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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