The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s leading hospital for mental health, and Assurex Health, a global leader in personalized medicine, have signed an agreement for a joint venture to bring the benefits of this treatment approach to more Canadians. The personalized approach helps to match the right medication at the right dose for each patient, based on their genetic makeup. Using Assurex Health’s GeneSight panel, physicians can easily see which psychiatric medications are likely to be effective for each patient and which ones are not, often avoiding treatment failure and side effects. “This partnership between CAMH and Assurex Health is essential to advance the widespread use of personalized medicine in psychiatry, and improve health care for Canadians who need medications for mental health problems,” said Dr. James Kennedy, head of the Tanenbaum Centre for Pharmacogenetics at CAMH. This approach is a game-changer from the current trial-and-error approach to prescribing, which results in many patients having to try different psychiatric medications, each with potential side-effects, before the best medication for them can be determined. In the U.S., Assurex Health data shows a 70 per cent improvement in depressive symptoms when GeneSight testing is used to predict patient response to antidepressants versus treatment as usual, and a 28 per cent reduction in health care costs.

The Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD) is outraged about Health Canada identifying 40,000 medical cannabis patients and producers by sending them correspondence with “Marihuana Medical Access Program” in the return address, contrary to their standard procedure. “This privacy breach violates patient rights and undermines Health Canada’s attempts at reforming their medical cannabis program,” said Adam Greenblatt, CAMCD president. “If Health Canada is trying to instill confidence in a mail-order distribution system for medical cannabis, they are not off to a good start.” The correspondence in question contained informational materials about the reasons behind Health Canada’s regulatory reform, which ironically includes an increased risk of home invasion for patients who grow their own medical cannabis. “Patients are already very concerned that their personal medical information will be turned over to police and realtors when Health Canada revokes their permits next year,” continued Greenblatt. “These patients are accustomed to producing their own supply or accessing a storefront medical cannabis dispensary, yet both options are prohibited under Health Canada’s new regime.” The Deputy Minister of Health issued a bewildered apology, but CAMCD is unimpressed. CAMCD was established to promote a regulated, community-based approach to medical cannabis access, and to support dispensaries in providing the highest quality patient care.

Atrium Innovations Inc., a globally recognized leader in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of innovative, science-based natural health products, announced that it has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement with a company backed by the Permira funds whereby the Permira funds will acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Atrium, other than the shares to be rolled over by Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Upon completion of the transaction, Atrium will be jointly owned by the Permira funds (75%), the Fonds (12.5%) and CDPQ (12.5%), before management equity programs. Atrium will maintain its head office in Québec, complete the expansion of the Québec manufacturing facility, and maintain current levels of employment, investment and R&D in Québec and Canada as well as ongoing community expenditures. The transaction represents a total enterprise value of approximately $1.1 billion, including the assumption of existing indebtedness, for 100% of Atrium. “The Permira funds understand and have a deep respect for Atrium’s Québec heritage which has been a key component of the Company’s historic success and will remain a highly important factor in the future”, said Pierre Laurin, Chairman of the Board of Atrium. “Our Board is pleased to recommend this transaction to our shareholders as it provides them with substantial and immediate cash value and is in the best interest of all stakeholders of the Company.” “Atrium has built over the years a great global platform and we intend to expand on that achievement”, said Pierre Fitzgibbon, President and CEO of Atrium. “Atrium intends to continue to pursue its growth strategy both organically and through acquisitions. The Permira funds’, the Fonds’ and CDPQ’s resources provide us the ability to accelerate our growth with the financial ability to expand globally. We look forward to working with our three partners and taking the Company to a new level to realize its full potential.”

Janssen Inc. announced that Health Canada has approved SIMPONI® I.V. (golimumab) for infusion for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in combination with methotrexate. SIMPONI® I.V. is the first and only fully human anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha infusible therapy approved in Canada to treat moderately to severely active RA. “The approval of golimumab for infusion offers patients living with moderately to severely active RA a new and effective treatment option with an infusion time of 30 minutes. In addition, it is dosed based on weight, which means it can offer patients a more tailored option,” said Dr. Edward Keystone, Mount Sinai Hospital. Approximately 300,000 Canadians are living with RA, a chronic, systemic inflammatory condition. RA is often characterized by symptoms of joint inflammation, stiffness and pain that, over time, spread to more joints. The approval of SIMPONI® I.V. is supported by findings from the Phase 3 Trial of Golimumab, an Anti-TNF-alpha Monoclonal Antibody, Administered Intravenously, in Subjects with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis Despite Methotrexate Therapy (GO-FURTHER).

