If anyone knows the ins and outs of the commercialization of imaging technology it's Aaron Fenster.
As director of the Biomedical Imaging Research Centre and a long-time Robart’s Research Institute scientist, Fenster has spun-off two companies, with the potential for more on the horizon. But despite this success, he understands the barriers that can arise along the way for so many researchers, keeping potentially life-changing technology in the lab instead of the marketplace.
Through the creation of the Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization and Research (CITCR) – in partnership with Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto – Fenster and other imaging researchers look to address these barriers which prevent commercialization of imaging technology emerging from Canadian academic institutions, such as The University of Western Ontario.
“This is really very exciting,” says Fenster, of the recently announced $27 million centre, whose main location will be at Western, with a similar centre located at Sunnybrook to be led by Dr. Martin Yaffe. “It is an important component in the pipeline of taking innovations from our labs - what our researchers and students are doing - all the way into worldwide clinical use.”
Western is one of five new Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research sharing in more than $61.1 million in federal funding over the next five years. The CITCR will receive $13.3 million in federal money, with another $14 committed from Western, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Sunnybrook, Health Technology Exchange and General Electric.
The annual global market for diagnostic medical imaging equipment and software is estimated to be $20.6 billion, and increasing at a rate of four per cent each year. However, sales of imaging equipment from Canadian companies was only $185 million in 2008, representing less than one per cent of the global market and less than two per cent of the U.S. market.
Fenster says a strong imaging research foundation is already in place across Ontario, but unfortunately for some potentially life-changing research, the lab is as far is it goes.
“The foundation is critical,” he says. “If you build something on a weak foundation it’s going to crumble. We have many trainees, outstanding researchers, and outstanding facilities that are world class.” He continues, “One very special aspect that really stimulated this centre is that we began to realize early on that we must commercialize; we must capture our innovations and translate it into clinical use and into the private sector. We’ve been developing a culture of being able to capture innovation, translate it into clinical use and once in clinical use we began to see the value of it.”
It is usually around this point where many researchers tend to hit the wall, adds Fenster, be it for lack of money, the inability to test their product, lack of expertise or other problems. CITCR will work with more than 18 different organizations in Canada to remove these barriers and accelerate successful commercialization of medical imaging products as they move through the pipeline from demonstration of potential with prototypes through clinical trials, the regulatory process and finally to the development of successful products that can be used in the clinic.
“In research we are doing fine. We continue to get funding and publish papers, but we in the imaging community - that is not enough for us,” Fenster says. “We want to pay back the Canadian citizens by commercializing innovations in Ontario and Canada and generating wealth in Canada. “In commercializing innovations, we may have the best ideas, but some of them don’t go anywhere. There are real barriers in Ontario and Canada, to make a small idea into a successful company.”
The CITCR, to be located in an existing, but still undetermined location on campus, will play three key roles.First, the centre will help newly formed and existing small- and medium-sized medical imaging companies with the critically needed expertise, technical capabilities and infrastructure to allow them to become internationally competitive.
Second, the centre will promote training and investment in imaging technology through the cultivation of new strategic partnerships between the private sector and academic centres.
Third, the centre will play an active role in managing intellectual property to ensure that inventions are not lost and that the return on federal and provincial government investments in medical imaging innovations are maximized – attracting new investment, leading to new jobs and economic growth.
Fenster says the CITCR will facilitate greater interaction between academic centres and the private sector by creating a network of opportunities for partnerships, which will represent the greatest opportunity for the Canadian medical imaging sector to establish and sustain world leadership in innovations and technology development.
“In five years we hope to see a real impact,” Fenster says. “My excitement is not about what’s in the centre, but what the centre will do. I will feel good in five years when we have impacted small companies that got stuck, we help them and they are selling products all over the world.
“Small companies that are stuck now, we can get them launched. And there are professors and researchers now with great ideas and we will help them launch their companies into the private sector. I bet you there are fantastic ideas but they just don’t know what do to; they don’t know how. We will help them.”
