Canada is home to some of the best-educated talent pools in the world, consistently ranking as one of the most highly educated countries globally. Almost 5 million Canadian graduates hold a STEM or health care degree, positioning Canada as a go-to destination for life sciences companies and investment. The last two years have marked a new era of growth and opportunity for BC’s life sciences sector, with the Province emerging from the pandemic as a global leader in new health technologies, treatments, and vaccines. For those closely following, the list of “made in BC” life sciences products are not only impressive in length, but also in breadth.
As ‘home’ to the fastest-growing life sciences sector in Canada, we should all be proud. We have thousands of companies full of British Columbians, who are dedicated – daily – to research and the development of innovations to improve health care delivery around the world.
Our commitment to excellence is further supported through investments in life sciences, in BC and beyond. For example, last week, we highlighted the Government of Canada’s $92 million investment in adMare BioInnovations to help translate health research into innovative new therapies. This week, a $580 million commitment to help fund a state-of-the-art cell and gene therapy facility in Hamilton, ON, was announced.
Recently Celsius Therapeutics, secured $83 million in funding from investors including Amgen Ventures, Amplitude Ventures, and Catalio Capital, among others. And, Leaps by Bayer, the venture capital arm of the Company, has committed $1.4 billion in new investments through 2024 - more than doubling the current pace of spending.
Closer to home, at LSBC, this week marks an exciting showcase of companies and individuals who are and will continue making lasting contributions to our sector. Each year, we host an Investor Readiness Program, an incubator to help small and medium-sized enterprises reach their potential, and we are so pleased to congratulate nine graduates of this year’s program. We'd also like to extend our sincerest gratitude to the Entrepreneurs in Residence for their mentorship. Those who wish to apply for next year - stay tuned - applications typically open in June.
We'd like to also take this opportunity to highlight some recent life sciences milestones. Congratulations to UBC scientist Dr. Pieter Cullis, one of five 2022 Gairdner Award winners. Dr. Cullis is an LSBC board member, and this award recognizes his pioneering research with lipid nanoparticle delivery technology, which ultimately provided the delivery mechanism for messenger RNA vaccines against COVID-19. Congratulations to Cally Wesson for being appointed the new President and CEO of the BC Women’s Health Foundation. Congratulations also to Jennifer Cudlipp, LifeLabs’ Chief Operating Officer, for being recognized by the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia with a Distinguished Service Award for her outstanding service to the community. Kudos also to StarFish Medical who won a 2021 Company Culture Award at Canada’s Most Admired Awards Celebration.
In addition to the achievements of these seasoned sector veterans, we want to acknowledge the incredible up-and-coming talent as well. Congratulations to the School of Biomedical Engineering at UBC which celebrated the first official graduate cohort as part of their 2021 Convergence Recap. LSBC member, Bold Therapeutics, also won second place at the 2022 Innovator’s Pitch Challenge, placing Canadian talent on the center stage. And exciting news for Medtronic Canada, which has received a Health Canada license for its fourth-generation flow diverter, PipelineTM Vantage with Shield TechnologyTM - for the treatment of wide neck intracranial aneurysms. Thank you also to the Discovery Parks team behind the annual GENERATOR Competition, which helps BC tech start-ups. It was an honour and so much fun to be a part of this year’s selection committee.
Lastly, if you haven’t had a chance, please join us for our Showcase Series: Surrey event (on May 11th), which will feature a wide range of guests from the political, business, and academic worlds. The future is bright for the life sciences innovation ecosystem, and we are so excited to champion the successes of talented individuals and companies that are driving our sector forward.
