The formation of Miikana Therapeutics Inc. is the outcome of two experienced
orphans looking for a home. When Amgen Inc. stopped funding the Amgen
Institute at the University of Toronto in 2002 in order to cut costs, the head
of the institute, Tak Mak, talked to VCs about starting a company around his
expertise in cancer targets and knockout mice.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Patel, who was senior vice president of drug discovery and
licensing at Versicor Inc. (now Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc.) (MICU; NMerc:
MICU, King of Prussia, Penn.), had decided that it was time to move on after
the company moved its headquarters to Pennsylvania from California. He talked
to VCs about forming a company that would create molecules ready for an IND
filing - a kind of mini-IND factory.