Acuitas Therapeutics

Acuitas Therapeutics, originally called AlCana Therapeutics, is a Canadian biotechnology company based in Vancouver, British Columbia.¹⁾ Acuitas is relevant in the COVID-19 pandemic due to their role in developing and licensing the lipid nanoparticle technology used in the COVID-19 vaccines marketed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

The company was co-founded by Pieter Cullis, Thomas Madden and Michael Hope.

Acuitas was founded in February 2009 under the name Alcana Therapeutics to specialize in the development of delivery systems for nucleic acid therapeutics based on lipid nanoparticles.²⁾

Acuitas is one of several pharmaceutical companies involved in the development, production and marketing of lipid nanoparticle technology, “tiny 'delivery vehicles'” used to encapsulate fragile materials such as mRNA to allow them to transport into cells.³⁾

According to President and CEO Thomas Madden, Acuitas began working towards a COVID-19 vaccine in February 2020. The company partnered with German company CureVac and Imperial College London for their own vaccine trials.^{4) 5)}

On December 9, 2020, Acuitas released a statement celebrating Health Canada's approval of Pfizer/BioNTech's BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine,⁶⁾ stating they had “made history” due to their collaboration through the LNP delivery system, “a key element… in the development of this vaccine.”⁷⁾

The National Research Council of Canada has awarded two federal grants to Acuitas:

1. GC-2013-Q3-23969⁸⁾
   1. $173,020.00
   2. September 13, 2013
2. GC-2014-Q4-26252⁹⁾
   1. $498,640.00
   2. February 6, 2015

The purpose of both grants was “To support a firm in the Research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences (NAICS: 541710) with a research and development project”. Both awards span more than one fiscal year.

Acuitas has been mentioned multiple times in the House of Commons of Canada. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland named Acuitas while discussing the need to increase biomanufacturing capacity in Canada, describing them as “an amazing B.C. company” receiving government investment.¹⁰⁾ Providence Therapeutics CEO Brad Sorenson stated on April 19, 2021 that rival company Genevant Sciences had “successfully defended itself against” Acuitas and Moderna in the past.¹¹⁾

Other statements:

• Kashif Pirzada (College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Council member), February 22, 2021: “Canada needs local production of drugs and vaccines. mRNA is a new technology that has incredible potency in fighting COVID-19, cancers and possibly other viruses. When I was a lab student 20 years ago, this stuff was science fiction, and the advances made are just incredible. With virus variants, we all need periodic boosters, possibly for years, as we do with the flu. We have the expertise, from the testimony we heard earlier, from companies such as Acuitas and Providence Therapeutics that can make it here. It is also the promise of second-generation genetic vaccines that can induce longer immunity, and these companies are working on it, the ones that we spoke to.”¹²⁾

• Mark Warner (MAAW Law), April 23, 2021: “The truth of the matter is that we have contributed in Canada to this very important struggle through two great Canadian companies. One is AbCellera, of Vancouver, which is working with Eli Lilly on the antibody treatment. We also have Acuitas, I think also in Vancouver, which has provided much of the important lipid nanoparticle technology that forms the basis of the breakout mRNA drugs. We shouldn't be shy about our tremendous contribution, but that, I would suggest, is the contribution for an economy of our size, structured as we are.”¹³⁾

• Andrew Casey (President and CEO of BIOTECanada, May 21, 2021: “The vaccine that Pfizer has is a combination from a number of different companies. One is BioNTech out of Germany. The other part of the Pfizer vaccine that very few people know about is a company called Acuitas, which is a small Canadian biotech company in Vancouver. They develop the lipid envelope the mRNA code goes into and then goes into the body. Without the Acuitas technology, the Pfizer vaccine doesn't really work.”¹⁴⁾

Acuitas is a sponsor of the Student Biotechnology Network.¹⁵⁾

• Wikipedia