One on One with Deputy Minister George Ross

George Ross

As a lead up to BIO 2011, we had the chance to sit down with Ontario’s Deputy Minister of Research and Innovation George Ross for a little Q&A to discuss his Ministry’s polices and programs in the life sciences and biotechnology space; and what’s in store going forward.

Q&a

with ontario Ministry of research and innovation Deputy Minister George Ross

Biotechnology Focus: What is ontario’s focus this year at bio and why?

Deputy Minister George Ross: The focus this year is on “Innovations in Healthy Aging”. Across the globe, health policy advisors, healthcare providers and industry leaders are seeking novel solutions to meeting the significant challenges of a rapidly growing aging population. In Ontario, the number of seniors is expected to double over the next 20 years. By 2031 there will be nine million seniors aged 65 or older in Canada — accounting for 25 per cent of the total population. Ontario has a great head start in tackling the issues of greying populations around the world, while bringing economic prosperity to our province. Our government has made significant investments into agingrelated initiatives, including our support for the stem cell research at Mount Sinai Hospital, neuroscience work at the Ontario Brain Institute, cognitive expertise at the Centre for Brain Fitness at Baycrest. But, it’s also the hard work of folks like Dr. St George-Hyslop at U of T, who discovered the Alzheimer’s gene that is putting Ontario at the forefront in brain research and treatment. Institutions like MaRS and Baycrest who are global leaders in pushing innovation related to brain disease have partnered to create Cogniciti a company already helping an aging population stay mentally fit and sharp.

Ontario’s plan is to leverage these strengths and build partnerships between industry and academic leaders to promote and commercialize technologies, innovative products/services and research initiatives to our advantage in the aging sector marketplace. So, we need to tell the world about all that we offer about our position as an international leader in aging-related technologies, goods and services to address the need for novel solutions to meeting the significant challenges of a rapidly aging population worldwide.

BF: can you give a rundown of the current ontario life science landscape?

GR: Canada’s stable political and economic environment has allowed us to come through the global financial crisis in recent years ahead of our competitors. While we’re not immune to the challenges being faced by the global research-based pharmaceutical industry, we are well positioned to take advantage of emerging opportunities. Life sciences will be transformed in the coming decade as innovative researchers and companies solve some of the toughest challenges facing healthcare today. Ontario is very well positioned to address these challenges. For example, our long standing investments in basic research and commercialization means that Ontario has best-in-class infrastructure with which to compete. Our cost advantage also distinguishes us from our competitors in North America. Over 1 million square feet and over $1 billion in new research facilities have been built

since 2005. We have six medical schools including the University of Toronto, one of the largest in North America. Our 44 universities and colleges produce more than 35,000 graduates a year in mathematics, engineering and sciences. Ontario has strengths in oncology, neurology, cardiology, imaging, diagnostics, stem cells, informatics and clinical trials. The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, led by Dr. Tom Hudson, is an innovative and collaborative research institute that focuses efforts on the entire spectrum of cancer issues from prevention to treatment. Ontario is home to MaRS which is located in Toronto’s Discovery District. It is the gateway to Canada’s largest concentration of scientific research, anchored by major teaching hospitals (Sick Kids, University Health Network), the University of Toronto and more than two dozen affiliated research institutes such as: The Population Health Research Institute (Hamilton), Robarts Research Institute (London), Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute, and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

BF: The Ministry can be complimented on a number of gestures and initiatives that have shown that it is listening to industry beginning with a proper commercialization strategy. In your view, one year later how can Ontario be graded in this respect?

GR: I’m pleased to report that MRI, together with its stakeholders and transfer partners has made significant progress. Just before last year’s BIO in Chicago, we launched Ontario’s $161 million Life Sciences Commercialization Strategy to help ensure that even more cutting-edge biomedical technologies are discovered and commercialized in Ontario — and manufactured here for sale around the world. It includes a $7 million one-time support for early-stage Ontario biotech firms delivered through the Investment Accelerator Fund that was created to address the immediate financing challenges of our biotech sector, a $21.4 million investment in the Health Technology Exchange (HTX) to help strengthen Ontario’s medtech cluster by providing early stage company financing, and incentives for multinationals to strengthen their business cases for anchoring global development mandates in Ontario. On January 26, 2011, HTX announced an agreement to establish GE’s first global Pathology Imaging Centre of Excellence in Toronto. This facility officially opened in MaRS on May 31st. Planned collaborative research and development (R&D) partnerships will bring an additional $7.2M, for a total investment of $17.2M over the next 3 years. Other announcements are expected in the coming weeks. Moreover, we introduced a new province-wide clinical trials framework to help maximize Ontario’s share of global clinical trials activity. In this regard we are committed to streamlining ethics review and administrative processes for multi-centre clinical trials. The investments we’re making to improve the business climate in Ontario are resulting in new investments by industry that continue to solidify Ontario’s leading position in Canada as the go to place for conducting clinical trials. Through the Ontario Research Fund, the province committed $114.6 million to genomics and gene-related research through the Global Leadership Round in Genomics and Life Sciences (GL2). This one-time round of funding is supporting 19 large-scale, collaborative projects that aim to discover new therapies and technologies that are improving quality of life, as well as protecting our environment and biodiversity. The Ontario Venture Capital Fund is being professionally managed by Northleaf Capital Partners and is strengthening the Ontario venture capital ecosystem through its investments and activities. With 20 investors qualified to co-invest with the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund and 21 deals approved or conditionally approved, this fund is realizing its goal to move money quickly into growing companies. The fund has so far committed $34.8 million to this portfolio, and is executing plans to continue to invest in these portfolio companies through follow-on financing rounds and selectively invest in additional companies.

BF: MRI’s strategy stresses the importance of enabling public/ private partnerships or funding models in the creation of interesting projects and new businesses. Can you comment or elaborate on some of these initiatives that are making this strategy a reality?

GR: Ontario has established a number of funds that co-invest with the private sector into promising new firms. The $205M Ontario Venture Capital Fund is a joint initiative between the Government of Ontario ($90 million) and leading institutional investors ($115 million) to invest primarily in Ontario-based and Ontario-focused venture capital and growth equity funds that support innovative, high growth companies. The $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund co-invests with qualified venture capital funds and other private investors directly into companies. In September 2010, this fund co-invested in two life-sciences companies: it invested with CTI Life Sciences Fund in NeurAxon Therapeutics and with the Business Development Bank of Canada in Natrix Separations.

The Investment Accelerator Fund, a seed-stage fund, just completed a $7 million round targeting investments in life sciences. In these tight economic times sharing risk and developing open collaborative platforms is vital to success. The nature of R&D is changing, the world needs solutions now and Ontario is at the forefront of innovation by pooling resources together. So we are encouraging public-private partnerships on the global level like that of Dr. Aled Edwards at the Structural Genomics Consortium which emphasises openness in innovation and is helping make Ontario a global leader by creating “new research paradigms” that put our best foot forward to collaborate with the world in driving innovation. At the same time, we’re focusing our efforts internally by pulling together our hubs of innovation (i.e. the province’s 14 Regional Innovation Centres) into the new Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE). These centres ensure that anyone with a good idea will have access to experts in their own backyard who can help them build a strong business and secure financing to grow their companies and create jobs. Our hope is the ONE network will help better connect innovators, entrepreneurs and investors from around the province and the world.