Good morning, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the committee for inviting me to speak about this important and very timely topic.
I understand that you've been fortunate to hear from many of my colleagues about the tremendous efforts currently being done collaboratively in Canada by government, academia and industry to provide solutions today and better prepare us for all future pandemics. I hope my testimony today offers additional insight.
Precision NanoSystems' mission is to accelerate the creation of transformative medicines that significantly impact human well-being. We work with the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to create the drugs of the future, namely, genetic medicines: the delivery of RNA and DNA to cells to treat disease.
As therapeutics, genetic medicines treat disease at its fundamental molecular root cause and, as vaccines, they are used to teach the immune system to protect us from a given pathogen. We are proud to provide manufacturing technologies, drug technologies and services to enable genetic medicines to be developed to prevent and treat diseases, including cancer, rare diseases, infectious diseases and many more indications of high unmet medical needs.
We founded Precision NanoSystems 10 years ago as a spinoff from the University of British Columbia, with the goal of enabling the promise of genetic medicines. We now support hundreds of the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies to create these transformative medicines. We are proud to have built a highly talented and rapidly growing team of over 120 and to have played an important role in training a diversified workforce in Canada and institutionalizing Canada's strong life science commitment to its citizens.
COVID-19 has been devastating for individuals and the world. We should anticipate future pandemics and epidemics and prepare accordingly. We believe it is essential for Canada to secure and invest in a variety of vaccine technologies, including RNA vaccines, viral-based vaccines, protein subunit vaccines and others. This is prudent for many reasons. Notably, the world has seen RNA medicines' disruptive capabilities and how they could rapidly be developed and deployed against COVID-19, illustrating the power of genetic medicines. We see similar medical disruptions by genetic medicines across all major disease classes.
Genetic medicines really represent a unique opportunity for Canada. They represent one of the fastest-growing areas of pharmaceuticals, and Canada is a leader in many aspects of these technologies. Here in Vancouver, for example, is a world-leading centre for technologies that deliver RNA and DNA, with an expanding ecosystem consisting of local innovators and branches of large multinationals.
Precision NanoSystems provides game-changing solutions for drugs being developed in areas of high unmet medical needs, such as cancer, rare diseases and infectious diseases. We are proud to have collaborated with or provided solutions to companies, academic institutions and not-for-profit agencies in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
To solve major challenges like COVID-19, we believe that strong partnerships are required between the public and private sectors. With the Government of Canada's support, we have embarked on two key initiatives: the development of a differentiated COVID-19 vaccine and the opening of a biomanufacturing centre to create domestic production capacity.
Our COVID-19 vaccine program aims to develop a self-amplifying RNA vaccine, which, if successful, can potentially be dosed 20 to100 times lower than the messenger RNA vaccines currently authorized today under emergency use. By its nature, this will reduce manufacturing bottlenecks, as less material is needed per dose, allowing more people to access vaccines in a shorter time. Also, the smaller dose may decrease adverse effects. We aim to enter an adaptive phase one/two clinical trial by this summer and to be completed by the end of this year.
Our genetic medicine biomanufacturing centre will be a state-of-the-art facility for developing and manufacturing genetic therapeutics and vaccines. The biomanufacturing centre will support PNI's COVID-19 vaccine program, as well as PNI's large and growing client programs in other areas of high unmet medical need.
Successful completion of this facility will produce some of the world's most innovative genetic medicines right here in Canada. We are fostering local technology development, job creation and talent development and rebuilding our ability to respond domestically to future pandemics. Leveraging our existing relationships and pipeline of programs, the biomanufacturing centre will be a state-of-the-art, commercially viable facility for the most innovative genetic medicines produced here in Canada for years.
Lastly, I would like to recognize and thank the government employees who have worked with us recently and over the years. Our team has interacted with many individuals who have worked tirelessly and with the utmost commitment to enable these and other important projects.
Thank you. I'm available to answer any questions you may have.