We compile here pertinent industry news and updates on the local and global life sciences R&D and industry.

03 May 2023: VILS is pleased to announce with our Provincial colleagues the grant to VILS of $2.5 million towards a new pilot facility on southern Vancouver Island that will provide 6+ companies at a time the space to convert their life science innovation into proof of commercial scalability. This is to be the first of its kind facility in the area to accelerate life science and biomedical innovations through commercial development, on a not-for-profit basis.

US President Biden's executive order on biomanufacturing is a particularly well-phrased and developed explanation of why biomanufacturing capacity is key for any region and for the world. It can be applied, and is being by VILS in upcoming initiatives, to local support of biomanufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and cell- based manufacturing at the regional and city level in addition to nation-states.

The CQDM consortium's Quantum Leap big-pharma-led funding program is a worthy drug discovery collaboration scheme available to all Canadian firms and institutions.
Deadline for application to next selection round is 17 NOV 2022
"Projects selected as part of the Quantum Leap program focus on developing cutting-edge technologies with the potential to significantly advance the R&D activities of CQDM's pharmaceutical members*. Quantum Leap projects are executed in close collaboration and with the expert support and funds of pharmaceutical members."
* Pfizer, Merck, GSK, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen (J&J), Lilly, Novartis, Servier, Sanofi, Takeda, AstraZeneca and Amgen

Starting the year 2021 on a constructive and long-term note, VILS Board member Nick Allan has a great article on the nature of modern career opportunities in "Bio Services" (combining regenerative medicine, microfluidics, ingestible devices, microbiome assaying) for anyone starting their career, or even to help students choosing which disciplines to study for which careers. Exciting new career fields at the intersection of engineering, agnostic technology, and life science promise to largely replace or at least rejuvenate the archaic medicinal-chemistry small-molecule-protein models of the 20th century.

An ongoing reminder to all firms, healthcare organisations, and postsecondary institutions of the federal taxpayer's excellent subsidy programme administered by BioTalent Canada of up to 70% wages to hire a student (undergrad or graduate) for 16 weeks, to $7,000 This programme used to be for life sciences businesses, but is now open to healthcare providers in a wide swath of sectors.
It's admirably simple and wide-ranging; either the position needs to have a biotechnology or healthcare focus, or the employer needs to have a biotechnology or healthcare focus.

While an initial Canadian federal taxpayer match of $10 million has already been met for the Red Cross, the criminal attack on Ukraine means Ukrainians still need our help every day for the foreseeable future, and our donations are needed to the Red Cross and Medecins San Frontieres among others; please give where you can.

Endpoints News is arguably the best primary source of biopharma industry news and journalism.

As highlighted at the start of BIO 2020 by new BIO President and CEO Michelle McMurry-Heath, Ken Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co ("American" Merck) gives a candid interview discussing how business can do more to reduce barriers in society and promote education and training to equalise opportunities.

PANDEMIC NEWS SECTION:

For those interested in the proposition that the 1890 "flu" pandemic may have been a coronavirus, that subsequently mellowed/attenuated to become OC43, this paper from 2005 by Vijgen et al in Leuven Belgium (home of the famous and impressively large Stella brouwerij) is a great read. We can conclude these coronaviruses may have been leaping into humans from bats etc only over the last ~100 years, a very brief period in virus evolutionary history.
...from that paper, interesting potential confirmation below (and remember in the below they're only talking about OC43, the cold-causing coronavirus) that SARS-CoV-2 is neurotropic and that this is a big part of its pathology. There was some early evidence that the breathing suppression in people with COVID-19 is not due to the respiratory/lung symptoms (though those don't help) but due to brainstem infection and actually depressing the brainstem regulation of breathing. This neurotropism also seems to explain the loss of smell in so many people (your nose smell nerve cells are infected early), in this manner like rabies. This also explains some of the symptoms, like brain fog and long covid etc.

" the infection can be subclinical and is usually mild, but there have been reports of more-severe lower respiratory tract involvement in infants and elderly people. Human coronaviruses can induce a demyelinating disease in rodents and can infect primary cultures of human astrocytes and microglia. A possible etiological role for HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-229E in multiple sclerosis is being debated."

"However, it is tempting to speculate about an alternative hypothesis, that the 1889-1890 pandemic may have been the result of interspecies transmission of bovine coronaviruses to humans, resulting in the subsequent emergence of HCoV-OC43. The dating of the most recent common ancestor of BCoV and HCoV-OC43 to around 1890 is one argument. Another argument is the fact that central nervous system symptoms were more pronounced during the 1889-1890 epidemic than in other influenza outbreaks. It has been shown that HCoV-OC43 has neurotropism and can be neuroinvasive."

FiercePharma's ongoing COVID-19 news feed is an excellent source of daily pharma industry updates

Biopharmadive had a good overview of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate progress.

WuXi's second free online forum on Thursday 16 April 2020 on SARS-Cov-2 and COVID-19, "Harnessing Our Collective Power", follows on from the excellent previous 25 Feb "Let Science Lead" session. The marquee guest speakers were regrettably notable again for being all men, but let's not overly hold that against them as it's a great lineup:
Jim Greenwood, CEO, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO); Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum; Johan Van Hoof, Global Therapeutic Area Head IDV and Vaccines, Janssen Pharmaceuticals R&D; John Maraganore, CEO, Alnylam; Chad Robins, CEO, Adaptive Biotechnologies; William Morice, President, Mayo Clinic Laboratories; and others. Watch the recording here..