Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  What you mentioned before about revitalization and the spinoff and existence of serial entrepreneurs, that's all real. But I think we are, at the moment, in a particular crunch for new venture formation, because capital isn't in place. So if we do have the attrition we expect to happen--and you asked, Mr.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  From a patent perspective, the situation is that there is not a critical immediate issue. There are problems with inconsistency of approach and so forth, but I'm told, at least, that our legal system in Canada is aware of that and is working on it with government. A lot of it relates to congruity of filing, particularly in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Thank you. On the first question, biology is a knowledge base, a broad knowledge base in a modern context—generally speaking, molecular biology—that underlies development of products in those seemingly almost unrelated sectors. When you talk biofuels, there's a bio component, right?

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  We all know the expression “throwing good money after bad”. That is not what the situation is in biology. The good money that was spent and has been spent in support of research and development by the government through grant programs has led to good innovation. That needs to be captured.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Correct.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Let me add one thing to this: calling biology an enabling platform for these diverse product lines is not just an association of convenience. The same technology as underlies developing a plant that is not a food plant into biofuels is very similar to, let's say, the DNA technology that develops a drug.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Well, I could add a very specific example, a personal one. When I said that the previous company that I was with and led was sold, it was not intentional at that point, earlier on. It was sold, and the deal closed with a multinational in Europe. The deal closed at the end of February, and that was a deal that we finally had to accept because we could not find, or close on, investment in the latter part of last year in Canada.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  If I could answer that from the concept of Canadian VCs, venture capital investment is ultimately the lifeblood of technology companies as emerging technology companies. Canadian venture capital never has been and probably never will be the only source that carries Canadian technology companies forward.

Subcommittee on Canadian Industrial Sectors committee  Thank you, first of all, for this opportunity to present the biotechnology sector as a Canadian sector to the committee. I'd like to just briefly introduce myself. I've spent most of my working life in biotechnology, in one fashion or another, from an academic perspective and then as a government regulator, and then over the past 19 years now in the private sector altogether.