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Minister of Tourism Soraya Martinez Ferrada, left, is given a tour of the biomedical labs by professor Gregory de Crescenzo at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal in Montreal on May 6, 2024. Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press P.J.
Devereaux is the scientific director of the World Health Research Trust. Maura Campbell is the president and chief executive officer of OBIO. David Conen is a senior scientist at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI).
Canadian scientists have made life-saving discoveries affecting millions of individuals worldwide. But this country is not properly commercializing those discoveries. For example, Ontario scientists discovered insulin; however, the U.
S. company Eli Lilly was given the rights to produce insulin in North America, and Danish physiologist August Krogh was given the rights to produce insulin in Scandinavia, which he used to found Novo Nordisk in Denmark. Canadian discoveries are producing billions in revenue for foreign biotechnology companies annually.
In 2023 Novo Nordisk paid some $3-billion in income tax to Denmark, a country of six million people. In 2024, the company’s market value was $570-billion – more than the GDP of Denmark. Canada has outstanding medical innovation and is building capacity for biomanufacturing and life sciences (e.
g., Ottawa’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy, Ontario’s Life Sciences Strategy), and Canadian researchers have developed many important innovations. Overwhelmingly these are sold/licensed to European or U.
S. companies that then undertake the required clinical trials to bring these innovations to market. As a result, Canada is home to not a single multinational, large-cap pharmaceutical or medical device company.
While Canada should continue to invest in foundational research, what is holding Canadian companies back is inadequate investment to undertake the required randomized controlled trials (RCTs, commonly referred to as clinical trials). RCTs randomly assign participants to receive the experimental intervention (e.g.
, drug) or the control intervention (e.g., placebo).
Clinical trials are required for regulatory approval before new drugs, vaccines or devices can be given to patients. Phase-2 RCTs typically randomize fewer than 100 patients to assess tolerability and inform dosing. Phase-3 RCTs typically randomize more than 1,000 patients to establish the effects of a drug and are required for regulatory approval.
Canada should learn from Europe, which has produced many of the Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies. Europe invests substantial amounts of money into RCTs. For example, the European Union Horizon 2020 program invested €75.
6-billion between 2014 and 2020 (i.e., €12.
6-billion annually) into research and innovation. Horizon 2020 awarded RCT grants five to 10 times the size of grants provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, but it required trialists to include small or medium-size EU biotechnology companies in their trials. The EU did this because, beyond wanting to advance health research, it wanted to boost the economy.
It appreciated that the economy is a major determinant of health. Each euro of Horizon 2020 funding resulted in private, for-profit sector investment of 57 cents, and researchers brought 23 cents of their own resources. The overall impact of this program includes an annual average GDP increase for the EU of €15.
9-billion; a net gain in employment of 220,000; and 4,000 intellectual property rights – two-thirds of them patents. This investment also enhanced the EU’s preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic. The Horizon 2020 investments in mRNA research were key to the development of vaccines.
It is estimated that, by 2040, every euro invested by Horizon 2020 will result in five euros of benefits for EU citizens. The program proved so successful that the EU is investing €95.5-billion in research and innovation between 2021 and 2027.
Canadians have lost out on health opportunities and large revenue streams because Canadian innovations are being sold off to U.S. and European companies.
Ottawa should address this problem through the following actions: With $100-million in annual investment in RCTs, Canada could undertake four Phase-3 trials ($20-million per trial) and 10 Phase-2 trials ($2-million per trial). Biotechnology companies and venture capitalists would provide additional funding for these trials, and the funding would also support international regulatory submissions and employ many Canadians. The time is now to invest in keeping Canadian biotechnology Canadian.
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