monthly reporter newsletter

JULY 2010

FEATURES

  • BIOTECanada Welcomes New Board of Directors  
  • GENOME CANADA Centres Join BIOTECanada as National Biotechnology Week Launch Partners 
  • PWC Lifesciences Forecast to Launch Surveys in mid-August   
  • Business Solution of the Month: VWR
POLICY & COMMITTEE WATCH
  • Agriculture Advisory Board Members Meet with Health Canada Food Directorate  
  • BIOTECanada Partner in Forum on Information Sharing for Post Market Surveillance
  • Vaccine Industry Committee Welcomes New Chair
  • Industry-CADTH Liaison Meeting Updates on Therapeutic Review, Patient Input Process   
  • BIOTECanada VIC Presents at Caire Meeting – June 23, 2010   
  • CPS Committee Update: BIOTECanada, RX&D Jointly Discuss Guidelines   
  • BIOTECanada Bio-economy Roundtable on Sustainable Capital Formation Brings Key VC, Investors, Industry to the Table
 ADVOCACY WATCH
  • Biotech Caucuses Plan Activities for Next Session
  • National Advocacy Day   
  COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE
  • Peter Brenders Guest Blogs on BIOTUESDAY  – July 13
NEW MEMBERS
  • Eisai Limited 
  • Teralys Capital
FEATURES

BIOTECanada Welcomes New Board of Directors  

At its 2010 annual general meeting in Montreal on Jun 17, BIOTECanada confirmed the 2010-2011 Board of Directors. The cross-sectoral team comes from companies across the country involved in industrial, agricultural, and health biotechnology including: crop DNA modification, animal health technologies, vaccines, oncology, cardiology, HIV/AIDS,  depression, blood diseases, chronic pain, diabetes, and a range of serious conditions. The following new directors joined the board:
  • Michel Fortin, President & CEO, Prevtec Microbia, Montreal
  • Greg Gubitz, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & General Counsel, Biovail Corporation, Mississauga
  • Ed Gudaitis, General Manager, Gilead Sciences Canada, Mississauga
  • Doug Janzen, President & CEO, Cardiome Pharma Corp., Vancouver
  • Ron Keefe, President & CEO, BioVectra Inc., Charlottetown
  • Mark Lievonen, President, Sanofi Pasteur Limited, Toronto
  • Greg Penner, President & CEO, NeoVentures Biotechnology, London
  • Andrew Potter, CEO & Director, VIDO-InterVac, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
  • Wayne Quigley, President & General Manager, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Montreal
  • Lyndal Walker, Vice President & General Manager, Abraxis BioScience Inc., Mississauga
    • With a mandate to develop Canada’s biotechnology industry, the Board of Directors leads the association in implementing the recommendations of the industry strategy, Beyond Moose and Mountains. The strategy focuses on building Canada’s business and regulatory environment; increasing access to capital; and ensuring human resource needs are met – all as biotechnology is poised to lead economic growth in Canada’s energy, natural resource, agriculture, and health sectors.

    Our board chair, Brad Thompson, President and CEO of Calgary’s Oncolytics Biotech Inc. welcomed the new board members: "The association is pleased to welcome these knowledgeable leaders, whose recognized achievements within the industry will bring formidable expertise to our board. BIOTECanada would also like to thank retiring board members for their service and dedication to the industry.”

GENOME Canada Centres Join BIOTECanada as National Biotechnology Week Launch Partners 

BIOTECanada is proud to announce Genome Canada, and genome centres across the country as our official 2010 launch partners. The Genome Canada network includes: Genome Atlantic, Genome Quebec, Ontario Genomics Institute, Genome Prairie, Genome Alberta, and Genome BC. Together, the partners will launch the week on Sept 16, with a cross-country launch in multiple communities across Canada across the day.

National Biotechnology week is coming: September 17 to 24 is your chance to take part in national biotechnology awareness raising activities across Canada. The theme of the week, “powered by the bio-economy” focuses on biotechnology’s convergence into traditional sectors and ways of doing business.  Share the excitement of biotechnology, by joining us in your community during the national launch on September 16; taking part in National Advocacy Day (Sept 21); or participating in the many events across Canada.

Visit our website: www.ima GENEnation.ca for more information.

PWC Lifesciences Forecast to Launch Surveys in mid-August

BIOTECanada is pleased to once again partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP on our biennial LifeSciences Industry Forecast. The Forecast is generated thanks to the generous donation of your time to answer a brief questionnaire about your corporate plans; and your thoughts about government priorities. Responses are kept confidential. Surveys will be arriving in your inboxes in mid-August.

Business Solution of the Month: VWR

Maximize your purchasing power and streamlining your supply chain with VWR’s suite of laboratory chemicals, equipment and supplies. READ MORE

VWR and BIOTECanada are committed to supporting your research efforts. The VWR-BIOTECanada life science-specific membership program gives you access to special contracted pricing on laboratory chemicals, equipment and supplies.

Benefit from extremely aggressive pricing negotiated for you on VWR's entire product offering — extensive product choices from thousands of premier manufacturers. Plus, special pricing agreements are available exclusively through VWR from key life science manufacturers.

