On Jul. 15, 2009, Pfizer with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) announced a collaboration on a landmark $6 million oncology research project to discover and validate new targets for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of colorectal cancer.

The province invested $900,000 in this initiative through its Biopharmaceutical Investment Program, part of the government’s Next Generation of Jobs Fund. Investing in research and innovation was a cornerstone of Ontario’s economic planning since 2003.