For over 20 years, London Health Sciences Centre’s (LHSC) trauma program has been making an impact on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of teenagers to reduce drinking/drugging and driving through its Impact program. Impact aims to heighten teen awareness of the potential consequences of high-risk behaviour. Over the past year, LHSC’s injury prevention team conducted focus groups with over 200 grade 10 and 11 students at 10 London and surrounding area secondary schools. “We wanted a fresh understanding of all the issues affecting teenagers and driving in order to educate them about the consequences of high-risk behaviour in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them,” says Jane Harrington, injury prevention specialist, LHSC. The focus groups at secondary schools revealed that 55 percent of high school students surveyed drank alcohol in the past year, 22 per cent had used cannabis in the last year, 14 per cent had used opioid pain relievers in the last year and 8.7 per cent had smoked cigarettes. Acting upon student feedback, LHSC’s trauma program partnered with Josh Field Support Network, a non-profit, family based organization, with the mission of raising awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.

STI, the leader in intelligent reimbursement solutions for the Canadian healthcare market, released the innoviCares app, designed to promote personal healthcare management and improve adherence to prescribed medications, available at the iTunes store for all registered innoviCares members. InnoviCares offers additional coverage for many original brand name medications and healthcare products and is provided to patients at no cost by STI, in partnership with participating pharmaceutical manufacturers. For many of the participating products, innoviCares provides members the choice to stay on original brand name medications. The newly released iPhone app gives members a digital version of their card and provides them with useful features, like easily actionable prescription refill alerts. These reminders are based on real intelligence driven from prescription possession data. In addition to the adherence alerts, other notable features include a pharmacy locator that maps the nearest preferred pharmacy who can serve the patient best, personalized benefits and savings, and an up-to-date list of what products are covered on the card. Patients simply bring their innoviCares card to their pharmacy when filling a prescription and the card works similar to their drug insurance card, providing coverage on participating products

A team of Montréal researchers at the IRCM led by Dr. Nabil G. Seidah, in collaboration with Dr.William C. Wetsel’s team at Duke University in the United States, discovered that the protein PC7 plays a critical role in the brain by affecting certain types of cognitive performance such as anxiety, learning and emotional memory. Their results, recently published in the scientific journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and Nature, could have a significant impact on regulating behaviour related to anxiety disorders and trauma. The scientists found that PC7, the seventh member of the proprotein convertase family responsible for converting inactive proteins into their active states, plays a critical role in specific areas of the brain such as the hippocampus and amygdala, which are important for memory and emotional reactions and are involved in anxiety responses. The results of various behavioural tests in mice lacking PC7 revealed that while spatial memory remained intact, episodic and emotional memories were severely impaired. Episodic memory, the recollection of past events or experiences, can trigger a change in behaviour as a result of an event. “Collectively, these findings indicate that deletion of PC7 in mice could have substantial effects on certain types of cognitive performance,” concludes Dr. Seidah. “We believe that a drug targeting PC7 could increase levels of dopamine and BDNF in the brain, thereby normalizing behaviour. This discovery could be very significant for a number of conditions related to anxiety and trauma, such as bipolar disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.”

Canada needs a national seniors care strategy to respond to issues such as the fast-growing dementia dilemma, according to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). Dr. Chris Simpson, CMA President-elect, said Canada must move now to invest in a national seniors care strategy and join the 13 countries that already have dementia strategies in place. He added such a strategy is critical to helping our overtaxed health care system cope with about three quarters of a million Canadians already living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Dementia currently costs the Canadian economy $33 billion a year in direct health-care costs or indirect costs of lost income of family members acting as caregivers. The Alzheimer’s Society of Canada predicts that by 2031, 1.4 million Canadians will have dementia, and by 2040 the annual cost to the economy will reach $293 billion. “We have the dubious distinction of being the only G8 country without a national dementia strategy. Meanwhile, our acute care hospitals are overflowing with patients awaiting long term care placement and our long-term care facilities are understaffed, under-spaced and underequipped to care for our most vulnerable seniors. This leaves patients and their families in limbo, struggling to fill these gaps in our system,” Dr. Simpson said.