Canada’s Budget – what does it mean for Canada’s R & D and biotech firms.

Research and development and the science behind them are the building blocks of the 21st Century bio-economy that will create new high-tech jobs and technologies for future Canadian prosperity.  The 2010 federal budget makes some tentative steps in support of these initiatives, but in the future we need to take bolder actions to keep pace with our international competitors. 

Featured as the second budget of the stimulus plan, the themes within the budget included continuing to deliver on the economic recovery commitments outstanding from last year, building job creation and starting to control federal government spending in the face of a significant future deficit. The budget did offer investments and new opportunities for policy development across the full spectrum of the biotechnology industry. Of specific interest to R&D enterprises, the removal of taxation barriers in the Canada-US Tax Treaty (Section 116), a long-term priority for many within biotechnology and the investment community, opens the doors to for foreign investors, institutional or venture, to bring their investment dollars here. For scientific business where commercialisation is an intense 10 to 15 year commitment, with a billion dollar price tag, this welcome announcement will help our companies bring their products to the global market.

Recognising the Links between Science and Productivity

Despite commitments to basic research, for example through dollars to our five main funding councils, the question of how to take the incredible basic research capacity in Canada and build it into a “commercialisation eco-system” – where public and private partners are not encouraged but in fact empowered – to build linkages, and effectively and easily bring products to market – was not a strong focus in the budget. Research and discovery are only two components of innovation.  Development, application and market access are also innovation enablers.  Actions are needed now to secure innovative technology operating in Canada, to see technology adopted

The risk here is that Canada might lose its momentum. Across the sciences, we are seeing a strong resurgence in the development of new scientific tools and technologies, such as genomics and synthetic biology. Across the economy, scientific endeavour is fuelling new businesses, retooling traditional industries, building competitiveness. In the biotech industry alone, the Industrial Journal of biotechnology reported that biotech contributes $78.3 billion dollars to Canada’s GDP PER YEAR through its use and application in other (non-biotech) industries. As biotech firms last year faced a funding shortage they are still recovering from, keeping the momentum of this investment going requires an explicit commitment to recognising the value of the life sciences to our economy and building a strategy around this. Biotech is globally mobile and other countries have made it a cornerstone of their stimulus and budgetary platforms: the US, China, India, Singapore, Australia, and even Norway, made it an explicit goal to highlight and support their biotech industries.

The new knowledge economy – what we call the bio-economy – rest on recognising that we can do more with our resources than extract them. Value-added products and technologies continue to revolutionise agriculture, industrial manufacturing and consumer products. New health technologies also offer our funding-strapped health care system new options, not only for cures and treatment, but disease prevention that will meet our public health goals for an overall healthier society. 

Canada has long prided itself on the high standard of living that has kept us in the top 5 of the UN rankings. Keeping that space requires keeping up with global economic trends and competition.  It requires a renewed commitment to scientific excellence, but also a commitment to the financial, regulatory and market access policies that will allow Canada to create new industries and a new bio-economy from our immense natural and scientific resources.

Dr. Phillip Schwab, is Vice-President, Industry Affairs,with BIOTECanada, the national association representing the biotechnology sector in Canada. Dr Schwab holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Minnesota