API lands up to $22M for antimicrobial initiative

Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation is receiving up to $21.9 million in federal funding to put toward the $23.5-million Canadian Allied Antimicrobial Supply Resilience initiative. It was one of five projects to receive a share of $67 million from the Life Sciences Fund, a program that aims to strengthen Canada's scientific, technological, and industrial capabilities with a focus on dual-use technologies, which has been a focus of the Liberal government. Developing treatments for combat-related infections is among the applications of API's work in antimicrobials, the announcement said. "This is part of API's core work to enable more made-in-Canada options, address dual-use needs, and the Health Canada Critical and Vulnerable Drug List," CEO Andrew MacIsaac posted.

The API initiative will produce broad-spectrum antibiotics and other antimicrobials. As a life sciences hub, Edmonton is already working on the tricky matter of antimicrobials and resistance to them, which occurs when bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses become immune to certain treatments. This year alone, API announced a partnership with Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs and Alchem Laboratories on a range of medicines including antimicrobials; University of Alberta researchers unveiled a peptide-based alternative to antibiotics, a potential new approach to tackling antimicrobial resistance; and Fedora Pharmaceuticals Inc. showcased a novel class of antibiotics at the first Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation in Las Vegas.

Work on the Canadian Allied Antimicrobial Supply Resilience program will take place at the Critical Medicines Production Centre, set to come online next year. Funded through the Canadian Critical Drug Initiative, the 83,000-square-foot facility will be the largest of its kind in the country, providing "flexible manufacturing capabilities helping to strengthen Canada's sovereignty while providing life sciences innovators with much-needed clinical and commercialization capacity," API's announcement goes on to say. It is also the planned home for the first Canada-made GLP-1 drug from a team led by former Novo Nordisk staff, who worked at the company when Ozempic became a household name. The announcement came on the first day of Life Sciences Week, which included tours of API facilities on Sept. 21 and continues with many more events through Sept. 25.