L to R: Company co-founders Dr. Logan Zettle, Dr. Chirag M. Vaswani, Dr. Gilbert Walker (NMIN Scientific Director) & Dr. Samantha McWhirter (NorthMiRs CEO). Photo by Neil Ta.
On 17 October 2024, NMIN spin-off company NorthMiRs was awarded the $250K first prize at ECHO PITCH 2024.
At the event, which took place in the MaRS Discovery District Auditorium in downtown Toronto, four top cardiovascular health start-ups competed for funding by pitching their innovation before a panel of judges and an audience of entrepreneurs, scientists, clinicians, and investors.
The four competing finalists had been pre-selected from among the participants in the Entrepreneurship for Cardiovascular Health Opportunities (ECHO) program, where company representatives received 12 months of hands-on entrepreneurship training and mentorship.
Dr. Samantha McWhirter, Chief Executive Officer, pitched on behalf of NorthMiRs.
NorthMiRs is developing RNA-based therapies that can change the treatment for patients suffering from sepsis. Their lead product, NM-001, treats sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction, a condition where the heart’s function is impaired due to a severe infection throughout the body.
“For physicians, nurses, and medical institutions who treat patients suffering from sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction,” reads their company profile on the ECHO PITCH webpage, “NorthMiRs has developed an RNA-based therapy with a three-in-one mechanism of action, that will reduce patient mortality, accelerate their recovery and save healthcare dollars.”
The other three finalists in the competition were AVA, Leynek Medical and Panorama Health.
ECHO PITCH celebrates and rewards the leading innovators of cardiovascular technologies participating in the ECHO program, and provides their fledgling companies with insights from a multi-sectoral panel of judges. The ECHO program is funded and organized by the Translational Biology and Engineering Program at the University of Toronto and the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, in partnership with the Health Innovation Hub (H2i).