OBIO Hosts Pfizer Global: Event Gallery

On April 9, 2018, OBIO hosted Pfizer Global for a workshop and partnering day at ONRamp in the Banting Institute.

More than 90 people registered and attended the workshop, in person and online, and heard from Pfizer Global executives about their approach to partnering philosophy, the interests of individual research units, and Pfizer's unique approach to drug discovery. There were networking opportunities before and after the presentations, as well.

Check out the photo gallery below:

Recapping OBIO Does Indian Street Food: Third Annual Pre-RESI Networking Event

On April 9th, OBIO and Blakes hosted OBIO's third annual pre-RESI networking event, connecting high potential companies with global investors. Over 100 international investors, local investors and strategics, as well as executives from high potential Ontario health science companies attended. Everyone mingled over drinks and delicious Mumbai-style street food dishes from Bombay Street Food.

Check out the photo gallery below:

Showcasing Ontario's High Potential Companies: Niagara Emerging Health Sciences Company Forum

Showcasing Ontario's High Potential Companies: Niagara Health Science Emerging Company Forum, Part 1

By: Jordan Cork, OBIO Finance & Marketing Associate

In part one of a blog that will continue next week, Jordan Cork, OBIO Finance & Marketing Associate, will review our Niagara Health Science Emerging Company Forum event, held in Niagara-on-the-Lake, February 1-2, 2018.

Last week, OBIO - in partnership with Accel-Rx - hosted the Niagara Health Science Emerging Company Forum, which brought together CEOs and senior executives from high potential Canadian health science companies with senior leadership from American investors and strategics in beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake for two days of panel presentations, executive roundtables, networking dinners, and the opportunity to enjoy some of Canada’s finest wines.

This week, I will describe and breakdown the panel sessions which took place on Thursday, Feb 1, and next week, I will take a closer look at the networking events and roundtable sessions.

Companies attending the Forum had the opportunity to present to carefully constructed panels of US VCs, strategics, and successful CEOs for invaluable advice and critical constructive feedback. The interactive panel sessions allowed for honest and open two-way discussions between established industry leaders (both American and Canadian), and the leaders developing some of Canada’s most promising medical technologies.

The Forum’s panels were divided into three streams – Therapeutics, Medical Devices & Diagnostics, and Digital Health – with each panellist being selected based on their expertise in that space.

Therapeutics companies – including Biotagenics, AmacaThera, ImmunoBiochem, Pacylex, Bright Angel, KisoJi Biotechnology, SpecificiT Pharma, KalGene Pharmaceuticals, Zucara Therapeutics, and Iversago Pharma – presented to a panel that included GeneNews and TKC Alliance, and senior US executives from J&J Innovation, SR One, and Pfizer.

Companies in the Medical Devices & Diagnostics stream – including iBIONICS, KA Imaging, RNA Diagnostics, SensOR Medical, Conavi Medical, MDDT, Induce Biologics, Flosonics Medical, Perimeter Medical, and MYOVUE – had the opportunity to receive feedback from GreyBird Ventures and Siemens Healthineers, as well as Quandt Berndt & Co, Spinal Stabilization Technologies, and NexGen Medical Systems.

For the Digital Health panel – with Pathcore, MediSeen, QoC Health, Self Care Catalysts, and Tracery Ophthalmics presenting – the panel consisted of representatives from GE Ventures, Flare Capital, PointClickCare, and Carrot Rewards.

Due to how the Forum was curated – with panelists of high calibre, and companies of remarkable quality – dozens of meaningful connections were made that will facilitate the growth of these most promising Canadian companies. In contrast to a typical investor conference composed primarily of brief one-on-ones, the Forum was designed in a way to see how the panelists could help the companies, including both advice and introductions to their network. The event truly provided a unique opportunity for Canadians to meet US firms interested in supporting emerging technologies north of the border.

We received strong feedback from participants, including the following:

“I thought the quality of the program overall was very high. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the panel members and the quality of the presentations in my session. Both the participating companies/presenters and the panelists were very high calibre overall. I was glad I participated in the event.”

Although the purpose of the event was to provide promising companies with feedback and advice that will assist them in fine tuning their strategy, the US investors were genuinely impressed with the quality of the Canadian innovations being discussed, and several one-on-one meetings were swiftly arranged following the panels, including one deal hashed out on the car ride to dinner!

