Background
Last week, Vic Fedeli, the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade, announced Ontario’s second phase of its Life Sciences Strategy to advance the province’s position as an industry leader in biomanufacturing and life sciences.
In March 2022, the provincial government announced substantial plans to invest in Ontario’s life sciences sector. The COVID-19 pandemic created a new need for fast and effective biomanufacturing in the province and ultimately made the government reliant on other jurisdictions to develop and manufacture vaccines. This prompted the Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level strategy, which set out to fund innovative life science research and biomanufacturing initiatives in Ontario.
The global life sciences sector is valued at US$2.83 trillion. With more than 2000 life science companies based in Ontario, the province makes up 44% of the industry in Canada. With this plan’s support, the sector is expected to grow from ~72,000 to 85,000 jobs by 2030 (a 25% increase since 2020).
What’s changing?
Phase 2 will support the existing biomanufacturing ecosystem and scale up projects developed during Phase 1 with a $146 million investment. Building on the $15 million Life Sciences Innovation Fund (LSIF), a new Life Sciences Scale-Up Fund (LSSUF) is being introduced to help businesses increase their capacity for procurement. The LSSUF supports SMEs and will work alongside the $12 million Health Technology Accelerator Fund (HTAF), which helps healthcare providers improve patient care with made-in-Ontario technology.
Related to this is a renewed commitment through the Venture Ontario Fund (VOF), which has already invested $40 million in medical devices and digital health projects. To double venture capital investment in life sciences by 2030, an additional $40 million from the VOF will be dedicated to supporting companies in the sector.
On the research and development side, the province has set a goal of increasing patent applications by 25%. To support this, they’ve committed to increasing wet lab space, working with Clinical Trials Ontario to accelerate patient access, and matching federal funding provided through the Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF).
Phase 2 also involves the continued promotion of Ontario among global life sciences companies, and ultimately seeks to attract a minimum of five more $100 million investments from biomanufacturers. In the last six years, the province attracted more than $5 billion from top biomanufacturers like AstraZeneca, Roche, Sanofi, and Siemens Healthineers. Proposed steps for growing investments in this area include establishing a Life Sciences Talent Table to bring government and industry stakeholders together, and growing newer research areas like nuclear medicine and AI-enabled health technology.
What is the government saying?
“Over the course of Phase 1, our government sought to create an environment that encouraged innovation, fostered job creation and emphasized Ontario’s competitiveness and economic resilience … Through the launch of Phase 2 of the Strategy, we will continue to build on this momentum and further advance our bold vision to establish Ontario as a leader in the next generation of life sciences discoveries and technologies.”
-Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade
Conclusion
With this recommitment to supporting the sector, Ontario is signalling that life sciences and biomanufacturing are still priorities for the province’s economy. Continued support of the innovation that’s resulted from the plan so far will ensure the province remains a competitive biomanufacturing hub and encourage future growth in the sector.