Health committee  Very often I've noticed it's a one-trick pony: one patent, one company. That's not good enough. Sometimes it is fine, but sometimes you could bundle a couple of patents together and you'd have an overlap with the two. Focus is our number one issue. Right now, for example, we're

Health committee  Yes, sample preparation is at the heart of good diagnostics. So we generate enough revenue to finance this kind of research. There's no way we could have done it 10 years ago.

Health committee  That's a very excellent question. I've asked this question very often. If there's a will, there's a way. They need to completely overlap, because otherwise you're simply diluting your effort and you cannot succeed. What you're good at, that is the area where you could commercia

Health committee  That is absolutely correct. That's exactly what I'm saying. You may start generating small revenue, and that small revenue over time will grow. You could sell both a product and also services. In a biotech company, there are highly educated individuals. They have lots of talent—p

Health committee  You mean the biotech sector?

Health committee  The scientists lose interest pretty quickly, very shortly after the VCs enter. Secondly, the venture capitalists themselves, because of a lack of progress, also start to think about exit strategies very quickly.

Health committee  Certainly.

Health committee  I agree with you. The professor must be much more committed, and the VCs must also be more committed, to the success of the venture. They cannot have it front-end loaded. They cannot start making half a million dollars from the day the company starts. They have to make money late

Health committee  Thank you for your question. My French is not very good, but I understand your questions. Let me respond in English. Definitely the current model of raising money and starting a small biotech company—I'm talking about biotech—is as presented in the slide: you raise the money t

Health committee  There is much more to it than putting out a product. There is a tremendous amount of benefit in the training, not only studying things but doing things practically, with hands-on experience. For instance, a small company like Norgen probably has had at least 100 people with pract

Health committee  That's a very good question. In my experience of over 30 years of being a professor and an entrepreneur and of running a biotechnology company, starting up a fuel biotechnology company, I have found that the NRC's IRAP is the most innovative machine to fund research in Canada. It

Health committee  The technology I'm referring to is the isolation and verification of DNA, RNA, micro-RNA, from all types of biological systems. Very early on, I out-licensed to Agilent Technologies one particular application utilizing our technology, and I used the revenue from that out-licensin

Health committee  Perfect. With this in mind, I set up the Norgen biotechnology company. We started in 1998. The company started in an old library and moved into a much larger state-of-the-art building. We're pursuing the commercialization of technology and the selling of products at the same tim

Health committee  Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the opportunity. It's an honour to be here. I would like to talk to you mainly about the commercialization of technology. Since we're living in an age of knowledge-based industry, I'll share with you my experi