On June 22, 2022, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) announced the launch of the Clinical Trials Fund (CTF), which will inject funding into Canada’s clinical trials environment. The government’s goals include reinforcing Canada’s clinical trials infrastructure so as to improve the health and safety of all Canadians while also ensuring that Canada is well-positioned to respond to any future pandemics or other health crises by having the best available treatments.

The CTF is part of Canada’s broader Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy, a $2.2 billion investment which aims to boost Canada’s biomanufacturing and life science sector and ensure Canada’s readiness for future pandemics and health emergencies.

The Clinical Trials Fund

The announcement indicates that the CTF is supported by a Budget 2021 investment of $250 million over three years for the CIHR, which will invest those funds into three streams:

  1. Pan-Canadian Clinical Trials Consortium. This new platform is intended strengthen coordination between clinical trials conducted in Canada and Canadian participation in international clinical trials, thereby advancing equitable access to clinical trials, building capacity, and improving trials’ impact.
  2. Clinical Trials Training Platforms (CTTP). The CTTP will operate to implement recruitment, training, and mentoring strategies to attract and develop high-caliber trainees, researchers, healthcare professionals, and clinical research professionals, all of whom are needed in each step of the clinical trials pipeline to ensure high-quality trials.
  3. Clinical Trials Projects. CIHR will provide grants to support a variety of clinical trial phases, designs, and objectives across a broad range of health research areas while also focusing on areas of priority. The Projects will support every step of the clinical trials pipeline, from discovery to implementation and securing grants directed toward priority research areas.

Investment in these streams is intended to help Canadian researchers conduct all stages of clinical trials in order to develop new vaccines, therapeutics, and other medicines which will address a range of health conditions.

CIHR has already launched the first funding opportunities in each stream, the results of which will be released in Fall 2022.

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Links:

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Government of Canada strengthens Canada’s clinical trials environment | June 22, 2022
• Innovation, Sciences and Economic Development Canada | Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy | July 28, 2021