TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bloom Burton & Co. (“Bloom Burton”), Canada’s leading healthcare-specialized investment banking firm, is pleased to announce Anthony Giovinazzo as the recipient of the inaugural Bloom Burton Award. Mr. Giovinazzo, the former President and CEO of Cynapsus Therapeutics, developed a potential new treatment for symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The potential new therapy, APL 130277, is a sublingual strip of apomorphine that could allow patients to manage their OFF episodes of Parkinson’s in a convenient and painless manner. In 2016, Cynapsus Therapeutics, which was listed on both the NASDAQ and TSX, was sold to Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $841 million all cash.
The Bloom Burton Award honours an individual scientist, inventor, executive, entrepreneur, industry leader, or policy maker who made the greatest impact in Canada’s innovative healthcare industry. Nominees were accepted from the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic/imaging, research instrumentation, consumer health, healthcare services or healthcare IT sectors, and from all therapeutic indications and stages of development. Nominations for the award were accepted from the public-at- large between January 1 and March 31, 2017. All three finalists, along with their family and friends, were invited to and celebrated at the Bloom Burton Award Gala on September 14, 2017 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As the winner of the Bloom Burton Award Gala, Anthony Giovinazzo received a $50,000 cash prize, while the other two finalists, Allen Eaves and Cameron Piron, each received $25,000.
The Bloom Burton Award finalists and winner were chosen by an esteemed panel of judges, all of whom are respected international leaders in healthcare investment, entrepreneurship and journalism. The panel included:
- Karen Bernstein, Co-Founder and Chairman, BioCentury Inc.
- Terrence Connolly, Executive Director, Global Alliances and Business Development, Celgene Corporation
- Carl Gordon, Partner and Co-Head of Global Private Equity, OrbiMed Advisors
- Andrew Hack, Chief Financial Officer, Editas Medicine
- Oleg Nodelman, Founder and Managing Director, EcoR1 Capital
- Melinda Richter, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS
- Avik Roy, Opinion Editor, Forbes; President, The Foundation for Research and Equal Opportunity
Jolyon Burton, co-founder and President of Bloom Burton commented, “People are what make our industry special, and there is no bias in what makes an amazing contribution each year. Our finalists reflect the diversity of our innovative healthcare industry in Canada and any person who makes an incredible breakthrough in this industry should be celebrated. We congratulate Anthony on being presented the inaugural Bloom Burton Award and we are inspired by what each of them are bringing to the innovative healthcare sector.”
