Manitoba is poised to take a leadership role in the field of child health and child health research with the establishment of a new world-class research facility in Winnipeg.

The Honourable Ron J. Duhamel, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Western Economic Diversification) (Francophonie) announced $750,000 in funding to the newly created Manitoba Institute of Child Health. The funding is through the Western Diversification Program and will go to the Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba (CHF) for the purchase of state-of-the-art medical technology to support the new research facility.

"Through this project the Government of Canada is investing, not only in the health care system, but in the future of all Manitobans and all Canadians," said Minister Duhamel. "This Institute, a first in Western Canada, will be self-sustaining and it will establish new research and development opportunities in Manitoba," he added.

The Institute will conduct state-of-the-art research and development capabilities related to the medical care of children, particularly those with chronic or complex diseases. The focus will be on creating a physical and academic structure that will support new pharmacological studies in children in all pediatric medical disciplines.

"Funding for the Institute will ensure Manitoba stays a leader in the field of pediatric research and in clinical trials for children," said Dr. Malcolm Ogborn, Manager, Manitoba Institute of Child Health (a division of the Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba). "The pharmaceutical industry needs to establish collaborations with pediatric specialists to research the pharmacology of drugs currently on the market and in development and this Institute is well placed to become the Western Canadian Centre for this initiative", he added.

The medical care of children, particularly those with chronic or complex diseases, is often made more challenging by a lack of objective data on the safety and efficacy of drug therapies within the special physiological circumstances of childhood and adolescence.

Children are not little adults and respond to and metabolize drugs differently than adults. As a result, there is a substantial increase in the need of the pharmaceutical industry to establish collaborations with pediatric specialists to research the pharmacology of drugs currently on the market and in development. Interested pediatric researchers and clinicians are cooperating on a national initiative to conduct such studies in Canada.

The objectives of this project are to:

• Create a physical and academic structure that will support new pharmacological studies in children in all pediatric medical disciplines.

• Double, within 3 years, the annual revenue received into the Province of Manitoba from pediatric pharmacology studies.

• Establish a self-supporting Western Canadian Centre for Clinical Trials and Pediatric Development.

• Enhance training opportunities in pediatric pharmacology and enhance the attraction of the local workforce to the pharmaceutical industry.

• Establish and support a Western Canadian component of a national research focus group in pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics.

"This research facility is important in attracting and retaining the very best and brightest medical professionals", said Minister Duhamel. "The facility and the jobs created here will increase the province's overall rate of economic activity by millions of dollars annually."

Western Economic Diversification (WD) is a department of the Government of Canada that works in partnership with the provinces, industry associations and communities to stimulate and encourage diversification of the western economy, as well as to represent the interests of the West in Ottawa. Federal funding for these projects was provided for in the February 2000 budget and is therefore built into the existing financial framework.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Naline Rampersad
Press Secretary
Minister Duhamel's Office
(613) 995-7720

Mark Gale
Communications Officer
Western Economic Diversification Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba
1-204-983-3119