Gold Leaf Awards

Ripple Therapeutics is a privately held, clinical stage company focused on improving ophthalmic therapeutics with controllable, sustained drug delivery. Our patented technology platform is based on a discovery that drugs can be chemically engineered into controlled release pharmaceuticals without polymers. These proprietary prodrugs undergo surface erosion to enable a constant sustained drug release and are highly engineerable to tailor drug dose and duration to the specific indication. The strength of this platform has driven major industry partnerships, including a collaboration and option-to-license agreement for a next generation prostaglandin implant with AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) worth up to $290 million in milestones and royalties, as well as development and option-to-license agreements with Glaukos Corporation (NYSE: GKOS) and Bausch + Lomb (NYSE/TSX: BLCO) to leverage Ripple’s proprietary technology platform to create sustained release implants of targeted APIs for both glaucoma and retinal diseases. Ripple’s proprietary product focus is a 6-month sustained release Complement Factor B Inhibitor for Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the most common form of AMD affecting ~170 million people worldwide.

Allen Eaves, OC, OBC, MD, PhD, FRCPC, was the Founding Director of the Terry Fox
Laboratory for Cancer Research for 25 years and Head of Clinical Hematology at the University
of British Columbia for 18 years during which he built one of Canada’s first bone marrow
transplant programs with a focus on stem cell research. Currently Professor Emeritus of
Hematology at UBC since 2006, he has devoted himself to building STEMCELL Technologies
Inc, a company he founded in 1993 to provide novel and standardized tissue culture reagents
for stem cell research, regenerative medicine and those doing cancer and immunological
research. Always profitable, and with 97% of its sales outside of Canada, STEMCELL is
Canada’s largest biotech company with over 1800 employees and a global network of sales
offices and distribution centres serving 30 thousand customers.

Dr. Eaves has received many awards including: the Order of Canada, the Order of BC,
Business Laureate of BC Hall of Fame, the BC Innovators Hall of Fame, the SCI Canada
Medal, the Canadian Stem Cell Network Trailblazer Award, the LifeSciences BC Lifetime
Achievement Award, the BC CEO Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Ernst & Young
Pacific Region Entrepreneur of the Year.

Dr. Eaves has published over 200 papers in leading peer-review scientific journals. He has been elected President of the International Society of Cell Therapy, President of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, founding Treasurer of the Foundation for the
Accreditation of Cell Therapy, and has been a Member of Health Canada’s Expert Working Group on the Safety of Organs and Tissues for Transplantation. He sat on the boards of The Canadian Stem Cell Foundation, The Canadian Stem Cell Network, The CCRM, Mitacs, and
The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery. He is passionate about providing excellent tools and reagents for researchers and creating rewarding employment for those who love science.

Dr. Massimiliano “Max” Paganelli and Dr. Claudia Raggi are a powerful physician-scientist duo pioneering the future of regenerative medicine. Their collaborative journey began with a shared foundation in medicine and advanced training at elite European institutions, including the Sapienza University of Rome and the Catholic University of Louvain. Together, they have bridged the gap between benchside stem cell biology and bedside patient care, transforming a breakthrough scientific discovery into Morphocell Technologies, a leading-edge biotech company developing cell therapies and engineered tissued aimed at treating severe organ deficiencies, beginning with liver disease.

Dr. Raggi is an internationally recognized expert in human development, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine. She has pioneered novel approaches to engineering functional human tissues for therapeutic applications and is the mastermind behind Morphocell’s core innovation, having invented the company’s proprietary induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based platform technology. As Chief Scientific Officer of Morphocell, Dr. Raggi commands a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers, masterfully guiding the complex cell therapy development, stem cell differentiation, manufacturing and preclinical translation of functional human tissues from raw discovery toward human clinical trials.

Dr. Paganelli seamlessly connects clinical reality with corporate strategy. A renowned pediatric transplant hepatologist, Stem Cell Network investigator, CIHR/FRQS-funded scientist, and Associate Professor at the Université de Montréal, Dr. Paganelli heads the Liver Tissue Engineering and Cell Therapy Laboratory at CHU Sainte-Justine. Since 2019, he has channelled his front-line clinical expertise into leading Morphocell as President and CEO, securing vital funding and scaling the company into a multi-facility enterprise.

By combining Dr. Raggi’s world-class tissue-engineering breakthroughs with Dr. Paganelli’s clinical leadership and strategic corporate vision, this dynamic team has successfully accelerated stem cell therapies out of the lab, toward real-world application. Their paradigm-shifting work stands as a testament to the power of collaborative translational science, offering a future where liver failure and other life-threatening conditions can be cured without the need for traditional, scarce organ transplants.