Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a UN global observation since 2015  that seeks to raise profile for full and equal access and participation. Although there is approaching parity in life sciences (based on numbers), other sectors lag, and the research pipeline generally still shows bias.  

Increasing diversity leads to increased benefits in many key areas. We’re including sessions about this in next week’s Access to Innovation, including diversity in and decentralization of clinical trials. For an illustration on why this is important, check out this week’s Fierce Pharma article on enrolling more black women in breast cancer clinical trials Increasing the diversity of participants here should mean that more of the drugs used in treatment actually work for this demographic. 

Our former CEO and President, Karimah Es Sabar also touches on one of the themes of Access to Innovation – data. As a member of the Industry Strategy Council and past chair of the health and biosciences economic strategy table, and current general partner of LSBC member, Quark Venture she’s quoted in this Globe and Mail article. “And [the Canadian government] should invest in ‘world-leading digital infrastructure’ that enables researchers to harness vast troves of medical data marooned in disparate databases across Canada to help develop ground-breaking medicines. It is important that we take our single biggest investment – health care – and turn it into an economic engine.”  

Day 2 of our conference covers data, data handling, and streamlining data acquisition from bedside to bench – Building Hospitals of the Future. Industry experts from Compugen, Deloitte and Providence Health will share their insights. This along with sessions on IP, the road to commercialization and how mRNA will save the world are pretty good reasons for registering – see you next week, February 16 and 17. Register here.

Karimah’s insights also touch on how Canada needs a 10- to 20-year strategic plan for investment and financial support in health and biosciences; there needs to be an economic development mandate alongside streamlining regulations that make it easier for innovative products to reach the market.  

…innovative products such as universal donor blood. Karimah is also featured in The Hill Times this week, talking about glycomics and the Glyconet report. Mentioning LSBC member, ABOzymes, she notes that Canada has been at the forefront of glycomics research for many decades, and that this particular -omics area is poised as the next frontier in bioinnovation.

As an introduction to ABOzymes, their first product is an additive for a standard blood bag that first primes and then eliminates a [glycan] marker on the red blood cell (RBC) that determines blood group A rendering it group O – universal donor blood. 

Celebrating innovation is one of the best parts of Life Sciences BC; congratulations to our global pharma member and sponsor, Pfizer for reaching number 4 in Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies list  and to Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, on their CIHR project grants awards. And welcome to Monique Henson, joining the Smart and Biggar patents team in Vancouver.

I was thrilled to see the Life Sciences sector called out in the Throne Speech delivered this week. Under the heading of Building a stronger economy – for everyone, life sciences was cited as an example. Specifically “B.C. companies are helping to solve major challenges around the world, while attracting talent and investment to our province. Last year, B.C. experienced a surge in private technology startups valued at more than $1 billion. In fact, 2021 was one of the best years ever for raising capital by B.C. companies.”  

There was a hint of what might be included in the upcoming economic vision, which was described as “grow(ing) the economy with purpose” with the goal of having economic growth that is inclusive and sustainable by creating the “high-skill, low-carbon economy of tomorrow”. It noted that forecasted labour shortages and skill gaps will need to be addressed, and said the new forthcoming Economic Plan (scheduled to be released next week) will include a generational commitment to develop the talent B.C. needs to close the skills gap.

Wendy and the LSBC Team