Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Announces Enhancements to its Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization Program

TORONTO, March 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) announced today it has enhanced its Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization program (IPDC), now called the IPDC Fund. The augmented program is designed to provide broader and deeper support for promising early stage technologies.

"In the face of declining private institutional investment, the new IPDC Fund is designed to offer greater support for the most promising Ontario-based anticancer technologies," said Frank Stonebanks, Vice-President, Commercialization and Chief Commercial Officer of OICR. "It will help bridge the funding gap that too often threatens the development of many early-stage projects."

"Developing intellectual property is key to creating innovative jobs in Ontario," said Glen Murray, Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation. "With the new IPDC fund, OICR is proving it's a world leader both in cancer research and in turning discoveries into viable new technologies on the market."

A common bottleneck in the commercialization of innovative technologies is the scarcity of funding in support of early stage development of inventions. The gap in funding between the traditional public granting agencies and private investors, be they corporate or venture, is often referred to as the developmental "valley of death." OICR's IPDC Fund is designed to overcome this funding gap.

Under the new IPDC Fund, a maximum of $1.5 million will be made available over three years for each eligible project. This represents a substantial increase over the previous program and adds a third year option which was previously unavailable. Additional equity investments are also possible. These enhancements provide OICR the ability to fund compelling assets and technologies and advance them from mid-late stage academic to Series "A" VC-ready investments.

In addition, any Ontario cancer-related intellectual property (IP) is now eligible for funding under the new program, an enhancement over the previous restriction to academic IP sources only.

For more information about the OICR IPDC Fund or to start the application process, please visit the Program's website at: http://www.oicr.on.ca/Commercialization/IPDCP/index.htm. For inquiries concerning licensing any OICR technology, please contact OICR via email at: [email protected].

About OICR

OICR is an innovative cancer research and development institute dedicated to prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The Institute is an independent, not-for-profit corporation funded by the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Research and Innovation. OICR has 500 scientific staff (located at its headquarters and in research institutes and academia across the Province of Ontario) and an $85 million annual operating budget. It has key research efforts underway in small molecules, biologics, stem cells, imaging, genomics, informatics and bio-computing, from early stage research to Phase I clinical trials.

For more information, please visit the website at www.oicr.on.ca/commercialization.

SOURCE Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR)