The Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care (the “Minister”) introduced Bill 160:
An Act to amend, repeal and enact various Acts in the interest of strengthening quality and
accountability for patients on September 27, 2017. One of the new enactments is the Health Sector Payment Transparency Act (the “Act”) which will require the reporting of information about financial relationships in the Ontario healthcare system.

TORONTO, ON (October 5, 2017) – Synaptive Medical, a leading Canadian medical device and technology company, announced today the appointment of veteran healthcare executive and current chairman of the board Peter Wehrly as chief executive officer. Cameron Piron will continue to serve as president and assume the new role of chief strategy officer.

Former MP for Kingston and the Islands Ted Hsu has been spending lots of time with his family since leaving politics behind in 2015, but now he is ready to take on a new challenge.

Hsu is the newest member of SYNG Pharmaceuticals, a Kingston-based company that is looking to help diagnose and treat endometriosis.

Ontario Genomics iannounced that Round 10 of their Genome Canada’s Genomic Applications Partnership Program is now open.

The Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP) funds public-private research collaborations focused on developing genomics-derived technologies that address opportunities and challenges identified by industry, government, not-for-profits or other “Receptors” of genomics knowledge and tools.

EOI forms are due to Ontario Genomics on November 13th, 2017 at 9 am ET.

Information and Application

CAAP company SensOR Medical landed a cover page spot on Canadian Healthcare Technology's October 2nd issue, and highlighted their recent Dyson Award win.

Altair Ioffe of Ioffe Biotechnologies will be featured on the October 19th episode of Dragon's Den. Altair will be featuring their signature nootropic Indezone.

CAHO announced Michelle Noble as their new Executive Director effective November 1st, 2017.

The Centre for Aging & Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) has two funding programs that are accepting expressions of interest; Spark (Deadline October 11th!)  and I2P2 (Deadline October 16!).

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), wishes to engage the biomedical, health and performance communities as well as space stakeholders to help identify potential Canadian health and biomedical roles in human deep space missions, and explore new ways to collaborate to improve the innovation process in both space and terrestrial health.

Ottawa, Ontario September 26, 2017 - Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced Dr. Mona Nemer as Canada’s new Chief Science Advisor, following an open, transparent, and merit-based selection process.

TORONTO, ONTARIO Sept. 26, 2017 - Interface Biologics, a privately held, commercial stage company developing innovative material science technologies that save lives and improve patient outcomes, is pleased to announce that Arkis BioSciences® has received 510(k) clearance from U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its exclusive CerebroFlo™ EVD Catheter with IBI's Endexo® technology.

JLabs is offering a slew of events for October ranging from pitching to partnering. Click the link below to see the full offerings.

Information and registration

MARKHAM, ON, Sept. 20, 2017 Edesa Biotech Inc., a clinical-stage private company announced today the completion of a $7 million Series A financing.  The internationally syndicated investment was led by Lumira Capital and included participation from Pharmascience Inc., Inveready Technology Investment Group and a number of Canadian family offices.

The MedTech Conference will be held in Toronto, Ontario, in 2020 from October 5-7, marking the first time that the conference will be held outside of the U.S.

IndieBio is the world’s largest biotechnology accelerator, and Proteorex presented as part of the Batch 5 Cohort. The company is is developing small molecule drugs for challenging targets implicated in diseases with the highest unmet need. 

The presentation was delivered in San Francisco this September 14th by Dr. Marc Adler, Co-Founder and Technology Director of Proteorex.

MaRS Innovation and Evotec AG today announced the launch of “LAB150”.  This transformational Toronto-based partnership will give Canada access to the world-class infrastructure and drug discovery expertise of Evotec, and pair it with cutting-edge drug discovery projects emerging from the 15 Member institutions of MaRS Innovation.

Lab150 is a joint effort by MaRS Innovation and Evotec AG selection and acceleration of early-stage drug discovery projects originating from leading academic institutions and teaching hospitals in Toronto (Canada)

Biotechnology Focus, in collaboration with Stratford Managers Corporation, wants to learn more about employee perception of their workplace.

Please complete the survey in its entirety before September 22nd. The responses will be included in in a sector report that will be featured in the October/November issue of Biotechnology Focus.

To start the Survey click here

Program Overview

Seed funding for novel, high-risk, high-reward translational research to accelerate the development of safe and effective treatments for neurodegenerative diseases of aging. Funding up to $200,000 over up to 18 months

Letter of Intent Deadline: December 4, 2017 at 2pm EST

Program Information Session: October 10, 2017 at 1pm EDT (Register here)

Application Form

Montreal, September 12, 2017 – Twenty-two members of Anges Québec, Anges Québec Capital, and Aligo Innovation today announced a major joint investment in Ovensa, the company behind an innovative technology enabling the targeted delivery of therapeutic molecules.

Synaptive Medical Inc.’s brain simulator training kit, which simulates the features of a living brain to allow users to practice procedures such as stitching a blood vessel, has received an honorable mention in the health category of Fast Company’s 2017 Innovation by Design Awards.