Future Opportunities and Challenges for Canada in Life Sciences and BioAgrifood Research

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Future Opportunities and Challenges for Canada in
Life Sciences and Bio-Agrifood Research
Arthur J. Carty National Science Advisor to the
Prime Minister
Ag-West Bio Inc. Annual General Meeting Saskatoon
Saskatchewan 7 September 2005
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Canadas 21st Century Challenges Opportunities

• Our economic future productivity, trade and
  innovation
• Canada is a small, highly trade-dependent nation
• Swift adaptability to change and speed of
  innovation listed as greatest management
  challenges by senior executives1
• Transforming to a Knowledge-based Economy
• Global knowledge system leading to increased
  competition for Highly Qualified People and
  investment
• Substantial investment needed in key sectors of
  ICT, biotechnology, manufacturing technologies,
  nanotechnology
• Must create a culture of innovation and
  commercialization
• Our new partners and competitors emergence of
  new economic powers China, India
• Moving quickly from low-cost manufacturers to
  knowledge-based economic powerhouses

1. Economist Intelligence Unit Survey, Business
2010 Embracing the Challenge of Change, 2005.
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Canadas 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities

• Our natural resources
• Need to gain sustainable competitive edge through
  innovations in extraction and production to
  harness value-added benefits
• Our health and security
• Changing demographics
• Increasing virulence and rapidity of infectious
  diseases
• Our environment Global Warming A fundamental
  effect on our economy, ecology and society
• North and coastal regions are particularly
  vulnerable to climate change
• Opportunities for Canadian industry in meeting
  environmental challenges

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Canadian RD Overview

• In 2004-2005, total Canadian RD expenditures
  are expected to reach 24.5 billion
• Total Canadian federal ST expenditures in 04-05
  are projected to be 9.2 billion of which 63
  (5.8B) will be for RD
• RD spending per capita in universities and
  research institutes is the highest in the G-8
• 13 billion in incremental investments committed
  to basic research from 1997-98 to 2003-04
• Almost 70 of this has been allocated in the last
  4 years
• Research environment has improved significantly
  in the academic sector

Federal direct and indirect expenditures on RD,
by performing sector (1992/93-2003/04)
Projected
Source Statistics Canada Cat No. F88-0006XIE and
Finance Canada
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Canadas ST and Innovation Challenges

• Maintain leading G8 position for HERD/GDP and
  build on strong research base
• Harvest economic and social benefit to Canadians
  of RD investments through knowledge transfer and
  commercialization
• Stimulate industrial RD expansion and
  collaboration through clusters
• Increase global linkages across the innovation
  spectrum
• Revitalize government science to respond to the
  priority policy challenges facing Canadians
• Develop national strategies in emerging areas
  e.g. biotechnology and life sciences,
  nanotechnologies, quantum information technology,
  sustainable energy, photonics, high performance
  computing, environmental technologies northern
  science

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Bio-economy potential impacts

• Bio-Economy and accelerating advancements in
  biosciences is creating opportunities to
• enable innovative and environmentally sustainable
  agriculture
• improve health, safety, integrity and reliability
  of producing, processing and distributing food
• produce and market agricultural products in
  increasingly sophisticated and demanding
  food/non-food markets
• expand agriculture beyond food and feed to
  include bio-materials, bio-medical products,
  bio-health products, bio-energy products,
  bio-chemicals and bio-pharmaceuticals

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US, European, Canadian Australian Biotech, 2003
(CDN)
Source Conference Board of Canada Canadian
Biotechnology Secretariat., May 2005
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Number of Biotechnology Firms in Canada by
Sector, 2003
Total 496 firms
Source Conference Board of Canada Canadian
Biotechnology Secretariat., May 2005
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Canadian Strengths Biotechnology

• Canada 2nd in firms, 3rd in revenues and 1st in
  RD expenditures per employee, 2 500 external
  patents applied for annually

Biotechnology Sector in Canada, 1997-2003

• Agriculture and Energy
• Transgenic plants
• Molecular farming
• Biofuels, bioprocessing
• Industrial enzymes

• Human and Animal Health
• Therapeutics vaccines biodiagnostics
  infectious diseases neurodegenerative diseases
  cancer clinical medicine
• Genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics
• Stem cells, regenerative medicine,
  nanobiotechnology

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A new frame of reference for the future of
agricultural biotechnology
Towards a future in Canadian Agro-biotechnology

• Shift from a commodity industry competing on
  low-cost production to a differentiated product
  industry competing on the basis of
• safety, quality and environmental attributes
• responsiveness to changing consumer demands
• speed of entering new markets
• alignment with production/marketing/distribution
  value chains
• securing competitive advantage and market share
  for Canada in a globalized market place

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Steps Forward
How do we achieve our vision?

