The Government of Canada officially launched the Canadian Genomics Strategy this week as it looks to advance commercialization and adoption in the sector.
The strategy is backed with $175.1 million CAD in federal funding to be dispensed over the next seven years through programming intended to strengthen Canada’s ability to translate genomics research into real-world applications.
These include supporting the development of personalized medicine, advanced diagnostics, and novel therapeutics, such as vaccines. The strategy also looks to bolster the use of genomics in agriculture to improve crop resilience and livestock health, and in clean technology with biofuels and bioremediation techniques.
Canada’s Global Innovation Clusters are receiving $20 million to expand their programming to advance genomics-specific initiatives.
“Today’s launch of the Canadian Genomics Strategy will help solidify Canada’s position as a global leader in genomics innovation and place our talented researchers, innovators and businesses at the forefront of this cutting-edge work,” Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement.
Genomics is a field of biology that studies the entirety of an organism’s genetic information and how it interacts with itself.
The strategy was first announced with a $400 million commitment in the 2021 budget, $136.7 million of which went to federally backed investment vehicle Genome Canada to kick-start the new strategy. The Government of Canada held consultations with a total of 470 researchers, business leaders, and interested Canadians to help shape the strategy in summer 2022.
While the Canadian Genomics Strategy aims to boost the industry’s commercialization, adoption, data accessibility, and talent pipeline, these aren’t the only concerns facing the country’s life sciences sector, according to AbCellera vice-president of business development Anne Stevens.
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On a panel at BetaKit Town Hall: Vancouver in October, Stevens said that Canada needs policies and incentives that better match the realities of scaling in life sciences, including support for research and development, intellectual property retention, and revenue growth. She described how AbCellera had once repeatedly questioned whether Canada provided the right environment for long-term growth, and eventually had to ask the Government of British Columbia and Canada to help the company stay. The federal and provincial government ended up providing $375 million to support construction of the company’s new $701-million biotech campus in 2023.
As part of the strategy’s funding commitments, Genome Canada is getting another big boost of $96 million over five years to provide funding opportunities through its Genomic Applications Partnership Program, which provides support to projects that are ready to develop or adopt new domestic genomics tools and products.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s Global Innovation Clusters are receiving $20 million over six years to expand their programming to advance genomics-specific initiatives. The Global Innovation Clusters program consists of Digital Technology (DIGITAL), Protein Industries, Advanced Manufacturing (NGen), Scale AI, and Oceans.
This week, DIGITAL announced it invested $6.1 million in a genomics project aligned with the Canadian Genomics Strategy. Led by DNAstack with support from industry partners, the $17.5 million project is developing an artificial intelligence-powered platform that aims to share and analyze omics and health data across the world. DIGITAL said in a statement the platform is meant to deliver better health outcomes for Canadians by making it easier to analyze exponentially growing volumes of distributed health data.
Feature image courtesy Yasir Naqvi via LinkedIn.