BIOTECanada's blueprint document, Beyond Moose and Mountains:

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Compiled by Shawn Lawrence

“Our report is a wake-up call for both government and industry to do more, now, to sustain this important future sector of the economy,” — Peter Brenders, president and CEO of BIOTECanada

For the most part this months issue of Biotechnology Focus has been dedicated to “Hot Button” issues that you, the readers, want to raise awareness around and get in front of key levels of government. The general consensus is that the economic downturn has hit Canadian life-science companies hard. In light of this theme, we thought it would be appropriate to revisit Beyond Moose and Mountains, BIOTECanda’s blueprint on how to build the world’s leading bio-based economy which was released to the public in May.
According to the report, the biggest challenges facing biotechnology in Canada today include attracting investment, the rise in the cost of doing business, attracting and retaining the high-quality people necessary and successfully commercializing products to help a bio-based economy grow.
To address these issues, the Beyond Moose & Mountains (BMM) report proposes a transformational approach in three interdependent areas: people, capital and the operating environment.
In terms of people, the priorities outlined by BMM are to better build expertise both internally as well as draw talent from other countries. BMM contends that building internally means a total revamp of the entire science curriculum in our schools, beginning with teaching the fundamentals of biotechnology at the K-12 curriculum level. The report also states that more can be done to strengthen basic and applied science research at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels in Canada’s post-secondary educational institutions. To help researchers bridge the gap between innovation and commercialization, emphasis should be placed on creating an education system that helps researchers who are interested in taking their ideas to market. BMM suggests creating programs through industry partnerships with business schools that teach researchers fundamental business principles. Such an initiative could make Canada more attractive to researchers from competitor nations.
Retaining talent in Canada is also a priority of BMM. The report suggests changing renewal timelines for work permits for foreign researchers from yearly to a more friendly three to five year period and as ensuring that the permits are transferable from firm to firm.
In regards to capital formation, BMM promotes incentives for risk capital and more favourable tax treatment for investors. This includes the possibility of creating a corporate investment program that will stimulate new industry investments in domestic research capabilities and infrastructure. Likewise, BMM pushes for the establishment of a bio-credit program where grants and capital cost tax allowances are given to encourage companies to use bio-based products and processes manufactured in Canada.
Improving the tax treatment of biotech’s is perhaps the easiest of these goals. It has long been a contention of the industry that the treatment of American and other foreign venture capital investors has negatively affected both Canada’s venture capital industry and biotech companies. BMM states that reducing the combined corporate income tax rate on biotech companies selling products from its current level of 33.5 percent to 12.5 percent to match the lowest level imposed by competitor nations would go a long way in reversing this trend. On top of this initiative, BMM states that we should consider consolidating our investment programs into one national research and development program. This program would directly fund and leverage industry-based biotechnology investment in the four bio-industries of health, medical technologies; agriculture, aquaculture and forestry; energy and environment; and resource and food.
The key to all of these initiatives is enabling an operational environment aligning all government policies, regulations and research and commercialization efforts. Essentially, the idea is to bring industry, government and post secondary educational institutions formally together as true partners.

For more information on the Beyond Moose and Mountains report, you can access it online at http://www.biotech.ca/en/policy-matters/beyond-moose-and-mountains.aspx.