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Profiles

COVID-19 Therapeutics Task Force

The COVID-19 Therapeutics Task Force was a Canadian public-private advisory body convened by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).[1] It was tasked with providing advice to the Government of Canada on COVID-19 therapeutics, with a specific focus on therapeutic candidates seeking federal funding.

During its tenure from July 2020 to February 2021, the task force met 36 times, reviewed 98 funding proposals, provided recommendations on 54 projects. Ten of these were recommended for funding to further develop the candidates, including 4 clinical trials, 4 in the pre-clinical stage, and two others.[2]

History

The task force's inaugural meeting took place on July 13, 2020.[3]

Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the membership of the COVID-19 Therapeutics Task Force on August 5, 2020.[4] Bains also announced the membership of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.

In November 2020, the task force's mandate was extended until the end of February 2021.[3:1] During their penultimate meeting on February 18, 2021, members of the task force expressed concern that their mandate was ending, and specifically that there was "insufficient attention to therapeutics, failures of implementation, and the need to be forward looking for surveillance of upcoming therapeutic opportunities."[2:1]

Its final meeting took place on February 25, 2021, and was attended by Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne, Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Simon Kennedy, Deputy Minister of Health Stephen Lucas, and Minister of Health Patricia Hadju.[5]

Participants

Name Position Notes
Nancy Harrison Co-chair Life Sciences British Columbia, Ventures West Management, MSI Methylation Sciences, Creative Destruction Lab, adMare BioInnovations, Digital Technology Supercluster, Genome British Columbia, Knight Therapeutics
Cédric Bisson Co-chair Teralys Capital, iNovia Capital, McKinsey & Company, Montreal InVivo, Grand Challenges Canada, Procure
Maha Katabi Member Sofinnova, Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Northsea Therapeutics, Oxalis Capital, Sectoral Asset Management, Ventures West Management, T2C2 Capital, Exactis Innovation
Gordon McCauley Member adMare BioInnovations, Viable Healthworks, Allon Therapeutics, NDI Capital, BIOTECanada, CGen, Life Sciences British Columbia, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Acetech, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto Rehab Foundation
Parimal Nathwani Member Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP), MaRS Discovery District, UBC University Industry Liaison Office (UILO), TRIUMF Innovations, Zucara Therapeutics, Vasomune Therapeutics, Encycle Therapeutics
Ali Tehrani Member Zymeworks, Student Biotechnology Network (SBN), Consortium de recherche biopharmaceutique (CQDM), Life Sciences British Columbia, Mitacs, BIOTECanada, Premier's Technology Council, Creatus Biosciences
Youla Tsantrizos Member McGill University, Boehringer Ingelheim, Centre de recherche en biologie structurale (CRBS), Canadian Society for Chemistry, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR)
Lisa Barrett Advisor Dalhousie University, Senescence Aging Infection & Immunity Lab (SAIL), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Marceline Côté Advisor University of Ottawa
Eleanor Fish Advisor University of Toronto, University Health Network (UHN)
Matthias Götte Advisor Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, McGill University
François Jean Advisor Facility for Infectious Disease and Epidemic Research (FINDER)
Samira Mubareka Advisor Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Centre for Research Expertise in Occupational Disease (CREOD), Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN), Genome Canada, Ontario's COVID-19 Genomics Rapid Response Coalition (ONCoV), Ontario Academic Health Sciences SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing Network (ONS2), Sunnybrook Translational Research Group for Emerging Respiratory Viruses (SERV)
Pamela Ohashi Advisor Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), Royal Society of Canada (RSC)
James Russell Advisor University of British Columbia (UBC), Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI), Sirius Genomics, Cyon Therapeutics, St. Paul's Hospital
Makeda Semret Advisor McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR), AAU-McGill Partnership for Infectious Diseases (AMP-ID)
Don Sheppard Advisor McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4)
Don Vinh Advisor McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Canadian Glycomics Network (GlycoNet), Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada (AMMI), Clinical Immunology Society (CIS), Comité consultatif québécois pour les maladies rares, MUHC COVID-19 Biobank, COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19), COVID Human Genetic Effort (CHGE)

Subsidiaries

  1. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. (2022, March 10). COVID-19 Therapeutics Task Force. Government of Canada. http://archive.today/2023.04.27-230206/https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-life-science-industries/en/covid-19-therapeutics-task-force ↩︎

  2. Release Package - Health Canada A-2021-000345 (p. 4). (2024). Internet Archive. Health Canada. https://archive.org/details/release-package-health-canada-a-2021-000345 ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Release Package - Health Canada A-2021-000345 (p. 3). (2024). Internet Archive. Health Canada. https://archive.org/details/release-package-health-canada-a-2021-000345 ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Jagric, A., Roy, C., Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, & Public Services and Procurement Canada. (2020, August 5). Government of Canada announces major steps in treating and preventing COVID-19 through vaccines and therapies. Government of Canada. http://archive.today/2022.12.16-235932/https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2020/08/government-of-canada-announces-major-steps-in-treating-and-preventing-covid-19-through-vaccines-and-therapies.html ↩︎

  5. Release Package - Health Canada A-2021-000345 (p. 34). (2024). Internet Archive. Health Canada. https://archive.org/details/release-package-health-canada-a-2021-000345 ↩︎