8 minute read
Giving a voice to Ontario’s Life Science Stakeholders
By Daniela Fisher & LSO
When it comes to the life sciences industry, Ontario is a powerhouse. Its innovations in stem cell development, insulin-creation and key gene discoveries for cystic fibrosis and epilepsy are just a few examples of how the sector has put Ontario on the map as a global leader in the industry.
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GIVING VOICE TO ONTARIO’S LIFE SCIENCES
Ontario’s life sciences cluster also has great diversity, ranging from pharma and biotechnology to agriculture, food processing, forestry and the environment.
This diversity of disciplines allows Ontario to excel in multiple fields, including emerging areas of convergent technologies, but at the same time it creates a challenge for all the various stakeholders – from small pre-commercial technology companies to multinational enterprises - to provide consistent messages to policy makers and other senior decision makers.
Enter Life Sciences Ontario (LSO), the member-driven organization that provides a unified voice for Ontario’s life sciences sector. With its fundamental principle of “diversity of members, unity of voice,” the organization has become the cohesive voice of life sciences in Ontario, focusing on addressing key issues within public policy development, commercialization and talent development; while encouraging a collaborative approach to innovation and promoting the industry nationally and internationally.
A UNITING PRESENCE
LSO’s mission is to represent and promote the benefits of life science technologies and encourage their commercial success. This makes the organization a useful conduit between research, development, commercialization, support, manufacturing and services sectors. They work with government, academia and industry stakeholders to develop recommendations on key policies for improving Ontario’s life sciences ecosystem and business environment.
Along with hosting many networking and educational events, LSO helps the life sciences sector grow through advocacy, facilitation of economic development and industry promotion locally, nationally and internationally, as is seen in the upcoming Boston BIO 2012. LSO also runs a vibrant mentorship and professional development program to help develop talent within the life sciences sector.
SETTING A NEW DIRECTION FOR ONTARIO LIFE SCIENCES
In October 2011, LSO hired Dr. Jason Field as the new executive director for the organization. In December that year, Dr. Field presented a strategic plan for the organization to accelerate its evolution as the voice of Ontario’s life sciences industry. The strategic plan focused on building on the past successes of LSO’s well-known networking events and mentorship program; while renewing and elevating the priorities of stakeholder engagement and advocacy through a unified voice.
Just recently, the organization’s board of directors elected a new president and chair, Paul Lucas, former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Canada and continuing advocate for the entire life sciences sector. Lucas has also worked on numerous boards and committees, including co-chairing the Coalition for Action on Innovation with John Manley, president and CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE). The pair took the lead in developing the Action Plan for Prosperity, a report with policy recommendations designed to help support Canada as a global leader in innovation. Lucas will work in partnership with LSO’s board of directors, which is made up of leaders from all areas of life sciences, including pharma, biotechnology, animal health, agriculture and food, investment firms, research and commercialization institutions and many more.
LSO is also working with the government of Ontario on several strategic initiatives, including being selected to represent the life sciences sector as part of the Ontario Government’s Business Sector Strategy under the Open For Business (OFB) initiative. Working through the OFB initiative, LSO will have the opportunity to provide the government with its top five priorities that affect business in the life sciences industry
and provide recommendations on how government can address these priorities.
“This is a great initiative set out by the Government of Ontario and a tremendous opportunity for the life sciences sector in Ontario to influence policy development” said Paul Lucas, president and chair of LSO. “LSO will be leading a series of consultations and surveys to ensure we capture input from our diverse group of stakeholders leading up to the kick-off event this fall. Our goal to be the unified voice for our sector in this important initiative and to ensure we put forward the very best recommendations for our industry in Ontario.”
TEAMING UP FOR BIO 2012
As biotechnology’s largest annual event, the international convention is an opportunity for LSO and Ontario’s life sciences companies to present and network at a global level.
