The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) and the Vancouver Prostate Centre (VPC) today announced that they have signed a preferred collaboration agreement as the two organizations jointly strive to accelerate the discovery, development and commercialization of anti-cancer therapeutics.
"Knowing that our two organizations hold similar mandates, this collaboration with CDRD ensures that we are maximizing our resources to increase cancer research efforts and creating viable paths of commercialization for locally developed therapeutics, ," said Dr. Martin Gleave, executive director of the Vancouver Prostate Centre, a University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) Centre of Excellence.
"Ultimately, this partnership reflects our shared goals to both improve the lives of cancer patients and support the local biotech community," added Gleave.
"While we have worked with the Vancouver Prostate Centre in the past, the formalization of this collaboration allows us to seek and initiate specific projects that will benefit from our combined, complementary strengths," said Natalie Dakers, CEO at CDRD.
"As two of a select group of organizations that have been named 'Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research,' we have found a way to further leverage our funding and expertise to ensure that new cancer therapeutics will be developed and commercialized," added Dakers.
As previously announced on April 30, 2010, the Vancouver Prostate Centre and CDRD are working together on an international collaboration with Griffith University's Eskitis Institute in Queensland, Australia.
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