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Tag Archives: Canada

Some Top-Line Numbers From 2011 For Public Canadian Healthcare Companies

Leave a Comment Posted by wschnarr on January 9, 2012

The numbers have been crunched in preparation for the 2011 Canadian Healthcare Annual Review, which I co-author with Ross Marshall, Senior Vice President at The Equicom Group. Prior to its publication later this month, we are going to give you a look at some of the top-line numbers. The biggest concern in the sector is [...]

News, Wayne Schnarr 2011, biotech, Canada, deals, healthcare, year-end summary

Canadian Biotech and Healthcare Licensing Trends in 2010

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on December 2, 2010

I was fortunate this week to host the Canadian Healthcare Licensing Association‘s (CHLA’s) annual holiday get-together on behalf of Ogilvy Renault at our Toronto office (we hosted a parallel CHLA event in Montreal earlier this week). I presented a short slide deck on licensing trends in 2010, with data drawn from our Monday Biotech Deal [...]

Jacob Cawker, Jeremy Grushcow, Wayne Schnarr biotech, Canada, collaboration and license agreement, health care, licensing, Vaccines

Cephalon-Ception’s Canadian Connection: Great News for Lumira Capital and McMaster in $250 million Option Deal

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 25, 2010

At the beginning of 2009, when Ception Therapeutics was working on mid-stage trials of its lead compound, it struck an option deal with Cephalon (NASDAQ: CEPH): $100 million up-front, and an option to acquire the rest of Ception for $250 million more. This week, Cephalon exercised the option after taking a look at Phase II results [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Canada, Cephalon, Ception, Lumira Capital, McMaster

Three Need-To-Know Canadian Patent Decisions That Impact Pharma, Biotech and Generics Companies

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on November 30, 2009

In Canada, linkage regulations similar to the Hatch-Waxman Act in the U.S. ensure that generics manufacturers have to address relevant patents listed on the Patent Register (the analog to the Orange Book) if they want to market their product prior to the expiry of listed patents. Generics manufacturers can do so either by accepting the terms of [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Bayer, Canada, generics, Hatch-Waxman, Hospira Healthcare, Linkage Regulations, Lundbeck Canada, NOA, Notice of Allegation, Orange Book, PM(NOC), Ratiopharm, Sanofi-Aventis

Canadian Announcement on Merck–Schering-Plough Transaction Closing

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on November 4, 2009

Merck closed its merger with Schering-Plough yesterday, following regulatory clearance in China and Mexico. They held press events yesterday and today, and this morning they appear to have released country-specific announcments. Here’s the blurb on Canadian operations: “Canada is an integral part of the company’s expanded global presence. Merck will now market over 530 pharmaceutical, [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Canada, Merck, merger, Schering-Plough

A New Online Resource for Canadian Patients: MedSchoolForYou.com

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on October 13, 2009

mdBriefCase Inc., which provides online education for Canadian medical professionals, is branching out into the consumer market. Their new website, MedSchoolForYou.com, will provide Canadian-specific online medical information for patients. With different drug nomenclature and different regulatory and reimbursement environments, a Canada-specific health resource could be extremely helpful. At launch, the new site is limited to [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Canada, mdBriefCase, MedSchoolForYou.com, online health information

Trends Update — IP Constituencies: India’s Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Sets an Example for Canadian Innovation

6 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on October 1, 2009

This blog has been following the increasing innovative activity taking place in India’s and China’s biopharma industries, and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is a great example of this trend. Forbes profiled Glenmark this week (H/T FierceBiotech), noting that it started in 1978 as a generics firm but now has 7 clinical-stage compounds and has partnerships with Forest [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 Canada, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, India, Innovation

Trends Update — IP Constituencies: Rotman Article Explores Canadian Biotech Collaborations with Developing Countries

12 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on September 13, 2009

A very interesting article in Nature Biotechnology from a group at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health provides some empirical support for a trend we’ve been following of increased innovative activity in developing countries. According to the article, over 25% of Canadian biotechs collaborate with developing countries. Of these, however, the vast majority of companies do so alongside [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 biotech, Canada, China, India, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health

What Makes MIT So Good at Entrepreneurship

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on August 4, 2009

I joined the NCET2 webinar of Edward Roberts’ presentation last week — “Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT” — to see what I could glean for Toronto’s benefit as we work toward creating a more entreprenuerial environment on University Ave. The webinar homepage has the audio of the talk and a link to the slides. Some of [...]

