Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee for this opportunity to provide input into the study.
By way of introduction, BIOTECanada is the national association that represents Canada's biotech industry. Our 240 members stretch across the country. They include the large multinational pharmaceutical companies, many of which are in the vaccine development and manufacturing capacity. Also, most of our members are the early-stage biotech companies that have good ideas that are coming out of our university labs or research institutes, but they're trying to commercialize, trying to get out into the marketplace. We have a diverse, robust membership. It includes BioVectra and VIDO, both of which have testified here today.
As I was preparing for this session I reflected that it was exactly a year ago to this day that I had my first vaccine shot. If you think back to the early days of the pandemic, back in March 2020, the earliest predicted time frame for getting vaccines was three to five years out. That we were able to start putting them into arms about a year ago is a remarkable scientific feat. I think that needs to be recognized. That we're even having this discussion today about how to prepare for the next one with vaccines and developing biomanufacturing capacity is truly remarkable. It's a testament to science. It's a testament to this industry and the work it's done, and full credit, as well, to our regulators, including Health Canada and the innovation department at ISED.
Also, there is Canadian biotechnology in one of those vaccines. It's important to recognize that the Pfizer vaccine has the Acuitas technology, which is the lipid envelope within which the mRNA coding is put into the body. The Canadian industry, the biotech industry, has played a really important role in delivering on some of these vaccines.
We're not out of this mess. We still have a lot of work to be done. I think we've heard from some of the companies today of the important role they're going to play in addressing some of these challenges coming up, including Medicago, which was discussed in the earlier session.
I think it's very prudent, though, to start to prepare for the possibility, the very real possibility, that there is going to be a COVID-40 or a COVID-50. You can pick your year and I'll use COVID as an example. It is not necessarily going to be another COVID-like challenge, but we do have to prepare. I think most governments around the world were caught off guard by the pandemic. There's a recognition that they don't want to be doing this on an ad hoc basis going forward. It makes sense to prepare for the next one and invest heavily.
Thankfully, in Canada, as we've seen from the companies that presented today, we have a very robust ecosystem here upon which to build. As you heard from the panel earlier, with the officials from the government, significant investments have come forward from the government to enhance and grow that capacity. We're building on some fantastic companies in this country, including BioVectra, including VIDO, including Medicago and others. There are some great partnerships, as well, between Sanofi Pasteur and the government, and also Moderna. You've seen the growth in the NRC facility. Those are some very significant investments as well. We are in a very good position. We're building on something that's a very strong foundation.
If I had some advice for the committee—and I'll leave it at this—there are a couple of things. One is that we don't know what the next challenge is going to be. It's very hard to predict what the next solution is going to be. If we had this discussion five years ago I'm not so sure we would have chosen mRNA vaccines as the solution. We have to be very careful about what we're putting all of our bets on.
The second thing is that it is imperative that we increase the number of shots on net. The growth of the ecosystem is going to be really important. That ecosystem includes all components, not only the early-stage companies and the ones that are existing but also the multinational companies, which are a very important part of that ecosystem, working closely together.
The other part is that we have to look at this as not just an “in case of an emergency” situation. Let's hope this is not going to happen for another 30 or 40 years, but what do you do with those investments in between? It's like with Olympic athletes. You don't just participate every four years; you train in between. We have to do likewise. Whatever these investments are, they have to be connected into the existing ecosystem to grow it and to leverage those strengths.
The last piece, which I think is really important—and it's been mentioned a couple of times by my colleagues—is talent. We have to grow our talent pool here. This is a global challenge. Every country has its elbows up. They're going to looking to steal our people. We have to attract talent. We have to keep talent. This is going to be absolutely paramount.
We have a really strong foundation upon which to build. The investments are solid. They're going to really support the growth of the industry. I'm encouraged by that, but if we don't work collectively and understand where it's all going, we're going to be in a bit more trouble.
I will leave it there. I look forward to questions from the committee. Thank you.