Government is an integral partner to the success of our emerging companies. It can be the enabler of an economic operating environment that captures know-how and assists in translating it into products for the global marketplace.
The diversity of these products is staggering: eco-friendly home furnishings, recyclable fabrics, environment-friendly dyes and other processes, canola, biofuels. The list goes on, and all are examples of the application of biotechnology in the lives of Canadians.
The rest of the world sees opportunity in Canadian biotechnology companies. Axela of Toronto received Frost & Sullivan's 2007 North American Protein Assays Product Innovation of the Year Award. Bio MS Medical of Edmonton, a company developing leading-edge treatments for multiple sclerosis, has partnered with Eli Lilly in a deal of almost $500 million dollars to realize the value of its product in the global marketplace. Medmira of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a company that has developed a rapid HIV test, is now marketing its products in Russia and China. Medicago of Quebec City has presented its plant-based technology for growing vaccines to the World Health Organization. Resverlogix of Calgary was recently recognized by the World Economic Forum with its Technology Pioneer Award for 2008. It's the second year in a row, in fact, that a Canadian company has won that award.
These are but a few of the dozens of examples of Canadian ingenuity capturing the interests of our global partners and competitors. For Canada to realize the value and opportunity of our expertise in biotech, we need to be both more competitive and more realistic about what is required, namely, a potent combination of ideas, people, and money.
A key component for an innovative bio-economy is a modern and responsive taxation system that leverages investment from national and international sources to ensure that innovators have sufficient capital to commercialize their research-based innovations. Notably, we are recommending two key changes to the scientific research and experimental development tax credit. We've noted those in a couple of documents we've shared with you today, but very shortly, they are, one, remove the CCPC restriction; and two, increase the expenditure limits set in 1985 at $2 million to a more realistic $10 million, which is more reflective of today's economy.
Canada's capital market is too small and too risk-averse to provide this assistance directly, so early stage companies seek equity from public or foreign investors. As a result, they lose their CCPC status and refundable tax credits. Just when they get the capital they need to succeed, they lose the business case to help keep jobs here.
The current $2 million expenditure limit for refundable tax credits was established in 1985 and does not accurately reflect the cost of research today, 20 years later.
Additional key components for a bio-based economy are to keep the regulatory system science based and ensure that Canadians will benefit in a timely fashion from discoveries made here. We need a socio-economic environment that supports invention and entrepreneurship. We need a strong and competitive respect for the protection of intellectual property, the one asset most small emerging innovative companies have that leverages investment for them to pursue development.
In closing, this is an important turning point for you as parliamentarians to embrace the dynamic of building an economy for the next century, one that encompasses knowledge-based innovation as an economic driver. Canada has a lot to offer the world.