Click here for a gallery of photos from the panel sessions.

Download a PDF copy of the blog

OBIO Health Economics Day: A Review

On October 24th, OBIO hosted a Health Economics Day workshop in partnership with St. Michael’s Hospital.

The workshop took place in the auditorium at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and featured four sessions: a moderated panel discussion with four panellists, followed by three presentations by three health economics experts.

The event was a great success in terms of bringing together health science companies, health economists, health system personnel and other stakeholders to have meaningful conversations about the importance of health economics in defining a company’s value proposition for market entry.

OBIO's Matt Mistry and Grant Burns have written a review of the day and summarized the key messages from the presenters.

Read the blog here

OBIO members - access the video and slide summaries from the presentations here

OBIO blog: Updating the Innovation Supercluster Shortlist

Recently, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development launched a cross country tour to introduce the nine supercluster proposals that have been shortlisted by the federal government for the Innovation Superclusters Initiative.

Grant Burns, OBIO's Public Affairs and Communications Manager, has listed the 9 proposals and provided commentary and analysis on how they relate to the health science sector. 

Read the blog here

Be in the Know with OBIO: Getting Your Foot in the Door with Pharma - Alexion Day Reflections

On October 2nd, Andrew Hutchinson, External Research & Scouting Lead for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, provided his insights on the strategic partnering process between early stage therapeutic companies and big pharma to the OBIO community. 

Andrew placed strong emphasis on the difference between an investor deck and a partnering deck. The two have a very different purpose (and audience), and thus should be structured differently.
 

Download the Blog here

Be in the Know: An Opportunity for Medical Device Companies: CE Marking and Coming EU Regulatory Changes

OBIO's Dr. Klaus Fiebig, VP Strategic Programs, recently attended an insightful workshop on the upcoming regulatory changes affecting the CE mark. Obtaining the CE mark is a "mandatory hurdle" to access the $56B EU market, and the new regulatory changes present an opportunity for medical device companies.

Should these changes adjust your CE mark milestones? Read the Klaus' analysis and decide.

Download the blog here

Raising Capital in the Digital Health Industry: Lessons from FCA Venture Partners

On July 11th, Grant Blevins of FCA Venture Partners in Nashville Tennessee, returned to OBIO via webinar to give his second workshop on digital health. Grant focused on the "Why, When, & How Much" that early stage companies should consider when raising capital.

Jordan Cork, OBIO's Finance & Marketing Associate summarized the key points in a blog available here.

OBIO Comments to Health Canada re: PMPRB consultation

Anchor companies and 'sticky capital': Biotechnology Focus

In the latest issue of Biotechnology Focus, OBIO President and CEO Gail Garland contributed a special report. 

Anchor Companies and 'Sticky Capital'

A prescription for attracting bioscience investment to Ontario

Gail Garland, OBIO President and CEO

Despite the presence of many emerging leading-edge, health science companies in Ontario, we continue to struggle to anchor and grow these companies here at home. What’s holding them back? Why can’t Ontario become the home of world leading health science technology companies?

Those were the driving questions behind our effort to bring health science industry thought leaders together to examine ways to make Ontario a world leader in a $9 trillion global market. Yes, you’re reading that right. The global health sciences economy is a $9 trillion annual market – and to put that in perspective, the global automotive industry is a little over $1 trillion.

While many of our research institutes and universities are world class and turn out leading-edge research and innovation, and Ontario boasts 1,900 life science companies that contribute $21.6 billion in GDP and provide 60,000 well-paying jobs, we’re lagging on our potential. Despite the presence of many emerging companies, we don’t yet have a homegrown “anchor” company that is a global brand and dominant leader in its field. We need one.

When looking at other jurisdictions around the world that have strong and growing health science sectors, a common key feature is an “anchor company” that attracts talent and capital and spins off other companies, research and investment that grow the local ecosystem. Look at Medtronic in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, or Pfizer in Connecticut, or Novartis in Basel. These companies anchor a cluster of innovation and economic activity in their regions that, in turn, spins off thousands of other companies and jobs. Ontario has companies that may someday become these anchors, but we need multiple companies that can make Ontario a world leader and attract even more investment. The question becomes, how do we get there?

