MED-X Community of Practice (CoP) welcomes their Inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) to the Department of Medicine

Medical Entrepreneur Nexus Community of Practice (CoP) has been established within the Department of Medicine (DoM) to support innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) Program within the MED-X CoP identifies and recruits experienced serial entrepreneurs who have the experience, time, motivation and commitment to develop fundable concepts from cutting-edge research going on within the DoM. The EiR will drive the commercialization of DoM research.

We are delighted to introduce Dr. Piyush Patel, McMaster physician alumnus and serial entrepreneur who will play a key role in the development of commercialization strategies for DoM technology. Dr. Patel is appointed within the Division of Education and Innovation.

Please email the MED-X CoP for more details of how the Entrepreneur in Residence could interface with your novel commercialization aspirations.

Dr. Piyush Patel is a physician and an entrepreneur. He obtained his basic medical training at the St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College at the University of London, England. After completing his internship, he moved to Canada and did his post-graduate training in pediatrics at McMaster and fellowship allergy/immunology at McMaster and University of Toronto.

He was on staff in pediatrics at McMaster before starting a private practice in allergy/immunology at The Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga. During his time as a fellow in immunology/allergy at McMaster, Dr. Patel was involved in evaluating different methods of Environmental Exposure Chambers (EEC) technology with Dr. Jerry Dolovich. He realized that the model had the potential to be useful in accelerating drug development for drugs to treat allergic diseases. He founded Allied Research International in 1999 with his own funds as a contract research organization (CRO) focused on providing clinical research services in allergy and immunology including the use of the EEC technology. The EEC model was further developed and refined from an academic idea to a commercially viable, clinically validated model that has been utilized in approval of key treatments in allergy and accepted by the FDA and other major jurisdictions for marketing approval and product labelling claims. Allied Research International grew from a staff of four, at founding, to over 800 employees in 2007 with operations in four continents, when it was acquired by private equity with a valuation of over $120 million.

By 2012, the company that acquired Allied Research had gone into bankruptcy and Dr. Patel had the opportunity to re-acquire the assets of Allied Research International; this formed the basis of starting Inflamax Research as a CRO, again focused on allergic diseases and EEC technology, as well as other immunological diseases. Inflamax Research grew to over 360 employees and was acquired by a competitor in 2017 with a valuation of over $50 million.

Dr. Patel has since invested in several biotechnology companies, including Providence Therapeutics, a company focused on mRNA technology for use in cancer vaccines and more recently in late clinical stage development of a vaccine for Covid-19, where Dr. Patel was the chief medical officer and managed the initial development of the Covid-19 vaccine. He is currently the chief executive officer (CEO) at Vaxerna Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing mRNA vaccines for treatment of allergic diseases, specifically cat allergy and rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Patel is recipient of several awards for entrepreneurship and was named Ernst and Young (E&Y) Entrepreneur of the Year for Ontario in 2008 and E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year for Canada in 2009. He has been a guest lecturer at several business schools on business startup and entrepreneurship. Dr. Patel is the author of 20 patents and over 130 peer reviewed publications.