2012: Elevating our game in life sciences and healthcare

“I am no one to be trifled with.” – Man in Black, The Princess Bride

The life sciences and healthcare team at MaRS elevated its game in 2012. Having put serious focus into expanding our networks nationally and internationally, we have seen significant growth across all initiatives.

The impact of the success of our clients and programs is nothing trivial, being singularly focused on accelerating the adoption and implementation of novel technology to improve global health. This year, event attendance has increased across the board, from the MaRS Future of Medicine Series and Conference (up 40%) to the groundbreaking MaRS Health IT Innovation Forum, as well as successful investment events and industry engagement efforts.

More importantly, leveraging a more powerful international network opens new markets and development opportunities for MaRS clients.

Our clients—over 200 startups in the medical device, health information technology and therapeutics sectors—have been extremely busy and successful. Here are some quick hit highlights from this year.

• uFluidix Inc. signed a major international sales contract for their lab-on-a-chip technology.

• 1DegreeBio closed a Series B round and engaged over 75,000 users on its world-leading antibody review platform.

• Rna Diagnostics Inc. closed a significant angel financing round early this year, followed by impressive additions to their advisory board. They were also awarded the Rising Star Award at the 2012 BioPartnering Future Europe conference. You can see Amadeo Parissenti, the company’s chief scientific officer, speak recently on CTV here.

• Six companies participated in the VentureStart funding program, and five received funds through MaRS’ Business Acceleration Program.

• Impakt Protective’s smart helmet technology, the Shockbox, was featured on a November episode of “Dragons’ Den” and successfully secured $350,000 from Jim Treliving for 10%!

• PlantForm Corporation secured US$1.8 million for a project with the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

• Fluorinov Pharma Inc. received support from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to continue development of their novel therapies against blood cancers.

• Twelve companies raised over $1 million in the last six months.

• Quantum Dental Technologies’ The Canary System received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell in the United States.

We all know that entrepreneurs never sleep… but maybe for the holidays our clients can catch a bit of a break.

Moving forward into 2013, we will continue to drive this exceptional momentum forward. Happy holidays to all!