Reinforcing Canada’s clinical trials infrastructure, training, and research

Backgrounder

Clinical trials are an essential part of the healthcare sector and a crucial component of medical research and innovation. Clinical trials allow researchers to assess if new drugs, treatments, and therapies are safe and effective for the population. Announced in Spring 2022, the Clinical Trials Fund earmarked $250M across three funding streams to grow and strengthen Canada’s clinical trials infrastructure, training, and research through 2025.

The CTF is an integral component of Canada's $2.2 billion investment under the Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy, which brings together a suite of federal programming to achieve two main objectives: (1) better preparing Canada to respond to pandemics and other health emergencies; and (2) supporting an innovative, high growth domestic life sciences sector. To advance these objectives holistically, the CTF contributes toward these objectives by helping to create a pipeline for medical innovation and research in complement to other federal investments that have been made to augment domestic biomanufacturing capacity.

The CTF was launched in spring 2022 and successful applications were funded through three CTF funding streams:

  • Pan-Canadian Clinical Trials Consortium: The Accelerating Clinical Trials Consortium will bring together a team of 232 researchers across the country to support and expand clinical trials networks to improve collaboration, efficiency, knowledge sharing, and quality of clinical trials in Canada.
  • Clinical Trials Training Platforms: Seven different training platforms will train the next generation of clinical scientists and researchers to conduct high quality clinical trials
  • Clinical Trials Projects: Twenty-two individual clinical trials projects will create the evidence needed to develop new drugs and treatments

Funded research

Below is a full list of CTF funded grantees (also available on CIHR’s funding database)

Project title Principal Investigator Project Amount
Clinical Trials Pan-Canadian Consortium
Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) - Canada Dr. Philip J. Devereaux (McMaster University) with 232 researchers $38,996,933
Clinical Trials Training Platforms
The Canadian Behavioural Trials and Interventions Training Platform Dr. Simon Bacon (Concordia University) $1,776,068
Canadian Consortium of Clinical Trial Training (CANTRAIN) platform: enhancing career preparedness in RCT research targeting different audiences across the continuum Dr. Jean Bourbeau (Research Institute of the McGill U Health Centre) $11,317,324
Canadian Training Platform for Trials Leveraging Existing Networks (CAN-TAP-TALENT) Dr. Angela Cheung (University Health Network) $4,314,242
STROKECOG Platform: Innovative Clinical Trials Training Initiatives for STROKE and COGnition Dr. Jodi D. Edwards (University of Ottawa Heart Institute) $2,911,416
A Training Platform in Pragmatic Registry-Based Trials: Connecting Canada's Health, Data, and Biomanufacturing Sectors Dr. Amit Garg (University of Western Ontario) $3,479,320
Increasing capacity for Maternal and PAediatric Clinical Trials (IMPACT) in Canada Dr. Lauren Kelly (University of Manitoba) $4,907,350
Canadian Network for Statistical Training in Trials (CANSTAT) Dr. Sameer Parpia (McMaster University) $2,542,144
Clinical Trials Projects
Careful Ventilation in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. The CAVIARDS study Dr. Lauren J. Brochard (Unity Health Toronto) $841,846
Antimicrobial Resistant Organism Decolonization After Microbiome Perturbation (ARO-DECAMP)  Dr. Bryan A. Coburn (University Health Network) $695,739
Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis in the Critically Ill; REVISE Renewal Grant Dr. Deborah Cook (McMaster University) $1,863,000
BALANCE+: A Platform Trial for Gram Negative Bloodstream Infections Dr. Nick Daneman (Sunnybrook Research Institute) $2,919,785
A randomized phase II study of ramucirumab and paclitaxel +/- zanidatamab in HER2 overexpressing advanced gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma Dr. Elena Elimova (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre) $2,995,962
Driving Pressure-Limited Ventilation in Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure: the DRIVE RCT Dr. Ewan C. Goligher (University Health Network) $7,078,340
A Phase 1 Clinical Trial of a Peptide-Based Group A Streptococcal Vaccine Dr. Michael T. Hawkes (University of Alberta) $535,665
A Phase I trial of single domain antibody-based CD22 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells for the treatment of relapsed/refractory CD22+ B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia Dr. Kevin A. Hay (University of British Columbia) $3,051,528
Advancing Brain Outcomes in pediatric critically ill patients sedated with Volatile AnEsthestic Agents: A pilot multicentre randomized controlled trial (ABOVE Trial) Dr. Angela Jerath (Sunnybrook Research Institute) $1,121,996
The Clinical Evaluation of Adults Undergoing Elective Surgery Utilizing Intraoperative Incisional Wound Irrigation (CLEAN Wound) Trial Dr. Paul J. Karanicolas (Sunnybrook Research Institute) $2,750,148
Paving The Way to a Canadian Standard of Care with CAR-T Cellular Therapy: Phase II Trial of CD19 CAR-T for Relapsed/Refractory Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (CLIC-01A) Dr. Natasha Kekre (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute) $3,216,843
Expanding the Staphylococcus Aureus Network Adaptive Platform (SNAP^2) Dr. Todd C. Lee (Research Institute of the McGill U Health Centre) $1,999,745
Non-invasive ventilation and dexmedetomidine in critically ill adults: An international pragmatic randomized controlled trial (inDEX trial) Dr. Kim Lewis (McMaster University) $3,658,613
The Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform Trial in Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP):  Enshrining a Global Pandemic Research Response to COVID-19 and Beyond Dr. John C. Marshall (Unity Health Toronto) $3,532,110
Umbilical Mesenchymal Stromal Cells as Cellular Immunotherapy for Septic Shock: A Phase II RCT Dr. Lauralyn A. McIntyre (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute) $1,318,714
The Safety and Efficacy of Adalimumab for Pain Reduction in Individuals with Mucopolysaccharidoses: A Phase 1/2 Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial Dr. John J. Mitchell (Research Institute of the McGill U Health Centre) $1,174,568
Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform Trial of Community Acquired Pneumonia Dr. Srinivas Murthy (University of British Columbia) $2,588,010
Exergaming registry-based trial promoting physical activity in children and adolescents with spinal muscular atrophy Dr. Maryam Oskoui (Research Institute of the McGill U Health Centre) $1,777,095
Targeted Therapy with Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 Inhibition for Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (TARGETED-ARVC) Dr. Jason D. Roberts (McMaster University) $2,729,174
The Corticosteroid Early and Extended (CORT-E2) Randomized Controlled Trial Dr. Bram N. Rochwerg (McMaster University) $3,412,833
A phase 2 trial to evaluate safety and immunogenicity of a next-generation COVID-19 vaccine delivered by inhaled aerosol to humans Dr. Fiona M. Smaill (McMaster University) $8,266,315
A pilot project to demonstrate feasibility of a Canadian gene therapy clinical trials platform for rare genetic diseases: Gene Therapy for CD3delta Severe Combined Immune Deficiency. Dr. Nicola Wright (University of Calgary) $2,426,302

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