Jeremy Grushcow Canada, Edward Roberts, entrepreneurship, MIT, NCET2, Toronto, University Ave

UPDATED Merial in Canada: Sanofi-Aventis to Buy Merck Out for $4 Billion, May (Re)Combine with Intervet Post-Merger

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on July 30, 2009

The New York Times’ DealBook blog reports that regulatory concerns about Merck’s purchase of Schering-Plough, presumably Schering’s Intervet animal health subsidiary, required Merck to divest its stake in Merial – its animal health JV with sanofi-aventis. Sanofi is kindly obliging, for $4 billion. Interestingly (given DealBook’s reporting that the JV divestiture is antitrust-driven), Merck, sanofi and [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Canada, joint venture, Merck, Merial, Sanofi-Aventis, Schering-Plough

Trends in 2009: Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests Come to Canada

4 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on July 28, 2009

This week saw the introduction of what I believe is Canada’s first personal genomics service offering. Toronto’s Medcan Clinic paired up with California-based Navigenics to scan individuals’ genomes for a variety of disease markers. Personal genomics is a burgeoning trend this year, which according to a special report in April’s Economist, will only be further boosted by [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 23andMe Inc., Alzheimers, Canada, CLIA certification, deCODE, DTC Genetic Testing, European Society for Human Genetics, Fragile X, Genetic Alliance, Genetics, Genetics and Public Policy Center, genome sequencing, Germany, HHS, Illumina, Johns Hopkins, Knome, LSCCLA, Medcan Clinic, Navigenics, Ontario, Pathway Genomics, Regulated Health Professions Act, SACGHS, sperm bank

Canada’s Data Protection Regulations Upheld Against Court Challenge

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on July 21, 2009

Last Friday* the Federal Court of Canada upheld the constitutional validity of Canada’s Data Protection Regulations, dismissing the applications of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association and Apotex Inc. Canada’s data protection regime provides innovative drugs with: a six-year data exclusivity period; an eight-year market exclusivity period; and an additional six-month period of market exclusivity in some cases [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Apotex, Canada, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, data exclusivity, data protection, Data Protection Regulations, market exclusivity, NAFTA, TRIPS

New Data Shows 70% of Canada’s Biotech Companies Have Under 12 Months’ Cash. BIOTECanada’s New Ask: Government Loans.

3 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on July 16, 2009

A Canwest story today highlights new BIOTECanada data showing 70% of survey respondents have under 1 year of cash, up from 50% in January. FierceBiotech picked it up as well, guaranteeing a full dose of international attention. Even though the remaining 30% of respondents likely include some with big recent successes — Bioniche, Allostera and Zymeworks – and some with creative [...]

Bailout, Jeremy Grushcow, News AIMCo, Alberta Enterprise Corporation, Alberta Investment Management, Allostera Pharma, BDC, Bioniche, BIOTECanada, biotechnology, Business Development Bank of Canada, Canada, ConjuChem, FierceBiotech, government loans, Lumira Capital, Neuromed, NRC-IRAP, OETF, Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund, Ontario Venture Capital Fund, OVCF, Peter Brenders, Quebec Venture Capital Fund, Teralys Capital, venture capital, Zymeworks

New Funding for BDC Says Venture Capital in Canada “Tastes Great!”; Kedorsky Says “Less Filling!”

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on June 16, 2009

Yesterday Tony Clement announced an additional $450 million in funding to BDC:* $100 million in credit guarantees, $260 million for follow-on investments in companies where BDC is already a direct investor, and $90 million to invest in venture funds. The follow-on money and the LP money will be spent over 3 years. (On purpose. (Ha.)) All [...]

Jeremy Grushcow BDC, Canada, Kauffman Foundation report, Paul Kedorsky, venture capital

Flow-Through Shares for Cleantech and Biotech in Canada

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 29, 2009

Rick Sutin, a partner at Ogilvy Renault (my home-away-from-home), has a post up at Cleantech in Canada singing the praises of flow-through shares. So far, the flow-through program in Canada has been available (mainly) to resource exploration and development companies, but we have been arguing for a while that the program would be ideal for Cleantech and [...]

