British Columbia Biotech Leaders Come Together to Close the Gaps in the Innovation Continuum

Karimah Es Sabar, Executive Director, BC Biotech welcomes participants to the Roundtable

Hector MacKay-Dunn, QC of Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP poses a question to the panel

Dr. David Dolphin, CEO of the BC Innovation Council addresses a question from the floor

Dr. Moura Quayle, Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and outlines the British Columbia Government's plans to further advance our life sciences industry.

British Columbia’s biotechnology industry has benefited from one of the most robust innovation engines in Canada and North America, coupled with innovative public policies to support the life sciences sector -- resulting in extremely significant commercial successes. However, in the fiercely competitive world of biotech, where jurisdictions around the globe are racing to develop their biotech industries, there is no room for complacency once such a level of success has been achieved.

That is why on December 8^th, British Columbia’s biotechnology leaders from industry, academia, government and the service sector came together for a half-day roundtable, hosted by BC Biotech, and entitled Closing the Gaps in the Innovation Continuum, to discuss strategies for making certain that British Columbia has the most effective policies in place at every stage of that continuum which will enable the industry to grow to the next level, and become a truly global force.

Hosted by BC Biotech Executive Director Karimah Es Sabar, and moderated by the Chair of the BC Innovation Council and Senior Partner with Farris, Vaughan, Wills and Murphy, Hector MacKay-Dunn, QC, the event featured a panel session which included the newly-appointed President and CEO of the BC Innovation Council, Dr. David Dolphin; the President of the University Presidents’ Council, Mr. Don Avison; the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Dr. Andrew Wilkinson; and President and CEO of Xenon Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Simon Pimstone. The panel was followed by a keynote address by Dr. Moura Quayle, the recently appointed Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and the senior bureaucrat responsible for research and technology and BC’s biotech sector.

During the session, industry leaders applauded the Provincial and Federal Governments’ significant investments into life sciences research. Both industry and government made a call to action and commitment to work together in partnership to take bold steps towards improving the innovation environment, while noting the need of further develop and attract both the risk capital and the human capital needed by the industry. 

In addition, decision makers recognized the critical need to attract pharmaceutical industry investment to British Columbia.  It was agreed that the pharmaceutical industry is a key of piece of the innovation environment as it relates to biotech and life sciences, and its presence is an imperative step in the development of these sectors and the diversification of the economy of British Columbia.

Transcripts of the presentations will soon be avaialble and will also be reflected in a soon-to-be released Position Paper by BC Biotech which will lay the groundwork for actions to be taken by each of BC’s biotech stakeholders so that the next Amgen or Genentech will be found in Canada’s western-most province.

Early bird deadline is December 31, 2005

BC Biotech and Business in Vancouver are preparing the 2006 editions of Corporate Profiles and Biotechnology in BC. The Corporate Profiles are distributed to delegates of the 4^th Annual BioPartnering North America and is also included in Biotechnology in BC which is widely distributed throughout the year.

For more information and rates, click here or contact Business in Vancouver Special Publications at 604-688-2398.

Meeting room scheduling system for BPN is now live; Deadline for Student Scholarship Applications is January 3, 2006

The meeting room scheduling system for BioPartnering North America is now live. Meeting rooms & tables are available for all attendees to request and reserve.

This state-of-the-art meeting scheduler will allow each attendee to request meetings and reserve rooms & tables before the conference for on-site meetings.

Attendees can access the meeting scheduler by logging on to http://www.biopartnering.com

Students:The Technology Vision Group, the producers of this event, have generously agreed to offer $10,000 in scholarships for graduate and post graduate students enrolled in a biotechnology related program in Canada to attend this conference. 

The scholarship will provide full registration and incidental costs (as well as travel costs and accommodations for two nights for students outside Vancouver), and will be selected randomly from a pool of qualified applicants.  If you are interested in this opportunity, please fill out the application form and include all supporting documents by January 3, 2006.

For more information on BioPartnering North America and to register, visit http://www.techvision.com/bpn/.

The Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association (WBBA), in collaboration with BC Biotech, BC Medtech, BioAlberta, BioIdaho, Montana BioScience Alliance and the Oregon Bioscience Association is pleased to announce that Scott Gottlieb, M.D., U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, will deliver the keynote address at the fifth annual Invest Northwest CEO & Investor Forum on March 21 and 22, 2006. Dr. Gottlieb will discuss the modernization of the FDA and its plans for the future at the annual forum at Seattle's Bell Harbor International Conference Center.

For more information and to register for Invest Northwest, visit http://www.investnorthwest.org