacturers suppliers, service providers and consultants.

"There is lots of competition but Canada has other attributes such as good education, hospitals and health care as well as excellent manufacturing and communications," says Mussivand. "These are strengths that have not been fully exploited."

The networking power of MDCC will help unify what is a fragmented system in Canada, says Dr Peter Morand, MDCC's board chair and former president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). By taking on projects at the proof-of-concept stage, exploiting a strong university research pipeline, and ensuring the development of high quality personnel, Morand believes the gap with front running nations can be closed. And while federal support has been lackluster, the provinces are on board.

"Almost every province has medical devices as a priority and existing organizations such as CMC Microsystems are strong supporters," says Morand. "CFI (Canada Foundation for Innovation), NSERC and CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) have all invested in aspects of medical devices and we have the capability to look at the pipeline of potential products and put them through rigorous testing and give this support for commercialization."

Morand says MDCC has the networked expertise to find solutions that address both clinical need and market demand. He notes that MDCC has struck an agreement with Mitacs to support skills development underpinning the sector's specialized engineering needs.

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