PEI • BIO Convention • Active Ingredients CHAMPIONING THE BUSINESS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN CANADA May/June 2013 RUSSIA TURKEY INDIA BRAZIL Ahoy!Markets Biotech markets abroad offer businesses Canadian Publications Mail Product—Agreement 40063567 Canadian Publications Mail Product—Agreement www.biobusinessmag.com new avenues for success Find your dream biotech employee Find and recruit highly-skilled biotech professionals with The PetriDish™ job board. Take advantage of BioTalent Canada’s full range of online HR employer tools. With The PetriDish job board, post jobs and get noticed by job seekers, or find the right person with the right talent with the new Talent Search. BioSkills Match™ connects you with pre-screened skilled professionals with an approved BioReady™ status so you can save time and hire the best talent in Canada’s bio-economy. Visit www.biotalent.ca to register. BioTalent Canada, The PetriDish, BioReady, and BioSkills Match are registered trademarks of BioTalent Canada. 8183013_BioT_EmployerAd CMYK BioBusiness 8.125 x 10.875 N/A 7 x 10 BioTalent Canada 0.125 Chris 100% PMS PMS PMS PMS PMS FOIL Contents CHAMPIONING THE BUSINESS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN CANADA on the cover 12 Going abroad As the world becomes more interconnected there are more and more opportunities for biotechs to explore new markets. Bio Business takes a look at what Russia, India, Turkey and Brazil have to offer. also inside 8 Regional Profile: PEI PEI is sometimes viewed as an agricultural outpost but it is starting to push for recognition as one of the top biotech clusters in the country. 10 Active Ingredients With the majority of active ingredient production for drugs taking place in the developing world, governments are struggling to keep up and make sure drugs are safe. 16 BIO Convention The annual BIO Convention touched down in Chicago in late April. Bio Business was there to see some young Canadians and two of the country’s most exciting up-and-coming 8 companies win awards. “There has been a growing standards concern over the quality of AI by health regulators around 5 Editorial the world.” 6 News –LEONA AGLUKKAQ, CANADA’S MINISTER OF HEALTH PAGE 10 22 Business Leadership www.biobusinessmag.com 3 DESIGN THE PROTEIN PURIFICATION SYSTEM YOU’VE BEEN DREAMING OF. (AND IF YOUR NEEDS CHANGE, SO CAN YOUR SYSTEM.) NGC™ Chromatography System Reinvent your approach to protein purification with the NGC Chromatography Systems. Position pumps, valves, detectors, and columns wherever you need them. Expand vertically by adding additional tiers over time. Maximize your bench space and minimize your hold up volumes with the NGC system’s unique Tier RotateTM architecture. The NGC platform and your custom design come together to turn your dreams into reality. Dream big. Design your own NGC system today at bio-rad.com/ad/ngcsystemsCA 13-0925 PFD NGC BioBusiness print ad.indd 1 4/11/13 3:14 PM Job # 13-0925 Publication BioBusiness Trim Size 8.375” x 10.875” Run Date 04/15/13 Editorial Championing the Business of Biotechnology in Canada Publisher Christopher J. Forbes & CEO [email protected] Executive Editor Theresa Rogers [email protected] Associate Editor Nicolas Heffernan [email protected] Staff Writer Lindsay Grummett [email protected] Editorial Intern Chelsea Kowalski Cashing in Some Capital Art Katrina Teimourabadi Director [email protected] Secretary/ It’s really just confirmation of common knowledge. Treasurer Susan A. Browne Canadian biotech companies need more funding. Nobody needed an Ernst & Young Marketing Lisa Pressacco report to tell them that. Manager [email protected] But the numbers don’t paint a happy picture: total funding remained flat at US$733 Marketing Keri LaPlante million, public companies’ R&D expenditures fell 12 per cent last year, revenues were Co-ordinator [email protected] flat, the number of public companies in Canada decreased seven per cent to 63 compa- VP of Roberta Dick nies and the overall employment in the sector also fell five per cent. Production [email protected] But the part that really sticks out and what is of biggest concern is venture funding Production Crystal Himes was down by 60 per cent to $US68 million. The problem is there’s no knight in shining Manager [email protected] armor on the horizon. There’s no plan in place to attract funding; it seems like everyone Production Joanna Forbes will just keep drifting along and hope for the best. It’s disappointing because there are a Co-ordinator [email protected] lot of brilliant minds and great ideas in this country but they don’t have the money to Bio Business is published 6 times per year by see the light of day. Jesmar Communications Inc., 30 East Beaver Creek Rd., Suite 202, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 1J2. I’m not going to pretend that I have the ideas to solve this problem and it’s defi- 905.886.5040 Fax: 905.886.6615 nitely not a quick and easy fix. But something needs to be