Thank you very much, Madam Chair and honourable members.
Permit me to offer my condolences on the news that Kirsty Duncan passed away yesterday. She was a huge champion of this file. She was a colleague to many of you in the room and a huge help to those of us working in AMR.
I want to speak to you today in my role as an academic researcher. I started my lab at McMaster University over 33 years ago, working in the area of AMR and antibiotic discovery. I have advised industry, government and not-for-profits on antibiotic innovation, and I founded a spin-out company called Symbal Therapeutics in this area.
As you heard from Dr. Weiss, antibiotics changed the way we die. Before we had antibiotics, before the discovery of these agents and vaccines, 56% of Canadians died of infectious diseases. We're down to about 3% at this stage. We've also gained over 20 years of life expectancy. This is unprecedented in human history, but we're poised to lose this because of AMR.
My role as an academic researcher is to uncover the molecular basis of AMR, to identify potential solutions and to train the next generation of scientists. My lab uses chemistry and biology to study resistance mechanisms and to advance antibiotic discovery.
I've trained over 100 master's and Ph.D. students, post-doctoral fellows and technical staff. The sad news is that very few of them have remained in Canada, and very few are working in AMR research. The reasons for this are structural. Canada currently has limited biotech and pharmaceutical R and D capacity, especially in antibiotic discovery. Graduates are drawn abroad to vibrant biotech sectors in Boston, California and Europe.
In addition, building and sustaining an internationally competitive AMR lab is also incredibly difficult in Canada. Academic scientists operate like small businesses. We recruit talent, produce a product—high-impact research—and constantly compete for revenue, which comes primarily from the CIHR. These grants are reviewed by volunteers and panels organized by scientific discipline. However, there's no AMR panel at the CIHR. In fact, all the AMR work is lumped into work on bacteriology, fungal research and parasitology.
In contrast, in cancer research or cardiovascular research, there are multiple sources or multiple panels at the CIHR to fund these areas. This structure completely disincentivizes young investigators from pursuing AMR work, so Canada risks losing research capacity in this field.
Beyond fundamental research, translating these discoveries into innovative solutions remains incredibly challenging. Over four decades of experience, we've learned that academic findings often seed new biotech ventures, yet Canada lacks early-stage funding mechanisms to bridge the gap between discovery and application. This lack of support leaves us completely reliant on advances in other countries. We have to wait for others to discover and develop the medicines that we need to keep our citizens and our soldiers safe.
We don't need to be in this situation. There's a proven model out there. The U.S. small business innovation research program, or SBIR, provides competitive, non-dilutive grants to support start-ups that commercialize academic discoveries. A Canadian SBIR-style program would foster biotech entrepreneurship, create jobs and accelerate AMR innovation.
To illustrate, my lab recently discovered a new antibiotic, which was published in the journal Nature last spring. It targets several pathogens on Health Canada's priority list. We want to develop it in Canada, but without early-stage push funding or downstream pull market incentives, these assets risk moving abroad, along with their economic benefits.
In closing, I want to urge the committee to act on two priorities. One is to increase the overall CIHR funding and to create a dedicated AMR research stream to strengthen Canada's scientific foundation. The second is to establish a Canadian SBIR equivalent to enable the translation of discoveries from academia to industry, ensuring that Canadians benefit from homegrown innovation.
We are in strange times. Other countries are shuttering or reducing their research and development in infectious diseases. This is an opportunity for us in Canada. With strategic investment, we can help lead the global stage in response to AMR, protecting both our public health and our life sciences economy.
Thank you very much.