Finance committee  I think it relates a lot to what the nature of the biotechnology business is, in particular health biotechnology, which is a long time to fruition, from product to market. The value increment starts very low at the beginning, with a high risk, and it moves through 10 to 15 years to be able to have a highly valuable product on the market.

Finance committee  The membership of BIOTECanada is a little over 250 companies. They range in size from small start-up companies to large pharmaceutical companies. But the sectors that are represented by BIOTECanada cover health, renewable energy resources, and alternative materials. As long as their products have a biological origin and a knowledge-based origin, that's where the members fit.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I'm here representing BIOTECanada as a director on the board and its past chairman. You have an information package in the folder that was provided to you. I'm going to go through my presentation with some highlights of information relevant to the slides that you have.