Thank you very much and good afternoon, Madam Chair and honourable members. It's nice to see you again and to be here as a Canadian academic working in the life sciences.
I am a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster, where I've led a research team focused on antibiotic resistance and antibiotic discovery since 1993. I have advised industry, government and not-for-profits on antibiotic innovation for over 25 years. In 2016 I also co-founded a spin-out company called Symbal Therapeutics, which advanced an antibiotic discovery we made in my lab for further drug development.
If you look back at innovations in biotechnology over the past few decades, it shows that most originate from university research. Successful global biotech, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries exist because of basic research conducted in academic labs. It's not surprising that the regions that are particularly known for biotech commercialization, such as Boston or California, are located near thriving research-focused universities.
Unlike other areas of technology, advances in the life sciences often require extensive and very specialized infrastructure that is usually well beyond the reach of a single entrepreneur or small start-up. This is why you don't see biotech starting in someone's garage. They need access to equipment that is often very costly and otherwise inaccessible. As a result, universities provide unique spaces to nurture new discoveries that are suitable for commercialization. We're really fortunate in Canada that the Canada Foundation for Innovation provides the resources to acquire and support the infrastructure that drives discoveries and innovations, such as the one that we made in my lab, which allowed us to spin out Symbal Therapeutics.
However, transferring research from universities to start-ups or through licensing deals can be quite difficult. Canada in particular struggles in this area, especially in the life sciences and biotechnology sectors. Canada does not have a program that offers non-dilutive seed funding to support the creation of biotech start-ups stemming from university discoveries. While programs like the NRC's IRAP are very helpful, they are not well suited for early-stage start-ups that lack initial capital, such as those arising from universities.
The SBIR, the small business innovation research program in the United States, provides successful examples of competitive seed grants for small start-ups, helping them generate enough data to attract private investment. A similar program in Canada would not be very costly and would significantly boost the emergence of new biotech start-ups. I note that several of the Ph.D. and post-doctoral fellows I have trained in my lab at McMaster are now working in the U.S. for companies funded through the SBIR. I would love to see them join Canadian start-ups.
Similarly, high-risk private capital is limited in Canada. Some of the reasons for this are, as I'm sure you know, cultural. There's just more tolerance for risk in biotech in the United States and Europe, for example. But some of this scarcity comes from a growing expectation from these investors that projects be significantly de-risked before investment. This needs additional funding.
My experience with Symbal Therapeutics is worth considering. With funding from the CIHR, we discovered a molecule produced by a fungus that we collected in Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia that blocks antibiotic resistance. The report on this discovery was published in the prestigious journal Nature. We even made the cover. We were unable to secure funding in Canada to continue its development. We did manage to access services through the NIH, the National Institutes of Health, in the United States, which provided in-kind pharmacological studies at no cost. This sufficiently reduced the risks of the project, enabling us to secure funding for a start-up. However, this was through partners in Boston, not Canada.
We are again trying to develop some discoveries made in my lab, but we're facing exactly the same challenges we did several years ago when we started this.
Finally, another gap in the process is a shortage of business talent with biotech start-up experience in Canada. This is one of the reasons we turned to Boston partners for Symbal.
To support a thriving Canadian biotech start-up ecosystem, I encourage the committee to consider the following. First, increase the funding for life sciences research by raising the budgets of the CIHR and NSERC. Second, create a made-in-Canada SBIR-like program to offer competitive, non-dilutive funding for biotech start-ups. Three, foster an environment that encourages and rewards more private risk capital and cultivates related entrepreneurial talent.
With such investments, Madam Chair, there is a genuine opportunity to expand this sector and ensure that discoveries that are made in Canada can actually stay in Canada and be developed by Canadians.
Thank you very much.