Jeremy Grushcow biotech, biotechnology, Canada, Cleantech, flow-through

Human Swine Flu Ontario Update May 14: Tracking the Ontario Numbers Plus Vaccine Updates

2 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 14, 2009

Ontario reported 36 new cases of Swine Flu today. All cases are still considered mild, although one patient was hospitalized for unrelated reasons. I thought this would be a good time to look back at the Ontario press releases and plot the number of new cases reported since Ontario started releasing numbers on April 28th. [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Canada, Doris Bucher, Grippe Porcine, H1N1, Human Swine Influenza, Ontario, seed strain, Swine Flu, vaccine, WHO

What is the State of Canada’s Biotechnology Industry?

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 12, 2009

There have been a lot of opinions over the last couple of weeks, with little consensus. On the pessimistic side: E&Y’s annual biotechnology report was released a week ago, and the reported taglines ranged from “time of reckoning” to “biotech business model crumbles“. The first report from Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Research Council said that Canadian businesses [...]

Bailout, Jeremy Grushcow BIOTECanada, biotechnology, Canada, E&Y report, James C. Greenwood, Ontario Venture Capital Fund, OVCF, PwC, Quebec Venture Capital Fund, Science, STIC Report, Stimulus, Technologoy and Innovation Research Council, Venture Capital and Private Equity Association

Swine Flu Update Monday May 11: Ontario, Canada and Colbert Nation

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 11, 2009

Ontario has reached a total of 110 confirmed human swine flu cases, all still considered mild. The age range is between 1 and 62. Canada reported its first swine flu fatality, an Alberta woman with asthma. ScienceInsider has had outstanding coverage, and I’m adding their swine flu RSS feed to the sidebar on the right [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Alberta, Canada, Colbert, fatality, Grippe Porcine, H1N1, Human Swine Influenza, Laurie Garrett, Ontario, Swine Flu

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Telus/Microsoft and GE’s Global Healthcare Initiative Come to Canada

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 7, 2009

Two Canadian developments on the electronic medical records front: Telus-Microsoft: Telus and Microsoft are developing a patient-centred system that would allow individuals to access and manage their medical records and would interface directly with health care providers’ systems to gather and share the data. Canada Health Infoway wants to make sure it’s secure. The CBC story [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 Canada, Canada Health Infoway, eHealth, electronic health records, electronic medical records, GE Canada, Google Health, healthymagination, IBM, Infoway, MaRS, Microsoft, Telus

H1N1 Human Swine Flu Wednesday Update: Ontario, Genetics and Sanofi News

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 6, 2009

Ontario confirms 13 new cases as of Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total to 49 in the province, all considered mild. A lot of the public health messaging over the last 48 hours has been advising people not to relax too much. Today also saw an interesting Canadian development on the scientific front. Although commentary around [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Canada, FDA, genetic sequence, Grippe Porcine, H1N1, Human Swine Influenza, Manufacturing, National Microbiology Laboratory, Ontario, Sanofi Pasteur, sequencing, Swine Flu, vaccine, Winnipeg

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Health IT and EMR Have an Advocate in New OMA President Suzanne Strasberg

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 4, 2009

Dr. Suzanne Strasberg took over as the incoming president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Saturday night at their annual gala. The OMA press release headlines Dr. Strasberg’s call for access to family physicians, but health IT also figures prominently. Dr. Strasberg indicated that she would focus on a number of initiatives, including “expansion of the [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 Canada, EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, Health IT, Ontario, Ontario Medical Association, Strasberg

Brain Drain and Ontario Genomics Funding: Globe and Mail Prefers to Hear the Bad News First

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 4, 2009

On the front page of the Globe and Mail this morning: Top AIDS researcher lured away, urges Harper ‘soul-searching’, citing $148 million in cuts to the Canadian funding agencies. Buried several links down below the fold in the National section: Ontario to provide major new research funding – in fact, $100 million to retain researchers, which [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News Canada, Canada Budget 2009, MRI, Ontario, Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, Research Funding, Sekaly

Human Swine Influenza: Understaffed

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 26, 2009

The volume of Human Swine flu info has exceeded my ability to keep up. I will try to post sporadically on interesting scientific, political or business implications. In the meantime, I have added two widgets on the right side of this page: Google news RSS for “swine” Twitter RSS for #swineflu That should help visitors keep up [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News British Columbia, Canada, CDC, Centers for Disease Control, flu, Human Swine Influenza, Mexico, Nova Scotia, outbreak, public health emergency, WHO, World Health Organization

Human Swine Influenza Update: Canadian Cases Confirmed, Public Health Emergency Declared in U.S.

