Canada's BC Biotech promoting cooperation with Japanese pharmaceutical companies

October 10, 2006
Kagaku Kogyo Nippo ("The Chemical Daily")
Canadian Embassy Translation Services, Tokyo


Personnel exchanges, setup of Canadian operations
Advantageous support for clinical trials

Executive Director Karimah Es Sabar of BC Biotech, an organization promoting bioindustries in the Canadian province of British Columbia, is in Japan to expand opportunities for partnerships and personnel exchanges between BC companies and Japanese pharmaceutical firms. She is also encouraging Japanese companies to set up operations in BC. Her organization serves as a powerful bridge builder with support for rapid commercialization of university research results. It can offer help with a wide variety of bio-related patents and efficient clinical trials. Es Sabar stressed the high quality of services offered in BC. "We rival the world-leading cluster in America's Silicon Valley", she says.

According to industry rankings, BC is the largest bio-cluster in Canada and the seventh largest in North America. It has six national universities including the University of British Columbia (UBC). About half the province's bio startups are UBC spin-offs. But UBC does more than basic research. It hosts clinical trials and is one of North America's top ten universities in commercialization of technology and creation of business. There are five highly profitable biotech companies in Canada. Three of them ---- Angiotech, QLT and Aspreva ---- originated at UBC.

Seventy percent of bio-related businesses work in the field of health care. BC is strong in oncology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neurology and stem cells. It has world-class research institutes including the BC Cancer Agency, Michael Smith Laboratories, and Genome BC. It already has a megahit product to its credit in the cardiovascular field. In partnership with the large American medical equipment from Boston Scientific, Angiotech commercialized its drug eluting coronary stent in 2004. First-year sales reached $2.4 billion. Successes like that have made BC the number one place in Canada for optimization of biotechnology and industrial expansion.

Although Japanese pharmaceutical companies have large numbers of new drug candidates, they are far behind Canada and the USA in approvals because clinical trials in Japan require so much time and money. Es Sabar says BC has advantages over other high-tech clusters when it comes to conducting clinical trials. "It is easy to get clinical trials accepted in BC, and there are many firms promoting development of new drugs. So development of high-quality drugs can be achieved more efficiently and at lower cost than in the USA. That puts BC in a very advantageous position in terms of global drug development strategy."

BC Biotech is a private, not-for-profit association. It develops regional biotech strategy, serving as a link between government, industry, and research institutions within the cluster. It promotes partnerships, introduces investment opportunities, and develops human resources. BC offers a 75% tax break when research done locally succeeds and results in a patent application. Patent applications from non-Canadian companies are rapidly increasing.