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WE ASKED AND YOU RESPONDED
WE ASKED
??? ?? Generally speaking, the feedback we received was quite positive. For starters, The countdown is on for this, the ninth Canadian National Biotech Week AND YOU RESPONDED: REaDERS RESPOND celebration. In keeping up with the festivities, Biotechnology Focus continues we posed the question to our readers what to do its part in raising awareness around the sector by turning to you, our was the biggest news story in the sector readers, for your feedback. Like our previous surveys, most of the questions for 2012. Answers varied but the big one that we posed to our readers focused on the success stories in the Canadian seemed to be re-energization of our venbiotech and life science sector. However, some of our questions went a step ture capital ecosystem coupled with the further asking what our readers thought about Canada’s place on the global rebound in financing. Particularly our readbiotechnology stage. In tallying your responses we wanted to keep it short and ers said it was great to hear about new VC simple. Our goal really was to encourage dialogue, to see what is and what funds in the marketplace, where pharma companies such as Pfizer, Merck, GSK and isn’t going right within the sector, and most importantly, to encourage creative Eli Lilly managed to launch new funds lines of thinking in the betterment of the sector collectively. alongside VC partners such as Lumira Capital, Teralys Capital and others. Likewise, our readers noted that Canada’s business development bank, BDC, provided $20 million of the $150 million raised by
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TVM Capital for a new Canadian life science venture capital fund. Pointing to a rebound in funding, respondents also discussed the 53 per cent increase in financing highlighted in Ernst & Young’s Beyond Borders Report. And of course there was the biggest biotech deal in recent Canadian history, the billion dollar acquisition of Enobia Pharma by Alexion.
Yet in mentioning the good, one cannot forget the big bad stories of 2012. Specifically the failure of Aeterna Zentaris and its lead offering, perifosine, (which in April failed to meet its primary endpoint) as well as the changes at Cardiome, a company who just this month reduced its workforce by 85 per cent as a response to the recently announced termination of Merck’s development efforts relating to the vernakalant oral program.
According to BIOTECanada, the three primary components of Canada’s bioeconomy are health, industrial processes and agriculture. We tried to follow the same type of approach with this survey. More specifically, we chose to break down the next portion of reader’s responses into two categories. In the first category we lumped the drug discovery, therapeutics, biomedical and devices under health sciences sub sectors together. In category two, we combined agriculture, food, bioindustrial and environment as one.
In the Drug Discovery, Therapeutics, Biomedical and Devices category, the first question we posed was whether or not they felt Canada was an international leader in these collective fields. In all, just 38 per cent said yes, with 48 per cent of the no’s saying that it had the potential to be one under the right circumstances.
As for those right circumstances, our readers had many suggestions beginning with the idea that Canada needs to forge for itself a globally competitive IP regime. This IP regime would need to function with a mandate of keeping Canada’s private and public sector entrepreneurs at the forefront of development and commercialization. Moreover, rather than being divided geographically and competing with one another, we should strive to compete together. One example given was the Life Sciences Corridor which was forged between Ontario and Quebec last year which continues to grow together. To build a broader more national corridor partnership, Canada needs to build for itself a national vision on biotech where we consolidate our expertise and infrastructure instead of duplicating it in each province. As one respondent put it, without a national vision our progress will be incremental at best.
Respondents in both categories provided some strong commentary also on how we could improve upon our global ranking, and figuring out ways to succeed together with less money. This means finding innovative models to take health products through the innovation pipeline towards commercialization. In fact, such models are seemingly already being explored, with industry, government and academic collaborations and partnerships some starting out early on in the research phase. Indeed with the continued downsizing in large pharma there is growing trend towards turning to academia for industry/academia collaborations thus improving the odds of moving from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Returning to the first question posed to the healthcare side, we asked the same question to the Agriculture, Food, Cleantech, Environmental and Industrial sectors collectively, 34 per cent of which said Canada was a world leader in these fields. As for what’s holding Canada back, these readers felt there was plenty intellectual capital being generated by innovative researchers and companies in these fields, yet a poor regulatory system in place restricting the adoption of new products. Thus, our readers are calling for the streamlining of the regulatory system with greater cooperation among and between government departments. Moreover, like their counterparts on the healthcare side, readers from these sectors are also seeking the launch of a national strategy when it comes to the bioeconomy. In agriculture for example this means a full supply-chain analysis, working with feedstock producers,
If there’s one thing our readers want government or the general public to know, biotechnology is increasingly becoming an area of major importance and investment throughout the world, and Canada can’t get left behind by the pack. Put simply, there is great potential in Agriculture and Agri-Food to be large contributors to our economy, likewise there are huge opportunities that come with the global movement away from only bioenergy and greater focus on value-added biochemicals and biomaterials – areas where Canada, specifically, the Sarnia, ON area are leaders and where large, multinational conglomerates such as BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Petrobras, Procter & Gamble, Mitsui, Coca Cola, and L’Oreal are making their presence felt. So it only makes sense that Canada needs to follow the money and support this sector.
