Since its inception, Medpharmgene has been in charge of the coordination of the Canadian arm of the ADVANCE study. ADVANCE is a large study, including over 11 000 type 2 diabetes patients recruited from 20 countries. The main results of this study were positive and published in The Lancet (2007), New England Journal of Medicine (2008) and Diabetes Care (2009). Medpharmgene also developed the protocol of the ADVANCE Genetic Substudy that is now conducted by its corporate partner Prognomix. The main objective of the ADVANCE Genetic Substudy is to identify genetic determinants of diabetic complications and to translate these findings into clinically useful products. Medpharmgene is now engaged in the ADVANCE-ON study, which is a long term follow up of ADVANCE. As a private academic research organization, Medpharmgene combines the strengths of clinical teams from universities and pharmaceutical companies. In addition to designing and running academically driven studies, we make our expertise available to biopharmaceutical companies under flexible conditions from services to partnerships.