Rx for Success in Biopharmaceuticals

From finding safer ways to create therapeutic stem cells, to world-class responses to global pandemic threats, Canadian life-sciences innovators are at the forefront of biopharmaceuticals.

With world-leading centres of excellence in science and technology, one of the most generous research and development (R&D) tax incentives in the OECD, 20-years of patent protection, large pools of post- graduate researchers, and one of the most efficient and forward-thinking regulatory agencies in the world, the Canadian advantage in life sciences is hard to beat.

Canada is recognized around the world for advances in genomics and proteomics, vaccine technology, therapeutic applications for stem cells, and world-leading evidence-based cancer care.

Did you know?

• At US$32.7 billion, Canada’s pharmaceutical market is the world’s 7th largest. 
• Canadian biopharmaceutical companies posted sales of $19 billion in 2007, and $6.3 billion in export revenues. 
• In 2007, over $1.3 billion was spent on biopharmaceutical-related R&D in Canada.
• Canada’s clinical research infrastructure boasts a community of some 30,000 investigators across 17 medical schools and more than 100 teaching hospitals.  Canada is known for quickly recruiting patients, adhering to good clinical practice and generating high-quality data.    
• Canada has the G8’s highest rate of increase in biotech R&D workers, external patent applications and business expenditures on R&D.  We also have the lowest biotech labour costs. 
• Canada ranks 4th globally in terms of its overall share of global clinical trials. 
• Canadian governments support a Canada-wide consortium of researchers engaged in a variety of research disciplines, including Oncology, Vaccines, Neuroscience and Stem Cells.
• With one of the safest and most efficient regulatory systems in the world, Canada frequently leads the world in approving ground-breaking drugs and therapies. 

Home Grown Leaders

• Apotex
• Bioniche Life Sciences
• Biovail
• Cangene
• Cardiome Pharma Corp.
• ImmunoVaccine Technologies
• Theratechnologies
• Transition Therapeutics Inc.
• Trillium Therapeutics

Global Investors

• Amgen
• AstraZeneca
• Bayer
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Eli Lily
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Hoffman-LaRoche
• Johnson&Johnson
• Merck (Schering-Plough)
• Novartis
• Novopharm
• Pfizer (Wyeth)
• Sandoz
• Sanofi-Aventis
• Sanofi Pasteur

Look Who’s Here

• In 2009, U.S.-based Charles River Laboratories International opened a pre-clinical services facility in Quebec.
• In 2008, French firm Sanofi Pasteur invested $100 million in a new vaccines R&D facility in Ontario.
• In 2007, GlaxoSmithKline invested more than $178 million in Canadian R&D, including $50 million to expand their vaccines operation in Laval, Quebec.