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Biotechnology

Biotechnology

Canada Ahead of the Curve

Canada’s position as a biotechnology leader—one of the top five countries in the world—is a reflection of the country’s world-class credentials.

The biotech industry also benefits from powerful partnerships that strengthen government research dollars through collaboration with universities and industry, as well as progressive financing and venture capital programs for Canadian biotech enterprises.

Proven Research Strengths in

  • Genomics
  • Proteomics
  • Bio-informatics
  • Immuno-therapies
  • Protein engineering
  • New drug delivery systems
  • Vaccines
  • Regenerative medicine (stem cells)
  • Neuroscience
  • Cardiovascular

“ Canada provides broad access to early-stage capital, world-class scientific research and progressive universities. This combination offers all kinds of opportunities for entrepreneurship in biotechnology.”

Ian McBeath, President and CEO
Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Cutting-Edge R&D

Canada recognizes the economic potential of the biotech industry and has formally committed itself to become one of the top five countries in the world for biotech research and development.

A snapshot of the Canadian biotechnology sector, 2003:

  • 496 biotechnology companies, public firms making up 17%
  • $3.8 billion in biotech revenues, a 96% increase over 1999
  • 17,065 products/processes at all stages of development; of these, nearly 2/3 on the market
  • $1.5 billion in R&D spending by industry, an 80% increase over 1999
  • Public biotechnology firms increased R&D spending by 224% over 1998.
  • Annual federal biotechnology spending $791 million, 96% of it on R&D (2004-05).
  • Human health dominates the Canadian biotechnology scene, accounting for 53% of firms:
    • Biopharmaceutical sales—$2.1 Billion
    • Over 78% of all biotechnology-related jobs are in this sector.
      (176 bio-pharmaceutical firms—2006)
    • Nearly 90% of R&D investments in biotech is dedicated solely to this sector.
      ( Biopharma R&D—$1.3 Million)
  • Toronto has the largest faculty of medicine in North America and the output of peer-reviewed publications from this area is greater than any other medical centre in the world.

Research Successes

  • A team from the Faculty of Medicine at Centre Hospitalier universitaire de Québec at Université Laval recently discovered a natural defense mechanism in the body deployed to combat nerve cell degeneration observed in people with Alzheimer’s disease. The discovery could lead to a new therapeutic approach to Alzheimer’s disease.
  • University of Toronto biomedical scientists have pioneered the genetic mechanisms for several diseases and discovered a way to increase the yield of stem calls from umbilical cord blood by removing unwanted cells that inhibit stem cell growth.
  • Scientists at McGill University have discovered a gene that controls the speed at which patients develop tuberculosis. This is a breakthrough in understanding how a gene can control the time frame between initial infection and the disease.
  • A BC neuroscientist developed the world’s first diagnostic blood test to detect diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrigs and CJV. The test could be available within two years.
  • An international team led by three University of British Columbia microbiologists has completed the mapping of the genetic makeup of a soil bacterium (RHA 1), the first organism of its kind to be completely sequenced. This work illuminates how the soil organism breaks down PCBs and other toxic wastes, and adapts to the environment around it.