Wendy and the LSBC team
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Aspect Biosystems Announces Partnership with JDRF to Advance Development of a Bioengineered Tissue Therapeutic to Treat Type 1 Diabetes
Aspect Biosystems, a biotechnology company developing bioengineered tissue therapeutics to transform how we treat disease, announced a partnership with JDRF, the leading global type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization. This partnership supports Aspect’s focus on developing a bioengineered tissue therapeutic for type 1 diabetes that will... READ MORE
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Ondine Says Study Confirms Photodisinfection is Effective Against SARS-CoV-2
Ondine Biomedical Inc. said independent research confirmed its Steriwave photodisinfection technology is highly effective against human clinical isolates of SARS-CoV-2. A single dose of photodisinfection can destroy the SARS-CoV-2 viral spike and viral genome, reducing... READ MORE
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2022 Canada Gairdner Awards Recognize World-Renowned Scientists for Transformative Contributions to Research Impacting Human Health
The Gairdner Foundation announced the 2022 Canada Gairdner Award laureates, recognizing some of the world’s most significant biomedical and global health research and discoveries. “Canadian scientists remain an example to follow as they continue to lead in global health research and discoveries that help create a more resilient... READ MORE
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Jennifer Cudlipp Receives Distinguished Service Award from CPABC
We are pleased to share that Jennifer Cudlipp, LifeLabs’ Chief Operating Officer, has been recognized by the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC) with a Distinguished Service Award for her dedicated commitment and outstanding service to the community. Recipients of the award are selected based on their... READ MORE
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BOLD-100’s Broad Potential Featured at the AACR Annual Meeting 2022
Bold Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that will be presenting research supporting the use of BOLD-100 in combination with a wide range of anticancer therapies in the treatment of numerous cancer types at the AACR Annual Meeting 2022 on April 8-13, 2022 in New Orleans. Bold Therapeutics' BOLD-100 is a first-in-class ruthenium-based small molecule therapeutic that (1) alters the unfolded protein response (UPR) through selective GRP78 inhibition... READ MORE
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Izotropic Corporation Announces Closing of Non-Brokered Private Placement
Izotropic Corporation, a company commercializing a dedicated breast CT imaging platform, IzoView, for the more accurate detection and diagnosis of breast cancers, announced, further to its news release on March 30, 2022, that it has completed a non-brokered private placement of unsecured promissory notes pursuant to which the Company issued... READ MORE
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Bold Therapeutics Selected as Second Place Winner at 2022 Innovator’s Pitch Challenge
Bold Therapeutics, a Vancouver-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that they placed second in the Innovator's Pitch Challenge at the 3-Day Digital Redefining Early-Stage Investments (RESI) March Conference hosted by Life Science Nation. RESI works to connect life science and healthcare start-ups and investors who are compatible on technology and stage of development... READ MORE
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Brent Arnold Joins International Association of Defense Counsel
Brent Arnold, a Toronto-based partner and head of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Technology sub-group, has joined the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for lawyers who represent corporate and insurance interests... READ MORE
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Medtronic Receives Health Canada licence for PipelineTM Vantage Embolization Device with Shield TechnologyTM
Medtronic Canada announced it has received a licence from Health Canada for its fourth-generation flow diverter, Pipeline TM Vantage with Shield Technology TM – for the treatment of wide neck intracranial aneurysms. This novel flow diverter is designed with enhanced features to both the delivery system and implant device. These features allow physicians to deliver, deploy and treat intracranial aneurysms with... READ MORE
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Leaping Forward: Bayer VC Arm Commits $1.4B to Double Investment Pace through 2024
Leaps by Bayer, the venture capital arm of the Big Pharma, is looking to catapult itself into the future by committing more than €1.3 billion in new investments through 2024, more than doubling the pace of spending to date. The new investment plan was announced Friday as a part of Bayer's Breakthrough Innovation Forum, a telescopic lens into the company’s vision for biopharma and agriculture ...READ MORE
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Celsius Turns Up the Heat with Lead Drug Selection, $83M Financing
Celsius has now picked its first clinical candidate, an antibody treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) called CEL383. To top that off, the biotech has picked up $83 million in new funding from an expansion of its 2018 series A round combined with a new series B financing. Amgen Ventures was one of the new investors to chip in this time, along with Amplitude Ventures, Catalio Capital and several others ...READ MORE
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Molecular Forecaster Inc. provides a synthesis of science, software, and service dedicated to drug discoveries that will enrich lives and improve our future. The company is a computational chemistry software developer and service provider with expertise in drug discovery, quantum mechanics, molecular dynamics, chemoinformatics, and artificial intelligence (AI).
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Emmes is a global full service clinical research organization (CRO) dedicated to helping private sector, government, non-profit and academic partners achieve their biopharmaceutical development and human health goals. Committed to scientific excellence, collaboration, and problem-solving, they work closely with clients to generate high quality data and make better treatments available to patients.
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Marketing/Business Development
HTuO Biosciences is seeking a candidate for a Marketing/Business Development position who will be the first business specialist in a computational biotechnology company and will be building client and partner relationships.
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Accountant
Notch Therapeutics is seeking an Accountant who will play a key role in the organization, ensuring that accounting records are correct and payments are processed accurately and efficiently for both payroll and expenses.
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LSBC Job Board
Jobs posted to our Job Board automatically post out to all our social media accounts for wider sharing. Make sure you include your company name in the first line of your job ad for maximum exposure!
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Post A Job on the LSBC Website! |
LSBC Membership Discounts on Job Postings
As an LSBC member, your first five job postings EARNS a free repost on BioTalent Canada's The Petri Dish. After your first five reposts, you will also receive 25% off all job postings on The Petri Dish. Want more info? Contact Megan Pan -talent@lifesciencesbc.ca
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