Canadian medical innovations

[0rganism]

On another thread, someone suggested that "Canadian companies never make innovations", which is patently false. However, it is a common justification for using trade barriers to enforce inflated pharmaceutical prices in America. Just for example, here is an excerpt from the FIRST result of my google on the words "Canadian medical innovations". There were 104000 hits.

(from Nov. 15, 2000)
"Canadians may start seeing Cholesterol 1,2,3 tests in their doctor's office and pharmacy as early as this spring," said Dr. Brent Norton, President of IMI and a family physician. "The research presented at the AHA will form the basis of our submissions to both the Canadian Health Protection Branch and the American FDA."

"At the same time, we are continuing research to confirm that skin
cholesterol can be used to monitor a patient's response to cholesterol- lowering therapies used by hundreds of thousands of Canadians. That could also lead to a home version of the Cholesterol 1,2,3 test," said Dr. Norton.

IMI is a Canadian and world leader in predictive medicine, dedicated to developing innovative products for the rapid and early detection of life-threatening conditions, particularly cardiovascular disease and cancer. IMI is located in Toronto, with shares traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/subject.gsp?subjectid=37417

When do you suppose we will be seeing "Cholesterol 1,2,3" tests in innovative America?

[Wonk]

1. Another example is the Edmonton Protocol for treating diabetes

http://www.umassmed.edu/diabetes/research/ict.cfm
http://www.joslin.harvard.edu/news/islet_transplant_july.shtml
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Edmonton+Protocol%22+diabetes

[0rganism]

2. Excellent, let's keep this thread going.

I'd like to see a whole mess of examples of Canadian innovations, without anyone having to post more than one.

[Wonk]

5. Related: Insulin was discovered at the University of Toronto in 1922

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldiabetes.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=insulin+%22Frederick+Banting%22+Toronto
http://www.google.com/search?q=insulin+discovery+Canada

on edit: Both of these innovations were at universities, and I'm pretty sure they don't have shares trading on the stock exchange like your original example. Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.

[0rganism]

11. University research still counts, as far as I'm concerned

As if the US pharmaceutical companies don't use data or license patents from (subsidized) university research? Haha, it is to laugh.

[Kanary]

3. The date?

I found the date of Nov 14, but didn't find the year. Where is it listed?

Great information! I appreciate you thinking of looking it up this way.

Thanks!

Kanary

[0rganism]

4. It's at the top of the forum page I linked

Started By: gg cox
Date: Nov 15, 2000 10:31 AM
IMI International Medical Innovations (IMI on Toronto)

And you're right, the article is dated Nov 14, altho the posting in the stock exchange forum occurred on Nov 15.

[Kanary]

7. Thanks!

Again, this is great research, and just the right timing for me.

I don't have the time right now to google it all, but.... at least now I know the words that work for a search.

'Preciate it!

Kanary

[diamond14]

6. Canadians Banting/Best/Macleod discovered INSULIN !!! extending

millions of people's lives.....without insulin, people with Type 1 diabetes ALWAYS died soon after contracting the disease....and it is a ghastly death, often called 'wasting' as a person becomes emaciated despite eating food....

http://www.discoveryofinsulin.com/Home.htm

-----------------------
without these Canadians work, millions would die quickly....although insulin is NOT a cure for diabetes, the drug helps people with diabetes barely survive with daily multiple injections....over 200,000 Americans DIE from diabetes every year (many more than AIDS and breast cancer combined)....there is NO HOPE under bush* for either a cure, or even to get insulin to these people...

Diabetes and Insulin

Nobel Lecture delivered at Stockholm on September 15th, 1925

By: Frederick G. Banting

http://www.discoveryofinsulin.com/FGBLecture.htm

[daleo]

8. William Osler and Wilder Penfield

Osler - considered one of the great doctors of the 19th and early 20th centuries was born in Canada and educated and lectured at McGill. He also worked in U.S. and Britain. He wrote some of the most widely used teaching and diagnostic texts of the time.

Penfield - born in U.S., but did his famous neurological research in Montreal, mid 20th century (50's to 70's).

[Lisa]

9. I'd like to put in a plug for the BC Cancer Agency ...

http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/default.htm

A friend of mine was diagnosed with cervical cancer last year. Thanks to the work they've been doing on detection and treatments, she is now in remission.

Canada has been doing a lot of cancer research since the "Marathon of Hope" in the early 1980s. The money raised by Terry Fox during his attempt to run across Canada (by now, tens of millions of dollars) has provided assistance to many researchers.

http://www.terryfoxrun.org/english/research/default.asp?s=1


The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame has honoured many innovations over the past century.

http://www.cdnmedhall.org/


And the pharmaceutical industry up here is not doing too badly either, in terms of research.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~csps/CSPSaward.htm
http://www.innovationstrategy.gc.ca/gol/innovation/interface.nsf/vSSGBasic/in02587e.htm


Keep in mind that the US has 10 times the population and a larger GNP than we do!

It sounds to me like our friend has been quoting this article pretty much verbatim, without looking at the background (or at the fact that the people mentioned have ideological axes to grind).

www.metnews.com/articles/kline091202.htm

[daleo]

10. Canadian Institutes for Health Research

This agency is similar to the NIH in U.S.

Here are a few recent press releases, mostly from 2003. The list is not exhaustive by any means:

OTTAWA (Dec. 15, 2003) - Canadian health researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Saskatchewan have developed a vaccine that significantly reduces the level of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 (E. coli) in cattle. The vaccine will help to reduce the dramatic economic and healthcare costs associated with E. coli 0157, the toxic microbe responsible for hamburger disease, recalls of contaminated meat, and water contamination.
LONDON, ON (June 23, 2003) - New research on the transplantation of bone marrow-derived stem cells has provided the first evidence that adult stem cells can induce pancreatic tissue to repair itself, restoring normal insulin production and reversing symptoms associated with diabetes.

OTTAWA (May 13, 2003) - A team of researchers from the Centre de recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval (CRCHUL) in Quebec City have been successful in developing a technique for neutralizing the gene implicated in Myotonic Muscular Dystrophy (or Steinert's disease).
Montreal, April 1 2003 - A new three-drug cocktail used to treat ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, may increase life span and decrease disease progression according to a study conducted at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).
VANCOUVER (January 23, 2003) Groundbreaking Blood and Marrow Transplant Research to Help Children with Leukemia
OTTAWA (July 11, 2002) - A team of Canadian researchers has used a proteomics approach - the study of protein location, interaction, structure and function - and discovered a cellular process that sheds new light on how pathogens cause infection in humans. This could lead to new treatments for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and Salmonella infection.

(August 20, 2001) - EDMONTON - University of Alberta.... Rajotte and his team - including Dr. Greg Korbutt - received international attention for their breakthrough clinical trials in diabetes, known around the world as the Edmonton Protocol. By injecting islet cells -- delicate clusters of small cells in the pancreas -- into the livers of diabetic patients with the aid of a new antirejection cocktail, diabetics have become insulin independent with no more need for daily insulin injections. This grant will allow them to explore new ways of finding a cure for diabetes...