The long-awaited 2017-2027 Quebec Life Sciences Strategy is positioning the province to be in the top five North American life sciences clusters within a decade. The strategy aims to leverage its scientific expertise, particularly in precision medicine and big data, by attracting $4 billion in private investment to boost industry employment and increase the number of Quebec-based firms and their contribution to provincial GDP.

Entitled Innovation Takes Life, the new strategy comes seven years after Ontario launched its own. Quebec has doubtlessly noted that the coordinated efforts of its sister province are beginning to pay off with major new investments from capital powerhouses such as BlueRock Therapeutics. While Ontario and Quebec are competitors, they also collaborate in the life sciences space, notably with the creation in 2011 of the Ontario-Quebec Life Sciences Corridor which represents one of the largest bioclusters in the world.

“Quebec’s economic development is based on three pillars: entrepreneurship, innovative manufacturing and exports. This (strategy) represents a complementary action in addition to the … Quebec Strategy for Research and Innovation, the Digital Strategy, which is currently being developed, and the $825 million announced to support the innovative manufacturer,” says Dominique Anglade, Quebec’s minister of Economy, Science and Innovation.

The whole-of-government strategy — the broad strokes of which were unveiled in last month’s provincial Budget — comes with $205 million in new and existing money over five years to implement its four core planks: research and innovation ($95.1 million); company creation and growth ($49 million); private investment attraction ($32.9 million); and integrating innovation into the health and social services network ($28 million). Of the $205 million, $151.3 million was announced in Budget 2017 while Budget 2016 provided $33.8 million.

Key initiatives under each of the strategy’s four objectives include:

• Research and Innovation: $75 million for a new Health Collaboration Acceleration Fund to be matched by industry and $11.1 million to improve clinical research processes;
• Industry support: includes the previously announced $100-million BioMed Propulsion program to promote the marketing of Quebec discoveries;
• Investment attraction: $100 million to support private investment projects and position the province as an ideal location for biomanufacturing projects; and
• Health and social network integration: $26.5 million to establish and operate a health and social services office.

Tectonic shifts in the global pharmaceutical and medical technologies sectors have not been kind to Quebec, which has experienced a hollowing out of its health-related R&D as companies consolidated operations in other jurisdictions. But with the advent of a lower-cost R&D model for drug development featuring increased collaboration between multinationals and smaller research-based firms, new opportunities are emerging that the strategy intends to exploit. That entails a shift in the sector from a generalist to a multi-specialist approach that can compete more effectively in the global marketplace.

A host of life science-related organizations have commended the government for its strategy including MEDTEQ (Quebec’s Consortium for Industrial Research and Innovation in Medical Technology), Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, BIOQuebec and Montreal International, a public-private partnership dedicated to attracting international investment to Canada’s second-largest municipality.

The strategy is the government’s response to a report from the Life Sciences Working Group which was struck in 2015 and delivered its recommendations to government a year ago. The budget documents say “most of the recommendations will be reflected in the life sciences strategy”.

“The government plans to ensure the growth of the industry by focusing on research and by supporting the financing of companies to create high-quality jobs all along the innovation chain,” states the Budget documents. “The life sciences strategy will encourage collaboration among industry stakeholders so as to support the most promising initiatives to help Quebec compete internationally (by) making it easier for companies in the industry to access financing, allowing them to pursue their growth in Quebec.”

Life sciences is one of the province’s key knowledge-based industry sectors accounting for $5.6 billion in provincial GDP in 2014. In 2016, it supported nearly 31,000 industrial jobs at 630 companies and almost as many in public research centres and related service companies.

Fonds de Solidarité FTQ — Canada’s oldest and most successful labour-sponsored venture capital fund with $12.2 billion in net assets — has been a significant supporter of the strategy throughout its formation. It announced its intent to be a strategic and financial partner during the implementation phase, including helping to foster the emergence of and growth of life sciences companies. FTQ will also leverage its international partner network which it views as particularly opportune given the political turmoil creating unease among knowledge workers in Europe and the US.

“Quebec’s (life sciences) strategy fits with our strategy. We always believed that Quebec and in a larger sense Canada should be higher ranked in terms of the bioeconomy,” says Didier Leconte, FTQ ‘s senior director of life sciences. “We like the fact that a lot of the strategy is guided towards industry collaboration. Some of the programs they’re putting in place like BioMed Propulsion and the Acceleration Fund have to be matched by industry, which is good … that creates leverage opportunity.”

Montreal International, an economic development agency that promotes investment in the Montreal area, says the strategy will help the region become even more competitive and attractive to foreign investment.

“The proposed initiative will better target innovative and manufacturing sectors including biomanufacturing, and provide greater support to international corporations seeking partnerships and investment opportunities, says Montreal International president and CEO Hubert Bolduc.

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