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 26, 2009

CDC transcript from today’s briefing. White House Press Briefing transcript. New York Times story: Mexico data: 1,300 infected, 80 dead. U.S. data: 20 infected, one temporarily hospitalized now recovered. Canada data: 6 infected, all linked to travel to Mexico. 2 in BC, 4 in Nova Scotia. No WHO decision on pandemic alert level until Tuesday.

Jeremy Grushcow, News British Columbia, Canada, CDC, Centers for Disease Control, flu, Human Swine Influenza, Mexico, Nova Scotia, outbreak, public health emergency, WHO, World Health Organization

Canada’s First Subsequent Entry Biologic!

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 22, 2009

Guest post from Jill Daley, part of our all-star life sciences team at Ogilvy: Today, Sandoz Canada announced that Health Canada has granted it a market authorization for Omnitrope™. This announcement marks the approval of the first subsequent entry biologic (SEB, also known as a “follow-on biologic” (FOB) in the U.S. or a “biosimilar” in the [...]

Guest Blogger, News, Trends in 2009 Biosimilars, Canada, FOB, Follow-On Biologics, Health Canada, Omnitrope, Sandoz, SEB, Subsequent Entry Biologics

New Data in Canada: BIOTECanada-PwC 2009 Life Sciences Forecast

2 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 20, 2009

The BIOTECanada-PricewaterhouseCoopers 2009 Canadian Life Sciences Forecast was released today. The Forecast was produced from data gathered in October and November 2008, so is (unsurprisingly) a bit bleak, but there are a few bright spots to be found: Canadian companies are increasingly flexible about exit scenarios. In the 2009 Forecast, 66% of firms looked to [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News 2009 Canadian Life Sciences Forecast, BIOTECanada, biotechnology, Canada, Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund, Ontario Venture Capital Fund, OVCF, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, Quebec Venture Capital Fund, venture capital

Canadian Science Funding Update — Open Letter From Canadian Scientists Generates Equal, Opposite Open Letter from Gary Goodyear

2 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 20, 2009

Canadian scientists, dismayed by cuts of $113 million to the three primary granting agencies in this year’s federal budget, sent an open letter of protest to PM Harper last week that collected 2,000 signatures. The response, from Minister of Industry Tony Clement, was certainly better pitched than the response at budget time from the government’s [...]

Bailout, Jeremy Grushcow Canada, Canada Budget 2009, Christian Paradis, federal funding, Gary Goodyear, Harper, infrastructure, Minister of Industry, Mont Megantic Observatory, Nature letter, open letter, research, scientists, Tony Clement

Wednesday Brain Dump: Things that Might Surprise You Edition

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 8, 2009

Things that surprised me this week: AstraZeneca’s CEO David Brennan, elected PhRMA’s new chairman, spoke in favour of comparative effectiveness research, calling it “a market requirement.” PolyCap, a combination of five off-patent cardiac and cholesterol drugs that costs $17 combined per month showed promising results in a 2000-person study in The Lancet. The Ebola researcher [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Wednesday Brain Dump battery, Canada, Comparative Effectiveness, Ebola, genetically engineered battery, Lancet, M13 phage, MIT, National Microbiology Laboratory, PhRMA, PolyCap, virus

Canadian Life Sciences VCs Lead the Realization Parade

1 Comment Posted by lumiracapital on April 3, 2009

“Liquidity Shrivels Up For VCs in First Quarter” was the banner screaming across the wire services earlier this week. While true, what was lost in the subtext were a few important observations for Canadian VCs, particularly those focused on life sciences:

Lumira Capital, Peter van der Velden Ablation Frontiers, Alveolus, Canada, Cardiac Dimensions, Ception, CoreValve, Guaca, Life Sciences VCs, Medtronic, Ventor, venture capital, Virochem

Duck!

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on March 27, 2009

Google’s coming.

Jeremy Grushcow Canada, Google Street View, not biotech, privacy

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