• Commitment to world-class RD
• Continue to produce highly skilled scientists and
  engineers and increase interdisciplinary training
• Build a cohesive ecosystem of risk financing
• Build manufacturing capabilities in key areas
• Improve regulatory standards
• Integrating and enabling national strategy

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Our Strengths Plant and Agricultural
Biotechnology

• University of Saskatchewan
• Pulse crop improvement
• Nutraceuticals
• Innovation Place for start-ups transgenic
  greenhouse
• NRC-Plant Biotechnology Institute
• Molecular and Developmental Genetics
• Metabolic engineering
• Hormone profiling
• AAFC Saskatoon Research Center
• Crop breeding and diversification
• Genomics and molecular and developmental biology
• Protein Oils Starch Pilot Plant
• Scale up technology for processing and extraction

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Strengths and New Opportunities Vaccine and
Immunization Technologies

• Canada is emerging as a world leader in animal
  and human vaccine and immunization technologies
  for infectious diseases
• VIDO INTERVAC (Level 3 disease capacity)
• Genome Canada funding for Pathogenomics for
  Innate Immunity Research Platform
• Gates Foundation funding for Single Dose Vaccines
  for Neonates
• International Centre for Infectious Diseases
  (ICID)
• BioMed City
• Canadian Centre for Human and Animal Health
• Successful companies ID Biomedical (Fluviral)

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Bioproducts and Bioprocesses
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Foresight for Bio-products Bioprocesses
ONSA is leading a foresight with the Bio-Products
community to assess Canadas policy needs and
resilience against several plausible scenarios

• Canada a world leader in selected bio-fuels
• Significant contribution to Canadas energy
  security and to APEC economies need for
  expertise, non-conventional energy sources
• Contributions to environmental sustainability,
  Kyoto climate change, rural economy renewal,
  cities agenda and regional prosperity

• Still Hewers of Wood ..?
• Losing Resource Ownership
• One Fry Pan to Another
• 21st is Canadas Century

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Looking Ahead - Nanotechnology The Opportunity
for Canada

• Increased miniaturization, reliability and cost
  reduction, sensors can be used for real-time
  monitoring of large systems (field growth,
  drought, fertilizer concentration, etc)
• Advances in ICT through nanotechnology will lead
  to higher levels of automation and processing
  speed
• Lab-on-a-chip microfluidics will allow
  expensive and time-intensive tests to be done on
  site (i.e. at the field) shortening diagnosis
  time
• Wear resistant nano-materials and coatings could
  have substantial impact on equipment and capital
  investments

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Major Science Investments Canadian Light Source

• A major investment in Canadian science that will
  open the doors to new opportunities for Canadian
  research and Western Canada Biotechnology
• Examples include - Ultra bright protein
  crystallography x-rays for biochemistry,
  biology, biophysics, chemistry, microbiology,
  immunology, pharmacy, and plant science to obtain
  atomic resolution on often very small crystals
• Identification and exploitation of trace organic
  mineral nutrition for animal feed and
  supplements
• Analysis of protein structure of plants to
  improve resistance to extreme cold and drought
  conditions

Photo courtesy of Canadian Light Source Inc.
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Innovation Commercialization Strengths
The next challenge is to turn more of Canadians
bright ideas into dynamic businesses, great jobs
and growing export earnings. To that end, the
Government will ensure a supply of venture
capital, particularly for early-stage
businesses. -Speech from the Throne,
October 2004

• Strong research base and highly qualified
  workforce
• Extensive industry/university collaborations
• Excellent university, NRC and AAFC spin-off and
  technology transfer rates
• Development of new industry-university and
  government laboratory partnerships
• Second to the US for venture capital investment

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Barriers to commercialization and trade in Canada
Source Biotechnology Human Resource Council,
2004 Canadian Biotechnology Human Resources
Study.
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Smart Regulation Biotechnology and Life Sciences
Regulation 47 The government of Canada should
make it a priority to develop and implement a
comprehensive, government-wide biotechnology
regulatory strategy that would

• Identify and address legislative gaps
• Identify ways to access expertise from domestic
  and international scientific sources
• Give due consideration to ethical issues
• Provide opportunities for stakeholder input
• Translate into detailed work plans and report on
  progress
• Be reviewed and updated regularly to deal with
  changes in biotechnology
• Assign clear and effective accountability

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Expert Panel on Commercialization

• Minister Emerson has asked the Panel to report
  this fall with recommendations for government on
• How to simplify and encourage the introduction of
  new processes and products with protecting the
  public interest
• How to better harness the potential of new
  knowledge and technologies generated by public
  funds
• Whether Canada has created the right environment
  for commercialization
• Includes Germaine Gibara (Avio Management) Mike
  Lazaridis (RIM) Cindy Lum (B.C. Innovation
  Council) John Risley (Clearwater Seafoods)
  Indira Samarasekera (U. of Alberta) Joe Rotman,
  Chair (UofT)

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A Vision for the Future

• Competitive business environment
• Taxes, incentives and procurement to stimulate
  innovation and adoption of leading edge
  technologies
• Smart Regulatory System
• A highly qualified workforce
• Solid research base
• Healthy eco-system of risk financing
• Strong linkages between business and the research
  base
• High value-added global interactions at all
  stages of the innovation process

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Future Opportunities

• Made in Canada commercialization vehicle to get
  economically valuable technology to Canadian
  farmers
• Federal and Provincial governments work together
  to establish pre-commercialization strategies to
  support ST start-ups to spur economic
  development
• Development of multiple crop platforms to produce
  a host of products from industrial to
  pharmaceuticals
• Public/Private research programs for developing
  tree cultivars adapted to Western Canadian
  conditions for Western Canadas pulp and paper
  industry

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Conclusions and Summary

• The global Bioeconomy is upon us and evolving
  rapidly
• Canada has made considerable progress in the past
  decade in becoming an important player in
  biotechnology and life sciences research
• Challenges still remain in commercialization of
  the technology and building a viable
  biotechnology industrial sector in Canada
• Western Canada has enormous potential to become a
  major player and benefit from the advancements in
  science and commercialization of products and
  services
• Canada can achieve its goals through strategic
  investments and strong partnerships between
  industry, academia and governments nationally and
  internationally

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