The Drug Innovation Fund which was launched in April 2007, will provide short-term and multi-year funding to eligible researchers and organizations in Ontario to :

• Generate strong, high-quality, independent scientific evidence on the impact and value of new and existing drugs across the healthcare system, by linking drug interventions to health or system outcomes. These outcomes could include non-drug health outcomes or expenditures, such as inpatient hospital expenditures, ambulatory care, physician visits, etc.
• Support linkages between researchers, clinicians and drug policy decision makers to ensure the timely and effective application of relevant evidence-based scientific information and to support the objectives and priorities of the Ontario Public Drug Programs Office.
• Support and develop research capacity in the area of drugs and health outcomes in Ontario.

Applicants are requested to submit Letters of Intent for potential research grants. Successful applicants will be asked to submit full research proposals, which will be reviewed by the ministry's Joint Academic and Relevance Review Panel prior to a final funding decision being made.

As well, In July 18, 2007, Ontario Public Drug Programs entered into a partnership with Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) to fund (through the Drug Innovation Fund) an Ontario Chair in Drug Policy and up to four Drug Policy Fellowships.

Highlights

• On July 18, 2007, the ministry announced a formal competition for the first Request for Letters of Intent (LOI) for potential research grants.
• 37 letters of intent were received and are currently undergoing review by the ministry's Panel
• CIHR has received applications for the Chair position, which will be reviewed from a relevance and academic perspective by a peer review panel. It is expected that a Chair will be appointed by October 2008.