Today Aequus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSX-V: AQS, OTCQB: AQSZF) (“Aequus”) a specialty pharmaceutical company with expertise in drug delivery and clinical development, and the Centre For Drug Research and Development (“CDRD”), Canada’s national drug development and commercialization centre, announced a broad research collaboration to establish pre-clinical safety and efficacy of select cannabinoid-based therapeutics targeting neurological movement disorders including epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis,…
Simon Fraser University researchers are investigating why some older Canadians living with multiple chronic health conditions maintain their resiliency. Professor Andrew Wister, director of SFU’s Gerontology Research Centre, is SFU’s principal investigator for the multi-university Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). He leads one of 25 research teams benefiting from a share of $1.7 million in CLSA catalyst grants, funded…
Orkla Food Ingredients has inked a deal with Canada’s Renaissance BioScience to exclusively produce and sell its patent-pending, acrylamide-reducing yeast Acrylow in Nordic and Baltic countries. The ingredient will be rolled out in the third quarter of 2017. Acrylow allows manufacturers to achieve acrylamide reductions of between 50 and 95% depending on the dosage, process, and application.
To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians. In 1971, Dr. Victor Ling was frustrated and full of doubt. It was an unusual period for Ling, who is known for his optimism about finding a cure for cancer. After getting his doctorate at the University of B.C., Ling was at Cambridge…
Qu Biologics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing Site Specific Immunomodulators (SSIs) designed to “reboot” the body’s innate immune system, announces the peer-reviewed publication of proof of principle data in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the journal, Respiratory Research. The study demonstrates success with Qu Biologics’ QBKPN SSI in reducing airway inflammation in a smoke-induced lung inflammation mouse model of…
A clinical trial for a type of brain stimulation therapy is underway at Surrey Memorial Hospital, and one expert says it can help youth suffering from addiction and depression, when all other options have failed. Faranak Farzan, an assistant professor of mechatronic engineering at Simon Fraser University, says transcranial magnetic stimulation — or TMS — is much less invasive than other methods…
New medicines are no longer one-size-fits-all. Therapies are more complex, manufactured in smaller batches and personalized for specific patient groups or even individuals. New pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies with greater flexibility, cost-effectiveness and quality assurance are needed to make those therapies. Seated at their laptops, a microbiologist and an engineer wrote a business plan to upend how injectable therapies are manufactured.…
“Think of a multiple sclerosis lesion as the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Alex Rauscher. “It’s not just what’s happening inside the lesion that we need to think about – what happens in the surrounding tissue affects the brain as well.” By using advanced, highly-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, Dr. Rauscher and his team are hoping to better…
In one of the most comprehensive studies to date, UBC researchers have identified potential adverse reactions of a commonly used multiple sclerosis drug. The study aimed to identify potential adverse events related to beta-interferon treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis by analyzing health records of over 2,000 British Columbians with multiple sclerosis between 1995 and 2008. “Once a drug is released…
Researchers investigating genetically predisposed or at-risk individuals and their families affected by early onset cardiovascular disease (CVD), have received an additional $400K in funding from Genome BC and the Providence Health Care Research Institute (PCHRI) to continue this important work. The study, called SAVE BC (Study to Avoid cardioVascular Events in British Columbia) is aimed at identifying and closely observing…