{"id":11554,"date":"2026-04-24T18:52:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/canadian-life-sciences-is-at-a-generational-moment-but-experts-disagree-on-its-future-betakit\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:52:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:52:52","slug":"canadian-life-sciences-is-at-a-generational-moment-but-experts-disagree-on-its-future-betakit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/canadian-life-sciences-is-at-a-generational-moment-but-experts-disagree-on-its-future-betakit\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian life sciences is at a \u201cgenerational moment,\u201d but experts disagree on its future – BetaKit"},"content":{"rendered":"

At MaRS Impact Health<\/a> in Toronto Thursday morning, industry leaders gathered on stage to share contrasting perspectives on what Canadian governments should\u2014and should not\u2014 do to support the growth in Canada’s life sciences sector.
\u201cIf I\u2019m ever a patient on the table, don\u2019t give me the best Canadian [option] \u2026 I want the best of the world.”
Despite the county’s many successful startups and its general strength in medical research and life sciences innovation, the sector lacks an anchor firm and only contributes about two percent to the country\u2019s annual gross domestic product. Some, including HealthCareCAN president and CEO Michelle McLean<\/a>, think a more fulsome industrial strategy could be the key to unlocking Canadian life sciences\u2019 full economic potential.
Wendy Zatylny, CEO of the Canadian biotechnology industry association BIOTECanada, argued on stage Thursday that the country is \u201cvery much at a generational moment\u201d now. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time that I\u2019ve seen a federal government\u2014and with provincial governments, as well\u2014really lean into life sciences and identify it as a key sector for economic growth,” she said.
Zatylny cited the new Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force<\/a>, Life Sciences Fund<\/a> via Health Emergency Readiness Canada (which comes as the feds identified medical countermeasures as a priority in its Defence Industrial Strategy<\/a>), and BDC Capital\u2019s $150-million <\/a>Life Sciences Venture Fund as positive signals.\u00a0
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good that\u2019s actually already happening,\u201d she added.
Zatylny, who represents 230 companies across Canada, said she would like to see the government unite industrial life sciences policy with procurement. She argued that Canada also needs to reduce regulatory barriers and streamline clinical trial, drug approval, and listing and reimbursement processes, and find a way to \u201crecognize and value Canadian-rooted innovation in the access and pricing decisions.\u201d
\u201cThat sounds like a big pharma problem, but at the end of the day, that\u2019s what injects the capital and the capacity into the system to keep growing the other companies,\u201d Zatylny said. \u201cThat\u2019s the fuel that keeps the entire ecosystem running.\u201d
Fellow panellist Brian Bloom, the co-founder, chair, and CEO of Toronto-based life sciences investment bank Bloom, Burton & Co, passionately disagreed.
\u201cIf I\u2019m ever a patient on the table, don\u2019t give me the best Canadian [option] \u2026 I want the best of the world\u2014surgeons and tools and drugs and biologics and vaccines\u2014in my body, so that I can have my best life,\u201d Bloom said. \u201cI don\u2019t want the best Canadian stuff.\u201d
RELATED: <\/strong>BDC launches $150-million life sciences fund<\/strong><\/a>
On the regulatory front, Bloom lauded Health Canada, describing it as \u201ca wonderful, world-class agency that goes toe-to-toe with [the US Food and Drug Administration] on every metric,\u201d with \u201cvery little to fix.\u201d
He does not think Canada needs a life sciences industrial strategy. \u201cWhenever there\u2019s an industrial strategy, there\u2019s huge waste,\u201d Bloom said, arguing that the private sector is much more efficient at bringing new products and services to market when there is a profit motive. <\/strong>In saying this, Bloom carved out how Canada delivers healthcare\u2014which he characterized as \u201cpathetic and horrible and inefficient\u201d\u2014as a separate issue altogether that needs to be fixed.
As for what he wants to see, Bloom advocated for continued government funding for academic research and education to finance the development of life sciences talent and discoveries.  While he does not believe the feds or provinces should engage in picking winners and losers, Bloom thinks programs like the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit and Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative fund-of-funds can be beneficial.
Fellow panellists, University of Toronto (U of T) professor of medicine and director Muhammad Mamdani, and BioLabs founder and CEO Johannes Fruehauf, had some other ideas. 
Mamdani said that, historically, academics have been incentivized by publications and grants, noting that patents are becoming more of a focus as of late. He argued that the government needs to concentrate resources on the organizations that drive this sort of innovation, but expects such a cultural shift \u201cto take a bit more time.\u201d
Fruehauf, whose firm recently took over<\/a> the U of T life sciences lab space vacated by Johnson & Johnson, argued that Canada needs to focus some of its efforts on luring more biotech talent and \u201ctake advantage\u201d of recent US research funding cuts and visa changes.
Feature image courtesy MaRS.<\/em>
The publication of record for Canadian tech and startup news since 2012. Learn more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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At MaRS Impact Health in Toronto Thursday morning, industry leaders gathered on stage to share contrasting perspectives on what Canadian governments should\u2014and should not\u2014 do to support the growth in Canada’s life sciences sector.\u201cIf I\u2019m ever a patient on the table, don\u2019t give me the best Canadian [option] \u2026 I want the best of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}