WIKIMEDIA, VICTORDThis month, a small Canadian company, Mimetogen, entered a licensing agreement with Allergan to complete clinical testing of a new drug to help sufferers of dry eye. This drug-development success story originated with research supported through the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Proof of Principal Program (POP). This federal funding has provided essential resources to many researchers with commercial-ready projects.
CIHR has offered POP commercialization grants since 2001, and this may be its last year. Next month (December 7-9), the POP committee will hold its final grant review meeting, and no replacement funding source has been put in place. Rather than end the funding received by this unique grant program, CIHR should consider expanding the program to accelerate commercial advancement of academic projects. The end of the POP program sends a signal to Canadian researchers that commercialization is not a high priority.
Earlier this year, CIHR implemented the final stage of funding reforms to assimilate separate grant programs into a new funding scheme with a common electronic application form. The new scheme emphasizes knowledge translation, but there are no funds reserved for commercialization grants. Yet ...
