Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity. I address you today as a member of the boards of both JDRF Canada and JDRF International.
As an organization with a proud history in Canada and a global reputation for excellence in medical research, accountability for research dollars, and strong advocacy for investments in human capital, it is our privilege to appear before you today and take our place in this committee's deliberations on Canada's place in a competitive world.
Type 1 diabetes is different from type 2, otherwise known as adult-onset diabetes. Type 2 can be treated and in most cases prevented with diet, exercise, and sometimes drugs. Juvenile or type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means it cannot be prevented, and it is the most severe form of diabetes, striking infants, children, and young adults, leaving them insulin-dependent for life. The constant threat of developing devastating complications is unavoidable.
Type 1 diabetes is an extremely urgent public health issue in Canada. If we fail to deal with this problem now, it will only continue to worsen. Diabetes is one of the most costly chronic diseases, with a price tag of over $13 billion a year in health care costs to Canadian taxpayers. Yet Canada has one of the lowest rates of government support for diabetes research among the largest countries doing such research. If a solution can be found—and we are close to that point—then a significant portion of that cost to all Canadians will be greatly reduced and eventually eliminated.
Canada's future is dependent on ensuring our citizens are healthy. Canadian expertise in diabetes research is world-renowned. Type 1 diabetes research was very recently recognized in the Globe and Mail series of the top 10 things Canadians do best. Since the discovery of insulin more than 80 years ago by Doctors Banting and Best at the University of Toronto, Canadian researchers have continued to make outstanding advances.
The well-publicized major breakthrough in 2000 in islet cell transplantation was engineered by a Canadian team of researchers at the University of Alberta led by Dr. James Shapiro. This procedure is now known throughout the world as the Edmonton Protocol. I might say that I have heard researchers and other people in other countries who do not have a wonderful grasp of English say very clearly the words “Edmonton Protocol”.
Another major breakthrough was in 2004 when Dr. Derek Van der Kooy, with a collaborative team of researchers located all across Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific, discovered the existence of a pancreatic precursor cell.
Since its inception, JDRF has funded over $1 billion U.S. in research around the world. Over the past ten years, JDRF International has each year funded our Canadian researchers significantly in excess of the net research funds raised in Canada. This is directly due to the achievements and excellence of Canadian researchers as demonstrated over the past 85 years. Our researchers have shown us that “Made in Canada” cure therapeutics are within reach.
JDRF has for years now been a research organization run on a business model. Our research review, funding, and monitoring processes are widely recognized as being among the best in the world. To accelerate the research agenda, JDRF has adopted a proactive, goal-driven approach to research management. At the core of this approach is our commitment to quicken the pace of translating basic scientific discoveries into clinical applications called cure therapeutics. We identify gaps in research, fill those gaps by creating a pipeline of therapeutic candidates for Phase 1 clinical trials, and aggressively fund those innovative, high-risk/high-reward research projects. JDRF demands accountability, measuring progress in months, not years.
We propose a unique, innovative, and focused research partnership with the Government of Canada. JDRF is asking the government to specifically fund research for type 1 diabetes by dedicating $25 million a year over the next five years. This funding should be directly targeted towards JDRF-identified priorities, which have been carefully designed to produce tangible results over that same five years. This will support Canadian researchers in their quest, and in turn Canada's international competitiveness, for generations to come. To do this, direct investments in our country's human capital are vital, to create synergistic economic returns across the board.
I'd be happy to answer anything at Q and A. Thank you.