The Legault government will announce this Tuesday an investment of 20 million over two years to make Quebec an innovation hub for RNA-based therapies, in the hope of developing new treatments against cancer and rare diseases.
The Quebec Consortium on Drug Discovery (CQDM) will oversee this project aimed at developing a new industrial sector in the field of therapies based on ribonucleic acid (RNA).
RNA has gained prominence during the pandemic thanks to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. These vaccines, unlike traditional vaccines that use a live virus to trigger an immune response, teach cells in the human body how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response.
However, RNA is not limited to vaccines. RNA-based therapies can be used to prevent or treat infectious diseases, cancers and rare diseases.
[L’ARN] is a part of life sciences that will allow Quebec to get back on track to ensure that we have a reputation in [biotechnologie].
Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy
He says he discovered the technology, among others, with the company Moderna. The American biotechnology company, which exploits the properties of mRNA technology, recently established itself in Quebec. Its vaccine factory was inaugurated in February in Laval.
Create “momentum”
This project has a budget of 37.9 million, of which 20 million will come from the government of Quebec. The rest of the funds will come from ARN Québec, the Fonds de recherche du Québec, Médicament Québec and Génome Québec.
Quebec wants its investment to stimulate innovation, allow the establishment of an RNA training program to attract young people and ultimately contribute to the creation of an industrial RNA laboratory. “We want to create start-ups and momentum,” says Mr. Fitzgibbon.
The project will ultimately make it possible to attract “active forces” in the field of life sciences and to create “very, very paying” jobs, maintains the minister.