Quebec Invests in Partnership for Personalized Medicine

The Government of Quebec announced a $10 million investment in the Personalized Medicine Partnership for Cancer (PMPC).

The investment, to be disbursed over a four-year period, will be supplemented with $11.1 million of funding from private sector partners, for a total project value of $21.1 million.

This public-private partnership will be focused on establishing an integrated approach for the development and implementation of clinical biomarkers and other personalized healthcare solutions to improve the outcome and cost-efficiency of healthcare services provided to cancer patients in the province of Quebec and abroad.

The PMPC will be under the leadership of Caprion Proteome Inc., a Montreal-based biotech company specializing in the discovery and development of protein-based diagnostic biomarkers. The other partners will include the Quebec Clinical Research Organization in Cancer (Q-CROC), a multidisciplinary network of clinicians, academic scientists and other members of the medical community involved in clinical and translational cancer research, as well as private partners Oncozyme Pharma Inc., Pfizer Canada Inc., Sanofi Canada Inc. and TELUS Health.

“The rapid progress in clinical research enables us to decipher the underpinnings of cancer and to develop specific diagnostic tools and targeted drugs to treat specific subtypes of common cancers such as lung, colon or breast. It is critical that these new tools and medicines be deployed for the benefit of patients across Québec,” says Gerald Batist, professor of oncology at McGill University and co-director of the Q-CROC and director of the Segal Cancer Centre at the Jewish General Hospital.

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