Three Finalists Announced for the 2021 Bloom Burton Award
Award Recognizes the Year’s Most Significant Contributor to Canada’s Innovative Healthcare Industry
Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – April 27, 2021) – Bloom Burton & Co. is pleased to announce the three finalists for the 2021 Bloom Burton Award. Bestowed annually and nominated by the public at large, the Bloom Burton Award honours an individual who made the greatest contribution to Canada’s innovative healthcare industry in the previous year.
The three finalists are, in alphabetical order:
- Daniel Durocher, PhD: Scientific Co-founder, Repare Therapeutics;
- Carl Hansen, PhD: Founder and CEO, AbCellera; and
- Hamed Shahbazi: Chairman and CEO, WELL Health Technologies.
The 2021 Bloom Burton Award Finalists (L-R): Daniel Durocher, Carl Hansen and Hamed Shahbazi.
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All three finalists will be invited to and celebrated at the Bloom Burton Award Gala on September 30, 2021.
The Bloom Burton Award finalists and winner are chosen by an independent panel of esteemed judges, all of whom are respected international leaders in healthcare investment, entrepreneurship and journalism. The panel includes:
- Michael Altman, Managing Director, Perceptive Advisors
- Christopher Arendt, Head of Oncology Therapeutic Area Unit, Takeda
- Karen Bernstein, Co-Founder and Chairman, BioCentury
- Carl Gordon, Managing Partner, OrbiMed Advisors
- Dennis Purcell, Founder and Senior Advisor, Aisling Capital
- Melinda Richter, Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS
- Camille Samuels, Partner, Venrock
Jolyon Burton, President of Bloom Burton & Co. commented, “Our judges have chosen three exceptional finalists for the 2021 Bloom Burton Award.”
“Dr. Daniel Durocher is a world-leading molecular biologist in the field of DNA damage repair and genome instability and a pioneer in the field of synthetic lethality. In 2016, his work laid the groundwork for Repare Therapeutics, a company he co-founded with Versant Ventures, along with Dr. Frank Sicheri, Dr. Agnel Sfeir, Lloyd Segal and Cameron Black. In 2020, Repare successfully completed a US$253 million NASDAQ IPO, and advanced its first proprietary drug program into clinical studies to treat various cancers.”
“From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, AbCellera, led by its founder and CEO, Dr. Carl Hansen, moved from initial screening of blood samples to human clinical trials of its antibody treatment for COVID-19 in 90 days – a process that normally takes years. In the same year, AbCellera’s drug bamlanivimab was partnered with Eli Lilly and Company, received an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. FDA and was granted an Interim Order by Health Canada. In December 2020, AbCellera completed the largest biotechnology IPO in history for a Canadian company on the NASDAQ, raising US$556 million.”
“Hamed Shahbazi joined WELL Health Technologies in 2018 with the ambitious goal of digitizing and modernizing the Canadian and global healthcare industries. Since inception, and significantly so during 2020, WELL Health Technologies has raised more than $450 million as a publicly-traded company and has consummated more than 20 acquisitions, including the US$369 million purchase of CRH Medical. Importantly, Mr. Shahbazi is the first individual from the digital health sector ever to be named a finalist for the Bloom Burton Award.”
Mr. Burton continued, “We look forward to celebrating Daniel Durocher, Carl Hansen and Hamed Shahbazi at the 2021 Bloom Burton Award Gala!”
For more details, please visit www.bloomburton.com, or contact:
Brian Bloom
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
(416) 640-7580
bbloom@bloomburton.com
Eleanor Ndaiga
Manager, Communications & Events
(416) 640-7573
endaiga@bloomburton.com
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