BIOTECanada members can learn more on our business solutions page. Click here. 

Policy Watch & Committee Watch - Building the Bio-economy

Agriculture Advisory Board Members Meet with Health Canada Food Directorate 

The Health Canada Food Directorate is a key player in the operating environment for our member companies in Canada. On June 16, BIOTECanada met Health Canada’s, Office of Legislative and Regulatory Modernization, to discuss the impact of different policies in Canada and the US on business-critical issues. READ MORE (members only)

BIOTECanada Partner in Forum on Information Sharing for Post Market Surveillance

Increasing knowledge and understanding of drug research methods in safety and effectiveness research is important to enable a positive post-market surveillance system. To ensure industry is able to share their expertise with our regulators, BIOTECanada has joined the planning committee organizing the Knowledge Transfer Forum set for September 2010.

Sponsored by the Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network (DSEN) in collaboration with the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), the forum will be a series of open, pre-competitive discussions on research methods, between industry, researchers and policy makers in a politically neutral environment to discuss methodologies for a high quality science discussion regarding drug safety and effectiveness.  The day will offer opportunities for mutual knowledge exchange and debate on research methods for the study of the safety and effectiveness issues of marketed drugs.   The Forum brings national and international expertise from different sectors together to discuss gaps and innovations in research methods employed in the study of drugs’ safety and comparative effectiveness. 

The DSEN was established by the federal government in 2007 to increase available evidence on drug safety and effectiveness available to regulators, policy-makers, health care providers and patients; and, to increase capacity within Canada to undertake high-quality post-market research in this area.

BIOTECanada will be represented by Graeme Fraser.  For more information please contact Graeme.

Vaccine Industry Committee Welcomes New Chair

BIOTECanada’s Vaccine Industry Committee is pleased to welcome John Dorsey, Vice President, Novartis as the new chair of the Vaccine Industry Committee effective July 1, 2010. The vice chairs remain Jason Locklin (sanofi-pasteur) and Egidio Nascimento (Variation Biotechnologies), representing the emerging vaccine manufacturers.

John Dorsey is Vice-President and Head of the Vaccines & Diagnostics Division of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc.  Prior to starting the Vaccines & Diagnostics business in Canada, John was Vice President of Marketing for the vaccines business of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Inc. located in Cambridge MA, USA.  

Previous to joining Novartis’ Vaccines and Diagnostics division, John held several roles with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada including Vice-President of the Oncology Business Unit and Vice-President of Primary Care Marketing.

Prior to Novartis, John held several marketing and sales roles in Toronto at Janssen-Ortho, Inc.  He started his career as a hospital pharmacist working in Toronto at Sunnybrook Medical Center.

John holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Saskatchewan, a Bachelor of Arts in Life Sciences from Queen’s University (Kingston, Ont.) and a Masters in Business Administration from York University’s Schulich School of Management (Toronto).

The chair position is a two year term. For more information about this committee, click here.

Industry-CADTH Liaison Meeting Updates on Therapeutic Review, Patient Input Process  

BIOTECanada took part in the industry-CADTH liaison meeting June 25, 2010 in Ottawa. The association was represented by Peter Brenders (President & CEO), Philip Schwab (VP, Industry Relations), Lesia Babiak (Janssen-Ortho & Chair, BIOTECanada Health Advisory Board), and Kim Furlong (Amgen).  The meeting was a valuable opportunity for dialogue, and to exchange information.

READ MORE  (MEMBERS ONLY)

BIOTECanada VIC Presents at Caire Meeting – June 23, 2010

BIOTECanada Vaccine Industry Committee (VIC) Chair, Ms. Marise Lemieux, presented the industry perspective on Canadian vaccine research and development at the Canadian Association for Immunization Research and Evaluation (CAIRE) meeting on June 23, 2010. 

The presentation noted that while Canadian research quality is valued and viewed as being high calibre among the scientific community, an obvious gap is the lack of availability of national surveillance. Increased regulatory requirements, such as more data required to demonstrate efficacy and safety, more countries, a more diverse patient population, and an increased number of vaccines in the routine schedule, all impact the cost of vaccine development.

VIC recommended that groups like the CAIRE align common interests to help foster long-term innovation in the vaccine sector; cultivate long-term collaborative research-oriented agreements; and organize and facilitate vaccine research collaboration, for example through local and international networks and/or workshops.  Academic research should consider partnering with industry.

Canadian vaccine research must strive to remain internationally competitive, which means having consistent value in executing clinical trials.  Study sites should meet the research standards of major regulatory agencies: Health Canada, EMEA, and FDA. VIC members plan to support CAIRE members by facilitating capability presentations to our respective companies.  Having timely access to national epidemiology and patient outcomes data is crucial to supporting clinical and post-marketing research commitments.

CPS Committee Update: BIOTECanada, RX&D Jointly Discuss Guidelines  

BIOTECanada and Rx&D have each developed robust standards to govern the commercial practices of member firms. In January 2010, BIOTECanada’s Commercial Practice Standards (CPS) Committee received a presentation from Rx&D to discuss the feasibility of mutually developing a new document setting forth ethical standards and principles aimed at guiding members of both associations in their interactions with healthcare professionals and other stakeholders.

