Vancouver, BC, May 28, 2007--(T-Net)--The Centre for Drug Research and Development, a unique hybrid organization that helps health researchers collaborate, refine their discoveries and develop them for commercial use, received an additional $8 million in funding for its core facility. This investment matches the $8 million Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant CDRD received last November. It also comes on the heels of a $25 million funding grant from the Province of BC announced last month by Premier Gordon Campbell at the 2007 British Columbia Life Sciences Awards.
This brings the total investment in CDRD to $50 million and provides the needed funding to build and operate this pioneering core facility. The Centre will serve to connect researchers and trainees across BC, providing a collaborative and cooperative environment that will amplify and advance important discoveries to the stage where they can attract the funding requires for clinical trials.
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Accelerating Development of Medical Discoveries
"The Province of British Columbia clearly understands the importance of
accelerating the development of promising new medical discoveries to a point where they can benefit British Columbians, Canadians and people around the world," said Natalie Dakers, chief executive officer for CDRD. "This funding provides much needed infrastructure support which will allow us to create a template to advance early stage health- related discoveries from lab bench to the bedside."
The CDRD aims to advance early stage health-related discoveries through the core activities of drug discovery, design and synthesis, screening, in vitro and in vivo testing, and drug formulation and evaluation. It also provides a new research and training model that will broaden the B.C. pool of biotech entrepreneurs working on drug discovery and development.
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About the Centre for Drug Research and Development
CDRD is a unique hybrid organization that brings together researchers,
institutions and industry to bridge the gap between primary research and the successful development of new medicines. CDRD includes two separate bodies: The Drug Research Institute(s) (DRI) is an academic research infrastructure that enables B.C. researchers in universities and hospitals throughout the province to focus and amplify their drug discovery and development efforts; DDI Drug Development Inc.
assists the commercialization of drug therapies by driving drug development projects and bringing the technology to market either by creating companies or licensing to an existing company. The CDRD was founded by several scientific and business leaders with proven track records, in response to the growing challenges of securing funding and increasing the talent pool for early stage drug research and discovery in British Columbia.
Website: http://www.cdrd.ca
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Centre for Drug Research and Development For General Inquiries
email: info@cdrd.ca
phone: (604) 221-7750
For Media Inquiries
Catherine Ducharme
email: cducharme@outsideincommunications.com
phone: (604) 813-6104