LSO's advocacy efforts currently focus around three key priorities:
- The need for a coordinated provincial life sciences strategy aligning with a clear vision for Canada’s life sciences sector.
- Support for innovation – including policy surrounding potential changes to drug pricing and intellectual property impacting the health of Canadians and the sustainability of our healthcare system.
- Access to capital and support for talent so our life sciences companies can thrive and grow here at home, creating Made-in-Ontario success stories.
Casting Our Pebble Into The Pond – Rare Disease Vision Paper
Life Sciences Ontario has released a bold new vision for how the Ontario government can create a provincial rare disease
strategy to save lives and boost Ontario’s economy. The COVID-19 pandemic showed in spades how health challenges will only be overcome with innovation, collaboration and speed.
With the right policies and a comprehensive strategy coordinated nationally, Ontario can build on these lessons. Now is the time to harness advances in science and healthcare for the benefit of both rare disease patients and Ontario’s economic development.
The vision paper outlines five strategic pillars that are necessary to make this happen:
- Build a workable system for patients that is driven by facts and data
- A clear, efficient and patient-friendly health regulatory system
- Accelerated funding for rare diseases diagnosis, treatments and care
- Make managing rare diseases an economic development strategy
- Integrate Ontario’s rare disease strategy with other health initiatives and the Canadian Rare Disease Strategy
Download your copy of the Vision paper here.
Leading the Way Toward Recovery, Resilience and Prosperity: Roadmap for an Integrated Life Sciences Ecosystem
Life Sciences Ontario (LSO) has announced the launch of the document, Leading the Way Toward Recovery, Resilience and Prosperity: Roadmap for an Integrated Life Sciences Ecosystem, a follow up to the 2017 Blueprint for a Coordinated Life Sciences Strategy. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic,
organizations across the life sciences ecosystem have shown an unprecedented degree of agility to rapidly innovate, but we as a sector could have been more prepared.
This document identifies key priorities areas to create a more resilient, prepared, and integrated life sciences ecosystem—across sectors, across academia, across disciplines, across the innovation continuum, and across government. The Roadmap stresses the importance of public-private partnership, strengthened supply chains for SMEs and proactive regulatory and procurement systems that not only help us recover from the pandemic but also position the Province for health security and economic prosperity into the future. The recommendations also include emphasizing the need for dialogue and alignment through different provincial Ministries, and collaboration across the ecosystem to unlock the sector’s potential.
Download your copy of the report here.
Accelerating Prosperity: The Life Sciences Sector in Ontario
Life Sciences Ontario engaged Deloitte to conduct a study of the economic contribution of the life sciences sector in Ontario along with an analysis of recent trends. The study also analyzes the sector’s challenges associated with access to capital, human resources, and investments in R&D, and highlights key learnings from select international jurisdictions to consider for advancing the sector. Finally, the analysis investigates the potential economic contributions to Ontario’s economy if the sector was supported to grow at a rate comparable to other advanced jurisdictions.
This report was funded by Life Sciences Ontario through support from the following members: Pfizer Canada Inc.,Hoffmann-La Roche Limited, Innovative Medicines Canada, AstraZeneca, Sanofi Pasteur, Merck Canada Inc., Novartis Canada, Novo Nordisk Canada Inc., Amgen Canada Inc., and Celgene Inc.
Download your copy of the report here.
Blueprint for a Coordinated Ontario Life Sciences Strategy
LSO has campaigned strongly for a provincial life sciences strategy that will provide a roadmap to accelerate our sector.
To that end, we created our Blueprint for a Coordinated Ontario Life Sciences Strategy, launched at our Annual Policy Forum in December 2017. It lays out a comprehensive plan and recommendations for policymakers to accelerate the success of life sciences, with specific action around promotion of our sector, access to capital, talent growth, and support for innovation. The document was endorsed by leading provincial and national life sciences, health, and economic organizations
Download your copy of the Blueprint.