Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much to the committee for this important and very timely opportunity for BIOTECanada.
By way of introduction, BIOTECanada is the national association that represents Canada's biotech industry. We have some 240 members across the country in every single province, with significant clusters or hubs in every province. As I'm sure the minister from P.E.I., and you, Mr. Chair, will attest, there's a thriving one in P.E.I., but there's also one in every single province across the country.
Our members are in the biotech space. The companies develop biotechnology innovations that have industrial, agricultural, environmental and health and life sciences applications. We include the large multinational pharmaceutical companies, those that are making the vaccines for the current COVID crisis, but also most of our members are the very early-stage companies that are developing innovations for future health care crises or challenges and also, of course, for a planet that is becoming overpopulated and that needs solutions for population growth.
I'm just going to think back to where we were a year and a half or so ago, before the onset of the pandemic. At that time, everybody looked to this industry for some solutions. They looked for therapeutics. They looked for vaccines. At the time, it looked as though vaccines would be, at the best, three or four years out, but shortly thereafter we had a couple of very viable vaccine candidates being tested and looked at in the form of Moderna and Pfizer. In December vaccines started to go into arms, and since then a couple of other vaccines have come through, namely, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson, with more on the horizon, including those from Canada's Medicago and, hopefully, IMV.
There have been some phenomenal developments in a very short period of time. I think it's a true testament to science and to the industry but also, globally speaking, to the regulators. I think a huge amount of credit goes to the Canadian regulators as well. Here we are now in a position where vaccines are going into arms. We're doing quite well in Canada, with vaccination rates going up nicely. I encourage everybody to keep getting vaccinated.
We have an opportunity to really turn our attention to what lies ahead. There are two key imperatives, I think, for the government and for society more broadly.
One is to prepare for the possibility of a future pandemic or pandemic-like challenge. The other is the economic rebuild. As we've seen throughout the pandemic, the biotech industry has continued to thrive. Investment has flowed to the sector, and the companies have continued to move their innovations and discoveries along to a place where they're getting more investment. That's all been very encouraging.
When we think about meeting the two objectives of preparing and rebuilding, this sector can actually meet on both of those objectives. We have a fantastic foundation upon which to build. Our association represents 240 companies, but there are probably three times that number across the country, so we have a great ecosystem in this country upon which to build. As the health and biosciences economic strategy table noted, there are some fantastic companies, innovations and scientists, but we do have some gaps that need to be filled.
I think the important thing to notice in this budget is the obvious recognition of the importance of the sector and the need to fill those gaps, particularly by improving access to investment capital, refinancing key funding programs and building biomanufacturing capacity as we think about future viruses.
The $2-billion plus commitments that stretch across a number of different parts of the biotech ecosystem are extremely important investments, from our perspective, and are very welcome. They fill some of those gaps, including one billion dollars' worth of commitments to the strategic innovation fund. There's now a dedicated life sciences fund in addition to a venture capital fund, as well as important investments in adMare BioInnovations, VIDO-InterVac in Saskatoon, Genome Canada and the Stem Cell Network. These are really critical investments across the country into key areas that are going to help build our capacity to respond to a future crisis, but also recognize the economic importance this sector can provide.
These also build on some of the important investments that have been made throughout the pandemic. We have seen a number of key investments into companies like AbCellera, VBI Vaccines, Medicago and IMV. I think all of this combined sends some really important signals and puts Canada in a pretty good position to take advantage of the fact that around the world biotechnology is seen as a key place to invest. By some estimates, somewhere in the area of $60 billion is being invested in the biotechnology sector.
Canada has to stay as competitive as possible and take advantage of that. We have a fantastic ecosystem, great companies and phenomenally talented researchers and scientists. We're doing world-leading research and we have lots of opportunities. The budget recognizes this. I think the challenge now is for all of it to come together, tie into the investments that are being made globally and really put Canada on the world stage. We welcome the budget and certainly the investments that are made.
I will leave it at that. I look forward to questions from the committee.
Thank you.