My name is John Hyshka. With me is Cate McCready. We will represent BIOTECanada.
First of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear today and to speak to you on the action plan that BIOTECanada has developed.
I'm going to discuss three main points.
As I've said, my name is John Hyshka. I'm a co-founder of a company called Phenomenome Discoveries, based here in Saskatoon. I would consider us one of the Canadian success stories. We started in 2000 with our own money, which in biotech doesn't happen very often. We got local investors to put in angel capital and were able to get venture capital as time went on.
We also believed in a philosophy of growing with our cashflow. Because of our experience in this sector, we had a platform that enabled us to do contract research in agriculture and in pharmaceuticals. We continue to do that to reduce our dependence on venture capital, because there is none in Canada for biotechnology.
Our company focuses on disease prevention. We have 15 blood tests that will tell you your risk of having a number of diseases. Our first to come to market is a colon cancer test, which we're hoping will replace the existing screening methods for colon cancer. We have pancreatic tests, tests for ovarian cancer, tests for Alzheimer's, for Parkinson's, for MS.... I could go through the list, but the first one that will be coming out is for colorectal cancer; then the others will be for ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
We also have a therapeutic side: we believe that we have an Alzheimer's drug that will prevent close to 80% of the people who get dementia and Alzheimer's from ever getting it.... Our focus is on prevention, because we believe that as time goes by, drugs are going to become more and more expensive and it is going to become more difficult for health care systems to afford drugs. If you can prevent diseases from ever happening...that's what the idea is. Early detection is the key to that.
I'll be throwing in examples of Phenomenome in my discussion with you, and if you have further questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them.
I have the pleasure to speak about the Canadian biotechnology industry and how it contributes to a long, sustainable economic development future for our country, because we are the knowledge-based industry of the future.
Innovative technology entrepreneurs like me need an alignment of public policy to help us feel that we should be in Canada rather than in other jurisdictions around the world. Since the Canadian dollar has appreciated and our costs have increased dramatically over the last six to seven years, it is becoming harder and harder to justify why we're doing this in Canada and why we're not doing it in the United States, Europe, or Asia. It's getting to the point that you really wonder why you're in Canada, especially since there is no venture capital investment capital within the country compared with other jurisdictions.
Our industry believes that we're going to need $1 billion to $1.5 billion in annual investment over the next few years. Phenomenome Discoveries could use $750 million of that ourselves, so I don't know where they're getting this number. There is a major lack of capital within this country.
As our companies grow, we generate billions in sales and add jobs for Canada. To give you an example, our colon cancer screening test global sales could be up to $1 billion a year. That's global sales for one test. I'm telling you that our companies will bring jobs in industry and taxes to this country. Entrepreneurs, once we've been successful, will invest in and develop more biotechnology companies in the future.
But I have three major points to bring up.
Point one: expand the ability to create capital formation in this country. We have no venture capital. So for anything from the flow-through program, which BIOTECanada has talked about before, to other tools relating to it, please look at that seriously.
Next is SR and ED. If we did not have it, we would not be in Canada. It has enabled us--through contract research and the SR and ED payments--to stay in this country. It has kept 30 people employed in this city, so when you're looking at changing SR and ED, you think about.... I think it should be expanded, and the percentage should be expanded, and do not get rid of equipment, because we wouldn't be able to afford equipment if you changed that. We like what you're doing with SR and ED.
The third point is to buy Canadian. In particular, we're talking about vaccines, but you should also look at helping to buy diagnostic tests and buying drugs that Canadian companies are developing first, because this makes things a lot easier when we talk to multinationals about selling our products abroad. If our country, our national government, is buying them, that will make it a lot easier for us to sell in the future.
In closing, I'll say that the biotechnology and life sciences sector in Canada creates more than a million jobs. It accounts for more than 8% of the GDP. We believe the Canadian government needs to develop policies to encourage and support us in this vein.
Thank you very much.