When we brought together 50 industry leaders, investors, government leaders, academics and health system leaders together for a summit on this topic, we concluded that the key driver is access to capital – and in particular, “sticky capital”. We need investments that not only grow companies, but also reinvest returns in new ventures.

We need to move from a model of selling our early stage innovation assets, to one that invests and grows innovation assets within the province to a point where they can supply a global market. In other words, Ontario needs to build a health sciences economy that will facilitate capital investment, and generate returns from novel technologies and Ontario-based companies that can export to a global market.

To accomplish this, our group advised that the answers lie in close partnership and cooperation between academic institutions, hospitals and healthcare delivery agencies, the private sector and government – players that all have slightly different agendas and have not always worked together. All these players have a big role to play and a key driver of success will be coordinated action.

More specifically, for our universities and research institutes to encourage the commercialization of the innovation residing in these academic institutions, we need a set of intellectual property commercialization terms that compare favourably to competitors around the world and are standardized across the province.

Ontario’s hospitals and health care providers need to be key partners in adopting innovative technologies by shedding all barriers that might prevent them from being early adopters of technology. Being an early adopter of any innovation carries a degree of risk, but these risks can be mitigated and the rewards can be very high. Having a robust domestic market for innovative technology will provide the early market data and proving ground innovations need to thrive and attract global investors, and it means Ontario patients will have access to the very latest technologies and treatments. A true win-win.

To attract capital, Ontario must continue to build an ecosystem that supports high growth health sciences business that export to a global marketplace and generate above-average returns for these innovative technologies. How do we do that? Continue to turn out the highest quality graduates in science and business from our post-secondary institutions and attract talent from around the world; continue to invest in the labs and commercialization infrastructure that is turning out innovative technologies; continue to showcase Ontario companies and innovations to markets around the world; and continue to build a business-friendly environment that is consistent, predictable and doesn’t penalize high-risk investments.

On paper, it sounds like a simple prescription, but if we execute on this strategy – and stay focused on it – the potential rewards of improved patient outcomes, increased health care efficiency and greater prosperity for all are achievable. Let’s get started.

- Gail Garland, OBIO President and CEO

To view a PDF version, click here

OBIO at BIO 2017

Gail Garland, President and CEO of OBIO, travelled to San Diego for BIO 2017, one of the largest annual conventions in the biotechnology industry.

Hosted at the San Diego Convention Center between June 19-22, BIO 2017 welcomed over 1,800 exhibitors, more than 800 speakers at 400 educational sessions and presentations, and seven fireside chats.

For details and a Blog by Ovensa CAAP Company CEO Stephane Gagne click here

Be in the Know: Finding the Right Candidate

Enjoy this week's blog on Finding the Right Candidate by Sean Peel, H2BB™ Business Development Manager & Ryan Ball, H2BB™ Program Associate.

Sean and Ryan take a Deep Dive on their candidate selection process that ultimately delivers a positive ROI for companies that hire an H2BB intern.

Click here for the full blog

Be in the Know: Investments in Digital Health - Lessons from FCA Venture Partners

On May 12th, Grant Blevins and Andrew Bouldin of FCA Venture Partners, of Nashville, Tennessee, gave a workshop on the financing landscape of the digital health industry. FCA Venture Partners provides early stage capital for innovative digital health companies focusing on B2B SaaS.

Enjoy this blog recap by Jordan Cork, OBIO's Market Research Associate.

Click here for the full blog

Be in the Know: The Health to Business Bridge™ Program Changes the ROI Equation on Interns

Enjoy this week's blog by Sean Peel, OBIO's H2BB™ Business Development Manager. Sean describes how OBIO's H2BB™ program minimizes the risk, maximizes the return on hiring interns. For the full blog click here

Be in the Know with OBIO: Part II RESI Reflections by Klaus Fiebig, VP Strategic Programs

Enjoy Part II of the RESI Recap series authored by OBIO's Klaus Fiebig, VP Strategic Programs, who shares his thoughts and impressions gathered at RESI on MaRS 2017.

This weeks blog focuses on the Healthcare IT Investors session with Sam Ifergan, President & CEO, iGan Partners, Aaron Nelson, General Partner, dRx Capital, Richard Osborn, Managing Patner, TELUS Ventures, Samer Abughannam, VP, Persistence Capital Partners and Sid Paquette, Manging Director, OMERS Ventures.

Click HERE to read the Blog