Canada has other ulterior reasons to support the biotech industry. For starters, Canada is home to one of the world’s harshest growing climates in the world. The benefits to weatherproofing food and nonfood crops for example through periods of drought and heat stress, ensuring abundant, consistent and cost-effective harvests (yield) for farmers and biofuel feedstock suppliers alike. Weatherproofing plants means using specific gene-based technologies to protect crops from various weather stressors, resulting in better yield in every growth season for example.
Top priorities to get before government
Many of our readers shared suggestions directly related to financing and finding new ways to support our SMEs. Such ideas like expanding IRAP and SR&ED tax credits (which unfortunately were scaled down in the recent budget) or just opening up crowd-funding as one item to support financing of SMEs were all referenced.
Likewise the topic of procurement and that Canada should consider employing strategic procurement in public sector spending as a lever to drive innovation, productivity, competitiveness and economic growth was very popular amongst our readers. This means that we need a healthcare system and other industries such as agriculture, chemical, etc. that recognizes Canadian Innovation through purchasing these same respondents discussed reforming Canada’s intellectual property regime to help attract investments and support businesses in Canada and gain global mandates as part of the CETA negotiation.
Another hot topic or priority that always seems to be mentioned in our surveys, but is never followed up on by government, is the expansion of flow-through tax credits to investors in small biotechnology firms. Again, the idea of flow-through shares – now used by resource companies – is to help companies reach the stage of commercialization when they have high capital needs but few revenues. Flow-through shares allow companies to transfer tax deductions to investors, who can then use them to lower their personal or corporate tax.
Public support for biotech
If there is one thing that rivals cash flow when it comes to the biotechnology industry, it is raising public awareness about its benefits. The theory goes if you can get public opinion behind the industry, you just might get government to support it. As such some readers’ recommendations included raising public awareness through social media campaigns. Moreover we need to make the real success stories of biotechnology much better known. Essentially reward winners in a more visible manner.
At the same time the real scientists need to learn how to present their advances to the public in a non-threatening way, emphasizing the benefits while being upfront about both the potential risks and benefits. With more awareness, more people will appreciate the hard work being done and continue to support these important industries.
On a grander scale we need to do a better job of conveying that our pharmaceutical R&D, and that of most drug companies, improves patient outcomes while at same time reducing cost of providing care. And since Canadians are not the only people wanting improved care, we as a country may as well be an exporter of these technologies, instead of only an importer. Likewise, The government needs to emphasize the impact that Canada has on agriculture on the world stage related to innovation from plant development to machinery.
There are also calls to continue to support education programs from K-12 and undergraduate programs in science. Start at the ground level; invite scientists to speak at elementary and high schools. The scientists would love the opportunity, and it would begin to generate awareness in children that will hopefully foster long-term interest and awareness.
The Big Picture
What’s clear from your responses is that Canada’s biotechnology sector plays a role every day in our daily lives. Canadian Biotechnology companies are unleashing an array of invented, developed and commercialized Canadian products for the world to covet. Whether it’s in the healthcare space with the development of new therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and medical devices and vaccines, or working to address global health, economic, and environmental issues, Canadian researchers and companies are doing their best to compete globally. We all have to work together and play our part to advance innovation and optimize health outcomes. This includes taking part in activities such as National Biotech Week, or more specifically, making your presence felt on September 18 and participate in National Advocacy Day in Ottawa
We’d like to thank those of you who took the survey and for sharing your stories with us.
For more SURVEY RESULTS information visit our COMMERCIALIZATION Web Portal at
www.bioscienceworld.ca
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