Natalie E. Dakers

Biography

Ms. Dakers is a leading figure in the Canadian biopharmaceutical industry and currently serves as the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator, Canada’s new national life sciences accelerator. Accel-Rx is a national Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ms. Dakers recently joined Accel-Rx full-time having been the President and Chief Executive Officer of CDRD Ventures Inc. which acted as the commercial arm of the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD). Under her leadership, the commercial arm was founded, and supported the creation of a number of commercial opportunities including Kairos Therapeutics Inc. and Sitka Biopharma Inc. Ms. Dakers was the founding CEO of the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), also a national Centre for Excellence for Commercialization and Research. Under Ms. Dakers’ leadership, CDRD signed affiliation agreements with more than 20 major research institutions in Canada and around the world, and forged important strategic relationships with public and private sector partners including Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Genome British Columbia and the Governments of British Columbia and Alberta. Prior to leading the establishment of CDRD, Ms. Dakers was President and CEO of Neuromed Pharmaceuticals (Technologies) Inc., a private biopharmaceutical company developing drugs for chronic pain, anxiety, epilepsy and cardiovascular diseases. As co-founder and CEO, Ms. Dakers built the company from inception and raised three rounds of venture financing totaling approximately $70 million. Prior to this, Ms. Dakers managed technology transfer for the Life Sciences sector at the University Industry Liaison Office (UILO) at the University of British Columbia, where she was involved in the creation and spin-off of more than a dozen start-up high-tech and biotech companies. Currently, Ms. Dakers is a board member of BIOTECanada and Augurex Inc. She has previously served on a number of national boards including the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Genome Canada, the International Science and Technology Partnership Canada (ISTP Canada) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Life Sciences Advisory Board. She served on the Boards of Genome BC, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and was Chair of LifeSciences BC. Ms. Dakers is an Adjunct Professor in UBC’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and was a member of the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Business Innovation.

Research Interest

BioPharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical Science