FACIT's Prospects Fund fuels women's health and brain cancer therapies for Ontario patients

Seed-stage commercialization realizes value in the Province's health research and intellectual property

TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - FACIT congratulates Ontario-based start-ups Hyivy Health and HDAX Therapeutics as the latest recipients of capital through its Prospects Oncology Fund. Selected among a top-tier pool of applicants, these Ontario-based innovations illustrate excellent potential to benefit patients with cancer.

Former Falcons' Fortunes pitch competition finalist Hyivy Health is developing a remote patient monitoring, pelvic rehab system for gynecological and colorectal cancer patients and their clinicians. Prospects funding will support a clinical trial currently in protocol development at Grand River Regional Cancer Centre in Kitchener, Ontario. A spin-off from the University of Toronto, HDAX Therapeutics is developing potentially first-in-class, blood-brain barrier permeable HDAC6 selective inhibitors for CNS cancers. Prospects funding will accelerate CTA/IND enabling research and preparation for clinical studies.

FACIT's Prospects Oncology Fund fuels a pipeline of innovations and addresses the early-stage seed gap in Ontario's life sciences sector. FACIT's Ontario-focused capital helps de-risk innovations through local development, ultimately driving greater value for Ontario intellectual property (IP) and attracting follow-on investment into the Province. The Prospects Oncology Fund provides a deal-flow of novel breakthrough discoveries that feed FACIT's Compass Rose Oncology Fund.

Leaders in healthcare commercialization, FACIT has turned $46 million of publicly-supported dollars into $1.4 billion in fully leveraged capital for some of Ontario's most high profile life sciences companies. Investing Ontario First seed capital in the Province's rich talent and innovation pool brings economic benefits to Ontario's biotech ecosystem. With support from the Government of Ontario, FACIT continues to make strong, positive impacts in the commercialization of Ontario innovations, ultimately ensuring great science has a translational pathway to Ontario patients.

"The FACIT team is pleased to provide these entrepreneurs with a commercial financing pathway in our own community to advance their technologies closer to impacting patients with cancer," said Dr. David O'Neill, President of FACIT. "With these compelling innovations and partners, seed stage commercialization demonstrates its capacity for anchoring companies, jobs and talent in Ontario."

"Congratulations to Hyivy Health and HDAX Therapeutics for these incredible innovations," said Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities. "Ontario is proud that its investments in the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and FACIT are supporting ground-breaking cancer research. Investing in promising ventures from local start-ups is a key way that FACIT is capturing more value from Ontario-funded discoveries and intellectual property. Investments like these are essential for moving oncology innovations to real world application that can benefit cancer patients and our province's economy." 

FACIT is an award-winning commercialization venture firm that builds companies with entrepreneurs to accelerate oncology innovation, with a portfolio that has attracted more than $1 billion in investment to Ontario. Blending industry experience, capital and the unsurpassed clinician-scientist network of its strategic partner the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), FACIT capitalizes on the province's investment in research and healthcare to the benefit of the local economy and patients worldwide. FACIT's commercialization portfolio includes Turnstone Biologics, Fusion Pharmaceuticals, Triphase Accelerator and other biotechnology organizations.  Cancer Breakthroughs. Realized. facit.ca.

Created after the founder's recent fight with cervical cancer, she wanted to change the way 1 in 3 women worldwide who will experience a pelvic health complication in their lifetime are treated given that the current standard of care is an over 84 year old technology. Hyivy Health provides a data driven pelvic rehabilitation system for the over 60M women in North America with hypertonic, painful pelvic floor conditions. Our system provides the first quantifiable data set on the pelvic floor by using our Floora device to conduct 3 different therapies, which are tracked using multiple biosensors helping patients and their clinicians treat, track and predict pelvic floor and gynecological conditions and symptoms.

HDAX Therapeutics, a spin-out from the University of Toronto, is developing first-in-class, blood-brain barrier permeable HDAC6 selective inhibitors for CNS cancers and cancer-associated neuropathies.

SOURCE FACIT Inc.