Human health therapeutics

NRC’s Human Health Therapeutics (HHT) works hand-in-hand with industry to help biotech firms achieve success and save costs. As an R&D partner of choice, NRC-HHT reduces the risk of critical steps in the development of biologics – known as large molecules. Products and processes are improved and time is saved en route from lab to market. By collaborating with us, our partners have reached milestones in antibody therapies for cancer, vaccines and neurological diseases while reducing their biomanufacturing costs. More specifically, NRC-HHT adds value to partners’ products by overcoming challenges in target generation and validation, biological candidate optimization and characterization, and bioprocessing. In doing so, we stimulate industry presence in Canada by providing unique expertise and advice in biotechnology. Together, we contribute to the development of biotherapeutics and personalised medicine to treat and prevent chronic diseases while lowering costs to Canada’s health care system.

What we offer

Through various business arrangements such as R&D collaborative agreements, service agreements, and license contracts, we offer "à la carte" expertise, from access to leading‑edge bioprocessing facilities to comprehensive co-development opportunities. As an integrated R&D extension to your team, we can lower the risk of product development and add significant value to therapeutics and processes to accelerate their progress through the value chain, up to early clinical trials. We will also transfer large molecule assets, bioprocessing solutions and other enabling technologies to our industrial clients to reinforce a strong, prosperous Canadian biomanufacturing sector with global impact.

NRC-HHT builds solid working relationships with each of our industrial clients. As a trusted partner, we understand your need for confidentiality linked to proprietary technologies. We can tailor our services to suit your specific objectives in quality control, specialized technological solutions, and financial or resource and equipment requirements.

Why work with us

By partnering with NRC, you can look forward to working with an experienced team of internationally-recognized researchers, backed by NRC's extensive technology and infrastructure assets. While we work with firms of all sizes, these resources make us an especially attractive partner for small- and medium‑sized enterprises, who frequently adopt a virtual wet laboratory model and have limited capacity to invest in research and development.

When you work with NRC-HHT, you have many advantages at your finger tips:

• The largest biologics-dedicated R&D team in Canada
• Expert involvement from target selection to cGMP-like bioprocesses
• An experienced team with a track record of satisfied biopharma industry clients
• High-caliber packages of technologies ready to license
• Integrated resources throughout the NRC offering access to a wide range of capabilities

Our highly qualified research teams have unparalleled skills in Antibody Generation, Bioprocess Development and Scale-up, Biologics Characterization and Purification, Vaccines and Adjuvants Design and Biologics Pharmacology.

Partnering with us will give you access to our animal cell and microbial fermentation pilot plants; our preclinical imaging facility and to advanced analytical platforms which include mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), flow cytometry and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Our world-class facilities are located in Ottawa, Montréal and Halifax.