My understanding, and this is based on government data, is that the pharmaceutical industry is the most R-and-D-intensive industry in the country. That's the basis for comparison, I think.
I'd also say that governments spend some amounts of money supporting medical science research, but they spend heaping loads of money supporting public policy research that favours the status quo. Now, it's interesting to note that none of us were asked if we received any money for our research from governments; clearly our interests could be influenced by that as well.
If you were to compare government R and D spending in Canada with the R and D spending in the United States, I think you would see significant differences. That's something worth studying.