done quickly to make sure all www.biobusinessmag.com One year subscription: Canada $35.00, US $35.00 and foreign $95. Single the potential that Canada holds in biotech doesn’t just fall by the wayside. copies $9.00. Please add GST/HST where applicable. Bio Business subscription and circulation enquiries: Garth Atkinson, biondj16@publication partners.com Fax: 905.509.0735 Subscriptions to Nicolas Heffernan business address only. On occasion, our list is made Associate Editor available to organizations whose products or services may be of interest to you. If you’d rather not receive information, write to us at the address above or call 905.509.3511 The contents of this publication may not ON THE WEB at be reproduced either in part or in whole without the www.biobusinessmag.com written consent of the publisher. @ GST Registration #R124380270. ON TWITTER AT @biolabmag PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40063567 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ON facebook AT ADDRESSES TO /biolabmag CIRCULATION DEPT. 202-30 EAST BEAVER CREEK RD RICHMOND HILL, ON L4B 1J2 May/June 2013 www.labbusinessmag.com PEI • BIO Convention • Active Ingredients email: [email protected] YOUR CAREER PATH CHROMATOGRAPHY DR. HANI EL-GABALAWY Championing the Business of BioteChnology in Canada may/June 2013 The definitive source for lab products, news and developments Bio Business is a proud member RUSSIA AND Do the flip! ICE SAND TURKEY of BioteCanada and Canadian-led team finds proof camel lived in Arctic INDIA Head to the Arctic as a Canadian-led Life Sciences Ontario. team uses pioneering techniques to BRAZIL identify 3.5-million-year-old camel bones. Ahoy!Markets Biotech markets abroad offer businesses Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement 40063567 Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Publisher of 40063567 Canadian Publications Mail Product—Agreement www.biobusinessmag.com new avenues for success LB_MayJune13_KT.indd 1 6/4/13 1:36 PM LAB Business Magazine BB_MayJune13_KT.indd 1 6/6/13 12:38 PM BIO Business Magazine Printed in Canada www.biobusinessmag.com 5 News Sanofi Promising Cancer Inaugurates Therapies Still New Office Awaiting Green Light Even royalty made it out to Sanofi’s Lymphoma Foundation Canada (LFC) be twice as effective and better tolerat- inauguration of its new Canadian cor- says faster approvals are needed for ed versus previous treatments for indo- porate head office in Laval, Quebec. coverage by provincial drug plans. The lent non-Hodgkin lymphoma. His Excellency Philippe Zeller, recent approval by Health Canada of a But other patients are still waiting Ambassador of France to Canada; Mr. highly effective new treatment for for access to other drugs, such as Alexandre Duplessis, Mayor of Laval; non-Hodgkin lymphoma and the sub- Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), an anti- and Mr. Nicolas Marceau, Quebec sequent decision by several provinces body-drug conjugate (ADC) that has Minister of Finance and the Economy, to cover the cost for cancer patients is produced significant results in people were on hand for the event in early very good news, says the LFC. suffering from Hodgkin lymphoma. It May. The new offices, together with a However, the organization says more was approved for use by Health Canada new Canadian centre for distribution must be done to speed up the cover- on February 1, but it can take eight in Kirkland, Que., form a renewed age by provincial drug plans for a host months or longer for provinces to add investment of $12M by Sanofi in the of promising new treatment options. such new treatments to their formularies. province. In April, Treanda (bendamustine) “The issue is the time it still takes to Sanofi companies in Canada was listed on provincial formularies in get these new treatments covered by include Sanofi Canada (pharmaceuti- the western provinces, and is expect- provincial health plans. It's time that cals), Sanofi Pasteur (vaccines), ed to be listed on formularies in some patients simply don't have,” says Sanofi Consumer Health (health and Ontario and the Atlantic provinces Sue Robson, LFC Executive Director, beauty), Genzyme (rare diseases) and very shortly. In combination with noting that waits in Ontario are consis- Merial (animal health). Together they rituximab, Treanda has been found to tently among the longest. employ more than 1,700 Canadians and, in 2012, invested $122 million in R&D in Canada. “As part of Laval's Biotech City, we and into the market requires unique remain committed to bringing innova- MaRS Teams public-private partnerships,” says Dr. tive new medicines to Quebec and Up With Pfizer Raphael Hofstein, President and CEO of Canada, and hope to those living with MaRS Innovation. “Partnering with diabetes, cancer and other diseases,” MaRS Innovation gives Pfizer access to says Jon Fairest, President and Chief MaRS Innovation, a Centre of Toronto's robust innovation pipeline and Executive Officer of Sanofi Canada.