Biotech industry loses risk aversionSeptember 21, 2006Vancouver Sun By Gillian Shaw Ronald Cape, a man recognized as one of the fathers of the biotechnology industry, says the industry here has overcome the aversion to risk that it held for many years and is turning out world-leading technology and science. Cape is in Vancouver to mark the national launch of BIOTECanada’s national biotech week, a week showcasing Canada’s biotech sector with events hosted in cities across the country. Cape, who is originally from Montreal and did his PhD at McGill University, was the cofounder of Cetus Corporation where he was chairman for 20 years and chief executive officer for 13 years until the company merged with Chiron Corp. Cetus was a pioneer in genetic engineering. Canada’s attitude to biotechnology has changed dramatically, said Cape. “The change in the last 10 to 15 years has been phenomenal,” said Cape, who left Canada for post doctoral work after McGill and has lived in San Francisco for more than 40 years. Cape said when he was starting his company the reaction among people he knew in Montreal was one of worry over the risk. “The predominate feeling among friends and family in Montreal was ‘what if you fail, think of the disgrace.’ “Today you don’t hear that in Canada anymore. The frame of mind is — so you fail, so you get up and try again.” Among his accolades, Cape cites Dr. Martin Gleave, director of clinical research at the Prostate Center at Vancouver General Hospital and the company he founded OncoGenex for doing “absolutely Nobel prize type of stuff.” “I have invested in his company, not because it is Canadian but because he is as good as anybody in the world and he is doing absolutely Nobel prize type of stuff and some of that is going to turn into really big bucks,” said Cape, who is a biotech investor and on the board of various companies. Canadians apparently share some of that enthusiasm for the country’s biotech industry, although their understanding of biotechnology is a little vague, according to the results of a poll released today to mark the launch of biotech week. The poll, conducted by POLLARA, found that while almost 80 per cent of Canadians support the use of products and processes that involve biotechnology, one-third of them do not regard Canada as a biotech leader. |
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