As a result of this meeting, a smaller group, comprised of member company representatives from both Associations, met to explore this further. The group brainstormed areas of inclusion in a new document, relevant stakeholder groups, and high-level principles governing interaction with identified stakeholders.  The group found concurrence at the high level.  Participating BIOTECanada members subsequently briefed the full CPS Committee on progress and next steps discussions were taken to the BIOTECanada Board meeting on June 17, 2010.

The BIOTECanada Board supports the high-level ethical principles embodied by Rx&D’s Code governing interactions with healthcare professionals.  Similarly, the Board acknowledges the Association’s CPS has been developed to reflect the same principles. The Board of BIOTECanada supports an objective of harmonization of the respective standards where appropriate for our diverse membership. The Board welcomes discussions on critical areas for top-level alignment and believes this is an important agenda item for the regular Joint BIOTECanada-Rx&D Alignment meetings.  Specific options for consideration by the CPS Committee will be brought forward from the joint alignment meetings. BIOTECanada remains open to working with Rx&D for continued industry aligned messaging and good commercial practices.

For further information, contact Peter Brenders.

BIOTECanada Bio-economy Roundtable on Sustainable Capital Formation Brings Key VC, Investors, Industry to the Table

In support of our national strategy, the Canadian Blueprint: Beyond Moose and Mountains, BIOTECanada held a bio-economy roundtable on sustainable capital formation on June 16 in Toronto, Ontario.

The roundtable was comprised of a diverse group of industry experts with legal, financial, commercial, and government expertise, invited by BIOTECanada to identify, analyse, and propose innovative alternatives to create sustainable capital for Canada’s emerging biotechnology companies. The invitation-only event saw Dennis Purcell, Senior Managing Director of Aisling Capital based in New York City, deliver a presentation about the venture capital environment in the United States. In addition, Walter Robinson, principal at government relations firm, TACTIX, provided a Federal Government perspective about a potential government ask for Budget 2011. The event was moderated by Janet Dalicandro, co-founder of strategic consulting firm, Enrichment Enterprises.

Roundtable participants engaged in a productive discussion, presenting different perspectives, regarding the intrinsic capital-formation problems affecting Canada’s emerging biotechnology companies and discussed potential solutions. The roundtable concluded with the presentation of four key recommendations in support of sustainable capital formation.  BIOTECanada will be producing a proceedings document from the roundtable to be distributed in mid-July.

The event was an important milestone in garnering consensus and alignment among industry stakeholders and has set the stage for BIOTECanada’s recommendations into the next Federal Budget (2011).

Advocacy in Action

Biotech Caucuses Plan Activities for Next Session 

In our ongoing work to help engage federal leadership on our diverse set of public policy issues, BIOTECanada has recently been working with the chairs of the Conservative and Liberal Biotech Caucuses to plan activities for the fall and winter session.

READ MORE (MEMBERS ONLY)

National Advocacy Day

BIOTECanada will welcome industry leaders from throughout Canada to Ottawa on September 21 for our annual Advocacy Day. A key feature of the National Biotechnology Week programme, Advocacy Day offers the opportunity to grow the visibility and credibility of our industry with federal government officials.  The day will feature key policy priorities established by the policy and advisory boards at BIOTECanada.  Work is currently underway to finalize the top priorities and prepare supporting analysis and documentation to help make the case for biotech. 

This year the Association will be featuring a new format: a streamed meeting schedule aimed at engaging the broad section of biotech industry sectors with key federal officials in all departments relevant to the industry. This format will increase our outreach, and ensure federal officials are appropriately briefing on the vital issues that affect our industry as we seek to grow and sustain our operations here in Canada.

Participation in Advocacy Day is open to all of our corporate members. However, we encourage all of you to register as early as possible as space is limited. Letters of invitation and registration information are being currently being distributed to senior representatives of our membership. Those with any questions or suggestions may contact cate.mccready@biotech.ca

Communications Update

Peter Brenders Guest Blogs on BIOTUESDAY – July 13

BioTuesday is an online publication dedicated to profiling smaller Canadian health biotech firms. Working with former Globe and Mail biotech reporter, Leonard Zehr, BioTuesday issues weekly corporate profile stories. A new feature are blogs by industry leaders. BIOTECanada’s President, Peter A Brenders is the publicatons second blogger. Read Peter on July 13, talking about the state of the sector here

New Members

BIOTECanada is pleased to welcome:


  • Eisai Limited


    Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Eisai Limited is the Canadian pharmaceutical sales subsidiary of Eisai Inc., a top-20 U.S. pharmaceutical company.  Eisai Limited seeks to bring many of Eisai’s innovative, first-in-class products to people living in Canada who currently do not have access to these treatments, further supporting Eisai’s worldwide human health care (hhc) mission to satisfy unmet medical needs and contribute to the health and well-being of people worldwide.  The company’s areas of commercial focus include neurology, gastrointestinal disorders and oncology/critical care. 

  • Teralys Capital

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