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PlantForm Corporation is a Canadian company formed in 2008 to commercialize a low-cost, plant-based manufacturing platform for monoclonal antibodies, protein drugs and vaccines for cancer and other critical illnesses.

The company’s technology platform provides several advantages over mammalian cell culture and other fermentation systems used to produce most biologic drugs on the market today: it’s fast, efficient, highly versatile (for new product development) and easily scalable. Best of all, it’s capable of reducing manufacturing costs for life-saving drugs by up to 90 per cent.

PlantForm licenses its technology from the University of Guelph, where it was developed by Dr. J. Christopher Hall, a PlantForm founder and the company’s Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Hall held the Canada Research Chair in Recombinant Antibody Technology from 2002 to 2014 and is a leading authority in the field. All relevant intellectual property is protected by patent filings.

PlantForm’s pipeline features both innovator and biosimilar products, including:

• biosimilar trastuzumab, a plant-produced version of the $6-billion breast cancer drug Herceptin® (animal studies successfully completed, human clinical trials scheduled for 2014, market entry anticipated 2017)

• biosimilar versions of two additional oncology drugs with combined annual global sales of $11.4 billion (2010)

• innovator antibodies for HIV/AIDS, funded by the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• recombinant butyrylcholinesterase (rBuChE), an enzyme used as preventative medicine for people vulnerable to attack by nerve agents, organophosphates or other stimulants ($1.8-million contract with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and $800,00 contract with Defence Canada)

RiverVest Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that was founded in 2000 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri with additional office in Cleveland, Ohio. The firm currently has managed over $208 million of total assets. RiverVest has raised two investment funds with total committed capital of $165 million since inception. The recent fund closed at $75 million. RiverVest typically makes equity investments into global companies, and has no specific geographic preferences. The firm will consider making investments at all the stages, and focuses on investments in seed, early-stage and select later-stage companies. The typical investment size is around $6 million, though the firm can invest more or less, depending on the opportunity. 

RiverVest is extremely opportunistic when it comes to investments in the life sciences space; with that being said RiverVests specified sectors and sub sectors of interest may or may not be an area in which RiverVest is currently looking to allocate capital to. The firm invests in companies in the biotech therapeutics and diagnostics, as well the medical technology space. 

Some of the firms investments have included companies developing biotech therapeutics and diagnostics targeting diseases of the blood and blood forming organs, neoplasms, cancer, and oncology, skin and subcutaneous tissue, cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the ear, and infectious diseases. The firm has also invested in companies developing anti-body based therapeutics. The firm has also invested in firms developing medical technologies such as therapeutic radiation devices, active implantable devices, non active implantable devices, hospital hardware, and imaging devices.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. is a Swiss global health-care company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Roche is looking for first-in-class or best-in-class opportunities that address diseases of unmet medical need and have the potential to revolutionize the standard of care. Roche focuses on their main disease therapy areas – oncology and Immuno-oncology, ophthalmology, infectious diseases and neurosciences–as well as looking at opportunities in promising technologies and early-stage collaborations. Beyond the asset, Roche always look for the right partnership and cultural fit. Roche also seeks collaboration in diagnostics, specifically biomarkers.

Shire is an Irish-headquartered global specialty biopharmaceutical company. Originating in the United Kingdom with a large operational base in the United States, its brands and products include Vyvanse, Adderall XR, Intuniv, Lialda, Pentasa, Fosrenol, Replagal, Elaprase, VPRIV, Firazyr and Dermagraft. 

Shire is currently interested in several therapeutic areas for business development opportunities. The company is most interested in the following products: rare disease therapeutics, pre-clinical to on the market; neuroscience therapeutics, on the market; gastrointestinal, on the market; ophthalmology, post proof-of-concept; and hematology; post proof-of-concept.

Western Oncolytics is developing a novel immunotherapy to treat a wide range of solid tumors.  Our therapy is an oncolytic vector with multiple therapeutic transgenes that both stimulate the immune system and remove local tumor immune inhibition.  The vector is engineered to avoid the immune system itself, thus overcoming a major drawback in competing designs.  It is the only therapy in the world with these leading attributes.  Western Oncolytics' therapy works in combination with other treatments, e.g. checkpoint inhibitors, and is capable of systemic (intravenous) delivery. 

Our team comprises the leading scientists, clinicians, and regulatory experts within our field, including entrepreneurs who successfully exited companies with earlier technologies.  In comparison animal testing measuring tumor growth and survival, our therapy performed far better than earlier, clinically-proven oncolytic therapies.

Western Oncolytics is currently raising investment to complete preclinical development and a planned clinical trial. 

WuXi Venture Fund is the corporate venture arm of WuXi AppTec, a multinational CRO based in Shanghai China with multiple offices across China and the United States. The fund makes equity investments into technology and life science companies to enhance or leverage WuXi AppTec's platform capabilities. The investment size will be varied based on a case-by-case basis. The firm invests in life science companies across the globe with an emphasis in China and the US.