Tariff Relief Resources

The aggressive tariffs imposed by the United States and the ensuing disruption to trade are of grave concern to OBIO® and our members. OBIO® continues to advocate on our members’ behalf to bring the voice of early-stage life sciences and health tech companies to both the federal and provincial governments.  

On this page we have outlined some practical measures you may want to explore to safeguard your business.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at membership@obio.ca. 

In the short term:

In the long term:

Access government relief measures

  • Export Development Canada (EDC) is deploying $5 billion to support Canadian exporters to reach new markets and help companies affected by non-payments, currency fluctuations, and other impacts of the U.S. tariffs.
    Full details here

  • Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) is bringing $500 million in new financing, advisory services, and strategic insights to help businesses pivot and mitigate the impacts of uncertainty around U.S. tariffs.
    Full details here

  • Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is enabling employers experiencing a decline in business activity attributable to the threat or potential realization of U.S. tariffs to apply for Work-Sharing special measures.
    Full details here

Seek expert advice

On January 21, OBIO® hosted our member Mammoth Health Innovation to discuss “Levelling the playing field: how Canadian health tech innovators can compete with U.S. companies during a time of protectionism”. The recording of the webinar is available to our members here (login required).

Check out advice from other OBIO® Members:

Build a beachhead in Canada 

Since 2019, OBIO® has been supporting Canadian innovators to help them establish a beachhead in our publicly-funded healthcare systems. We launched our Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN™) to support health technology companies and healthcare organizations to evaluate technologies in the real-world setting, widely disseminate technologies that prove value-producing, and create showcase sites to demonstrate successful Canadian technologies to the global market. Through EAHN™, OBIO® built an integrated marketplace consisting of 80+ healthcare organizations across Canada to enable the adoption of Canadian market-ready innovation. This includes a streamlined entry to acute care, home and community care, long-term care and primary care. 

We continue to collaborate with both provincial and federal governments to make innovation procurement a widespread practice. In Ontario we are working with Supply Ontario to make the Government’s Health Innovation Pathway a reality as quickly as possible. 

Diversify target markets 

OBIO® works closely with the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service and Ontario’s International Trade and Investment Offices. Both groups run trade missions throughout the year to foreign markets and you will find these listed in the OBIO® Newsletter. Sign up to stay in touch! 

Learn about efforts to diversify trade for Canada. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at membership@obio.ca.