The COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasized the need to have manufacturing capacity in Canada not only for vaccines, but to fill drug shortages related to supply chain disruptions. Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API) is leading a coalition of companies, innovators, and suppliers looking to establish significant manufacturing capacity in Alberta to ensure Canadians will have access to the life-saving treatments and medications they need.
API’s core mission and mandate is to provide the capacity for companies to grow and develop within Canada, solving the core challenge in which companies lacking local translational capacity outsource the majority of their development work, exposing them to considerable risk and in many cases causing them to eventually leave for other jurisdictions as they gain investment and momentum. By providing low-cost services in a model that builds capacity by providing companies the opportunity to hire in-house trainees, many of the barriers associated with building up infrastructure can be overcome. API is seeding a robust cluster to help establish Alberta as a leader in the life sciences industry in Canada and across the globe.
In addition to building capacity to manufacture vaccines locally, API plans to manufacture drugs like Propofol, a critical drug currently in short supply that is used to put patients on ventilators. Without Propofol, life-saving surgeries and ventilation procedures continue to be delayed, especially with many COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators in ICU.
API is currently working with companies like Providence Therapeutics/Northern RNA and Entos Pharmaceuticals, innovators like Nobel Laureate Dr. Michael Houghton and Dr. Lorne Tyrell, and academic partners like the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, the Canadian Glycomics Network, and IRICoR out of Quebec to build translational capacity across Canada.