13.8 million awarded by the government of Quebec to support university drug discovery efforts in the province.
The Government of Quebec has awarded $13.85 million to Université de Sherbrooke and its university collaborators during the second call of projects of the Fonds d’acceleration des collaborations en santé (FACS) for the project “Le Consortium Acuité-QC: prédire et visualizer l’action du medicament” (Predicting and Visualizing Drug Action). NMX is delighted to collaborate with some of the best research groups and private entities in the country.
This project aims to develop a sustainable and decentralized public-private platform of innovative technologies enhanced by artificial intelligence and machine learning, with the goal of increasing the success rate of drug development. It will be carried out with 4 public collaborators and 18 private partners, including NMX. We look forward to developing custom biophysics strategies to complement this innovative approach to building chemical libraries.
The public collaborators of the project Le Consortium Acuité-Qc: Predicting and Visualizing Drug Action are: Université de Sherbrooke, The Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) - Université de Montreal, Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie - Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte‑Justine and Mila Research Institute. Support is also provided by IRICoR, AdMare BioInnovations and Sherbrooke Innopole.
FACS is implemented by the biopharmaceutical research consortium-CQDM and is funded by the 2017-2027 Quebec Life Sciences Strategy to support ambitious projects that stimulate public-private collaborations. Beyond the private and foreign investments these projects attract, they help strengthen the innovation cycle and growth of Quebec SMEs while also addressing crucial health needs. Launched in June 2020, a total of four initiatives were selected at the end of the second call for FACS projects. These initiatives represent investments of more than $74 million over three years, including $35 million in government support.
The Honourable Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy and Innovation and Minister responsible for Regional Economic Development reacted to the announcement of this award, "These four projects will accelerate the development of life sciences innovations in Quebec, in addition to attracting private investment and increasing the competitiveness of companies in the sector. They show us that collaboration between the public and private sectors can lead to major achievements for the benefit of the Quebec economy and the health of its people. Congratulations to the promoters and thank you to CQDM for its remarkable work in implementing this important measure for the life sciences sector!"