Bayer and Versant Ventures investing $300 million in Toronto stem cell start-up

Toronto is home to the second-largest series ‘A' venture capital investment in the history of biotechnology with the creation of a $300-million start-up to commercialize induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) targeting a range of cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. BlueRock Therapeutics will be based at MaRS Discovery District, drawing on world-leading stem cell research being conducted at the McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the University Health Network.

Dr Gordon Keller is the firm's scientific co-founder and Dr Michael Laflamme is its founding investigator. BlueRock's manufacturing platform is enabled by a partnership with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, a Centre of Excellence for Research and Commercialization targeting a lack of early-stage capital and access to centralized research infrastructure.

The groundbreaking, multi-partner initiative is financed by Bayer AG, Leverkusen Germany, and Versant Ventures, a large San Francisco VC firm focused on the healthcare sector with an emphasis on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics.

BlueRock will seek to move therapies based on iPSC's into the clinic — a strategy that required licensing iPSC intellectual property from iPS Academia Japan Inc. The firm was established in 2008 to license discoveries made by Dr Shinya Yamanaka, who received many honours including a Nobel prize for his work. iPS Academia has entered into licensing agreements with more than 150 entities in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and optical industries.

iPS cells have similar properties and powers as embryonic stem cells, but without the associated ethical entanglements.

International investment in Canadian stem cell research is increasing since the election of Donald Trump. A similar surge occurred under the presidency of George W Bush. Bush's restrictions on the use of embryonic stem cells in research led to the Canada-California Strategic Innovation Partnership (R$, February 26/07).

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