Backgrounder
September 18, 2008
BUILDING ONTARIO’S INNOVATION ECONOMY
Inventing The Future Of Health Care
Ontario is committed to supporting research and innovation as a means of turning global challenges into our next generation of jobs – and most importantly, to create a higher quality of life for Ontario families.
Ontario’s $3-billion Innovation Agenda is about making investments in our greatest asset – our people and our best ideas – to make this province healthier, greener and to strengthen our economy. We are focused on supporting innovation that will tackle climate change, lead to better health care, and ignite growth in the industries that will shape our future.
LEGACY
Ontario has a legacy of research excellence and innovation; of turning our best science and ideas into world-leading vaccines, better ways to treat and prevent disease, and health technologies.
Ontario discovered stem cells, and insulin. We invented the pacemaker. And right now Ontario companies are building cleaner ways to generate the energy we need, by engineering new technologies that do a better job of tapping into the power of the sun, wind, and water. From IMAX to the Blackberry to the science and technology that helped put a man on the moon and robots on Mars, Ontario ideas, discoveries and inventions reach around the globe.
And with support from the Ontario government, innovative people and companies are turning solutions to global challenges like cancer and climate change into cleaner air, better health care, and better, more sustainable jobs for the 21st century.
ONTARIO RESEARCH FUND
Through the Ontario Research Fund, we are strengthening Ontario’s legacy of innovation and ingenuity by supporting our best and brightest researchers, the world-class research institutions that support their work, and the entrepreneurs that are helping to bring their best ideas to the global market.
ONTARIO INNOVATION AGENDA
The Ontario Research Fund is an important part of Ontario’s Innovation Agenda. Supported by $3 billion over eight years, Ontario’s Innovation Agenda is focused on supporting world-class research and innovative companies in areas where the province already is, or can be, a global leader.
Ontario’s priorities are:
- Tackling climate change through bio-based, environmental, alternative energy and clean technologies
- Advancing the digital universe through new information and communications technologies
- Conquering disease through life sciences, biotechnology, advanced health technologies and pharmaceutical research.
LIFE SCIENCES, BIOTECHNOLOGY, ADVANCED HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES AND PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH
Ontario has the third largest concentration of life sciences companies in North America – generating annual revenue of more than $14 billion, and employing 43,000 people in more than 850 companies.
With 25 research and academic hospitals employing 10,000 scientists, clinical investigators and other researchers conducting $850 million in research annually, Ontario is the largest hub of biomedical activity in Canada and the fourth largest biomedical research centre in North America.
In Toronto – Ontario’s largest research centre – much of the research is concentrated in clusters of activity, creating opportunities for collaboration, investment, information sharing and academic-business development opportunities. Within two kilometres of the downtown University of Toronto campus, there are nine research hospitals, roughly 5,000 scientists, and research budgets totalling about $1 billion a year. And since 2005, 93,000 square metres of research space have been added in this zone, with twice as much more planned.
Cancer and Stem Cell Research
Stem cells were discovered in the early 1960s by Dr. Ernest McCulloch and Dr. James Till, two scientists working at the Ontario Cancer Institute. Ontario continues to be a leader in stem cell research today. Ontario is also home to the Stem Cell Network, made up of 80 experts drawn from universities and hospitals across Canada.
And Ontario is at the forefront of discovering a global solution to cancer.
Ontario has invested $347 million over five years in the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research – the first collaborative institute in Canada to focus on the entire spectrum of cancer challenges – from better prevention to discovering better treatments.
The province is also investing $40 million over 10 years in the International Cancer Genome Consortium, which will work with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) to coordinate the work of scientists around the world. The goal of this consortium is a co-ordinated global effort to unlock the genome of the 50 most common cancer tumours that plague humanity. The project will generate 25,000 times more data than the human genome project.
Not only has Ontario been chosen to head the world headquarters of this global effort, one of the largest scientific projects in history. Ontario has also been tasked to serve as the global data centre. In essence, we must create the largest health informatics database in history.
Biotechnology
Toronto is now the fourth-largest biomedical research complex in North America, with nine research institutes, 5,000 faculty appointments in medical research, 2,000 graduate students, and 1,100 post-doctoral and clinical fellows.
Ontario is home to 140+ companies with revenues of $2.8 billion and 5,200 employees – more than any US state except California and Massachusetts, including global giants such as Amgen, Genzyme and Sanofi Pasteur.
Medical and Assistive Technologies
Global giants like GE health care and Johnson & Johnson have chosen Ontario as a preferred location to conduct research and develop medical and assistive technologies. Across the province, close to 675 cutting-edge companies conduct business that generates revenues of $4 billion and employees over 22,000 employees.
Biopharmaceuticals
Ontario is home to major pharmaceutical companies with sales of $7.5 billion and some 18,000+ employees — including Apotex, AstraZeneca, Baxter health care, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Genzyme, GlaxoSmithKline, MDS Nordion, Novartis and Pfizer.
Turning ideas into Reality
Ontario is also home to innovative people and companies that are global leaders, at the forefront of global advances in health care and health technologies, including:
See also:
- News Release: Making Health Research Work For Patients
- Backgrounder: Ontario Research Fund
- Backgrounder: Lifes Sciences, Advanced Health Technologies And Pharmaceutical Research Projects