This year, the province looked to LSO to gather input from a range of industry professionals with the goal of creating better coordination at BIO 2012 and better outcomes for Ontario delegates attending the conference. LSO conducted a pre-BIO industry survey, an interactive BIO industry kick-off event, and a webinar to share the results of these engagements and to present a coordinated strategic approach to BIO.
“The overwhelming message from our consultations was that we need to bring the focus back to companies” said Jason Field. “The objectives of our delegates at BIO range from marketing and promotion to business development and partnering. We need to work with all partners involved in BIO to coordinate support around these activities. At the same time, we need to continuously focus on our competitiveness as a global life sciences cluster and ensure that we are effectively telling the very compelling Ontario story on this international stage.”
In preparation for the upcoming convention, LSO recently ran a BIO Bootcamp in Toronto, where it prepared Ontario delegates for getting the most out of BIO 2012. The session included a variety of topics: from navigating the exhibit floor and using the partnering portal, to how to develop an elevator pitch for potential partners and best practices from past delegates that have had successful business development experiences at BIO.
ONTARIO/QUÉBEC CORRIDOR
Aside from gearing up for the convention, LSO is focusing its attention on another strategic initiative, the Ontario-Québec Life Sciences Corridor.
Two years ago, the Québec and Ontario governments signed an agreement to create an economic corridor formally linking the two provinces. During last year’s BIO 2011 conference in Washington, they announced the official creation of a life sciences corridor between Québec and Ontario. At the same time, LSO and BiopolisQuébec signed a memorandum of understanding, with the goal to work together as the leading industry organizations within their respective provinces to help develop and promote collaboration within the corridor.
This is a good move, says Frank Beraud, project director at Montréal InVivo, as it helps raise awareness internationally and draws business to Québec and Ontario.
“For many foreign people in the industry, they barely know where Canada is sometimes,” says Beraud. “For sure they don’t know where Sherbrooke or Québec City or Mississauga is.”
To remedy that, the Québec-Ontario Corridor helps draw the attentions of foreign companies and investors to Canada by presenting the collaborative strengths of the combined provinces as a single cluster.
Québec and Ontario represent approximately 62 per cent of Canada’s total population and contribute approximately 57 per cent to Canada’s total GDP, according to a 2011 PwC report on the life sciences corridor. For Beraud, this means strength in numbers.
“We want to believe that the message goes further if it comes from not only Québec, and not only Ontario, but jointly to grab the attention of the decision makers.”
While the two organizations have worked together before informally, more formal partnerships, like the memorandum signed between LSO and BiopolisQuébec, allow for more structured collaboration.
“This is a memorandum of understanding,” says Beraud. “There are three main components: sharing the best practices between the two organizations; working on some specific joint projects which already we started; and also possibly working on a joint network of mentorship.”
LSO and BiopolisQuébec are working together on various networking events to promote collaboration within the corridor, including the June 6 Québec/Ontario Strategic Workshop: Delivering Partnerships within the Corridor held in Montréal.
They are also jointly hosting a workshop on June 18 at BIO 2012, called Internationl Interconnexions @ BIO 2012, where companies have the chance to meet and network with other Canadian businesses as well as companies from around the world. The workshops offer an opportunity to share best practices and different options or action plans in the biotechnology industry. Their theme for this year’s event is how to adapt to the changing model of life sciences R&D, which will be discussed in breakout sessions where people from different regions and backgrounds can share their views and discuss solutions.
Back at home, LSO and BiopolisQuébec have also teamed up to speak with a unified voice to federal policy makers on two key policy issues: support for innovation and the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). This further demonstrates the strength of the partnership, the alignment of the organizations with respect to goals for the corridor and the potential benefits for all partners within the corridor.
THE VOICE OF LIFE SCIENCES IN ONTARIO
Through the development of LSO, Ontario now has a strong unified voice for life sciences, which represents the diversity of membership and components of the sector, and focuses on the unity of one voice to elevate the entire life sciences industry.
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