Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members, for the opportunity to meet with you today.
I'd like to start by acknowledging the efforts of the entire federal government to fight the spread of COVID-19 and to protect our economy. As a Canadian, I'm proud of how our government has risen to the challenge. I've spent most of my working life in the health care sector. I can honestly say that the degree of co-operation we are seeing across governments, our health systems, industry and civil society is something I've never experienced, and Canadians will be better off for it.
I'm here today on behalf of Innovative Medicines Canada. IMC represents not just 40 companies from the innovative medicine and life sciences sectors, but also the tens of thousands of Canadians who work for them. Day in and day out, they dedicate themselves to ensuring all Canadians have the medicines they need, when they need them.
I'm joined today by one of them: Dr. Dion Neame. Dr. Neame is a country medical lead for Sanofi Canada and country medical head for Pasteur, the vaccine arm of Sanofi. He's also a pediatrician working in urgent care clinics. He's here not as a company representative, but as an expert in the field of vaccines who can answer any questions you might have about some of the COVID-19-related developments taking place in Canada and around the world.
I mentioned that our membership consists of 40 companies. Together they contribute $19 billion annually in economic activity and support 30,000 high-value jobs across the Canadian economy. They also invest 10% of their revenues, or $1.2 billion per year, into research and development in Canada. Currently, there are more than 500 new products, medicines and vaccines in development in Canada, including therapies focused on some of the most devastating illnesses like cancer, as well as rare and infectious diseases.
Today, though, there is no greater priority than the fight against COVID-19.
Our members are collaborating like never before to accelerate the discovery and development of treatments for people infected with the virus and of vaccines to stop its spread. Our members are also providing financial support and in-kind donations to organizations on the ground in Canada and around the world. They're maintaining patient support and compassionate care programs put in place by industry to help keep Canadians out of hospitals and reduce the burden on health systems, and they're working with governments and other stakeholders to help ensure that patients, doctors and hospitals continue to have access to the medicines they need on a daily basis.
Dr. Neame will now describe the activities our members are undertaking towards a discovery of a vaccine.