Life Sciences 2025

SPECIAL INTEREST SECTION BY MEDIAPLANET

Canada’s Life Sciences

GOING UPSTREAM: A Call for Chronic Disease Action in Ontario

Ontario’s chronic disease crisis is escalating. Real progress requires shifting from reactive care to proactive health management.

Ontario faces a growing health crisis as chronic conditions are estimated to a !ect over three million adults in Ontario by 2040, a 72 per cent increase from 2020.

Our current healthcare system, created decades ago and built to treat immediate medical issues, struggles with long-term health management.

Chronic diseases are one of the leading causes of death and disability in Ontario and strains our already stretched healthcare system. Additionally, related health challenges

create a ripple e!ect, with one condition often triggering the other.

Despite Motion 45 in 2023 — a recommendation to develop a Chronic Disease Strategy, starting with dia-

betes — implementation has stalled.

Ontario can begin to shift its focus from reacting to chronic diseases toward preventing, mitigating, and managing them. They can do this by prevention through public education, expanding pharmacy-based screening, embracing digital health, and increasing treatment access for patients with long-term health conditions.

Real progress requires shifting from reactive care to proactive health management. This can transform our healthcare system to meet today's challenges while improving quality of life for millions.

Improving Healthcare Access in Rural and Remote Canada

Canadian Association for Rural and Remote Nursing (CARRN) shares insights on the urgent healthcare needs Canada’s rural and remote communities.

Looking ahead, what are the most important next steps to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes in rural and remote communities? Improving healthcare delivery and outcomes in rural and remote communities requires long-term, community-based strategies. Key steps include expanding access to safe and a !ordable housing, creating protected time-o! structures to reduce burnout, and increasing educational pathways for students and internationally trained professionals who want to practice in rural settings. Rural and remote perspectives must be embedded in health policy, regulation, and planning at every level. Infrastructure investments —particularly in virtual care technology — are also critical to improving access and continuity of care. Just as importantly, health systems must reflect the lived realities of rural communities, prioritizing culturally safe, equitable, and sustainable approaches.

CARRN is helping lead this change by using its national platform to connect rural and remote nurses across Canada, amplify their experiences, and advocate for policy grounded in place-based knowledge. Through storytelling, research, and collaboration, rural nurses are shaping a more inclusive and community-rooted healthcare future.

How Life Sciences Can Fuel Our Economic Future

With the right support, life sciences could be Canada’s next boom.

Bettina Hamelin

In 2014, West Africa was gripped by the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

But during devastation, a ray of hope arrived: a vaccine developed at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory was deployed to Guinea. Thousands received it — and not one vaccinated person fell ill. That vaccine, now licensed by Merck, has been approved for global use.

This wasn’t an isolated success. From the discovery of insulin in 1921, to foundational HIV treatments in the 1980s, to the lipid nanoparticle behind mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and the basic discovery of artificial intelligence, Canada has quietly delivered world-changing breakthroughs.

Today, as Canada reconsiders our economic future and global trade strategies, it’s time to bring life sciences to the forefront — not just as a public health priority, but as an economic engine for national prosperity.

And this engine needs to fire on all cylinders now!

Why invest now?

While the U.S. has long been the epicenter of medical innovation, proposed cuts of up to 40 per cent in U.S. federal science funding open a new door for Canada to grow domestically and lead globally, together with other like-minded countries.

We already have a strong foundation. More than 2,000 life sciences firms employ 220,000 Canadians and contribute $82 billion to our GDP.

Global giants like Roche, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sanofi, and GSK are already investing in Canadian facilities and biotechnology research and development. Homegrown companies like AbCellera in Vancouver and Deep Genomics in Toronto, successful through both public and private funding, are delivering next-generation treatments using cutting-edge technologies.

With the right policies and partnerships, we can build a thriving Canadian life sciences sector that saves lives, creates jobs, and generates long-term prosperity.

Where can Canada lead?

1. Biomanufacturing and Advanced Therapies

Biologics are medicines made from living cells that are revolutionizing treatments for cancer, autoimmune conditions, and rare diseases. Expanding domestic biomanufacturing means more high-skilled jobs and new global export opportunities.

2. Digital Health and Health AI

Artificial Intelligence is transforming drug discovery, diagnostics, and personalized care. With AI hubs

in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton, multinationals like Roche and Sanofi opening global AI hubs, and innovators like Deep Genomics already producing the world’s first AI-discovered drug candidate, Canada is well-positioned to lead, if we invest wisely and modernize regulations.

3. Genomics and Personalized Medicine

Canada’s universal health system and diverse population make it an ideal testing ground for precision medicine — treatments tailored to an individual’s genetic profile. Organizations like Genome Canada and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research are laying the groundwork for global leadership in this space.

From promise to prosperity

A single Canadian breakthrough can generate billions in exports and create thousands of high-value jobs, while saving millions of lives around the world. But to make that happen, we must act now — by investing more and improving our regulatory environment.

It’s time for Canadian life sciences to take the lead.

Canada

To learn more, visit innovativemedicines.ca

This article was sponsored by Innovative Medicines Canada

Bridging the Gap Between Rural Patients and Specialty Healthcare

BioScript Solutions supports Canadians with chronic illnesses and rare diseases, providing access to complex drug therapies and delivering full-service specialty care solutions.

Tania Amardeil

Millions of Canadians living in rural and remote areas are being left behind by a healthcare system that wasn’t built for them. A shortage of healthcare providers and limited transportation makes accessing medications di fficult. For those prescribed specialty drugs — often essential for treating rare and chronic conditions — seamless coordination and consistent dosing are critical. While everyone deserves equal access to care, for many, it remains out of reach.

One organization working to change that is BioScript Solutions, a Canadian-owned company delivering nationwide, end-to-end specialty care. The company has combined its physical network of clinics, pharmacies, and distribution centres with virtual consultations and home delivery — helping patients receive personalized care from the comfort of home, even in the most remote communities.

A patient’s journey in Northern Ontario

“A patient living alone in remote Northern Ontario was missing doses because deliveries couldn’t reach him. He also worked at a fly-in/fly-out job site with no refrigeration for his medication,” says Kelsey Secord, Resource Nurse Partner at BioScript Solutions. “When he came to my office on a Friday, flaring from his condition, we quickly transferred his prescription to BioScript Pharmacy and had treatment administered at Coverdale Clinics within hours — avoiding another round of steroids. Now, Coverdale Clinics coordinates his infusions when he returns to town.”

Blending innovation with a human touch

Alongside its wide-reaching network, BioScript has focused on balancing innovation with a human touch. By streamlining operations through process automation and a new pharmacy management system, its pharmacists, nurses, and patient support teams have more time to spend with patients.

“By investing in technology, we’re able to bring BioScript Pharmacy directly to the patient, ensuring they receive timely, high-quality care in the way that’s most convenient for them — whether that’s virtual consultations, phone calls, text, or email,” says Marc Grenier, BioScript’s Vice President of Operations.

Ensuring no patient is left behind requires flexibility and creativity.

Creative solutions for remote delivery

Shipping temperature-sensitive medications can present many challenges, such as long-distance delivery routes, unpredictable weather, and even a Canada Post strike. Ensuring no patient is left behind requires flexibility and creativity.

“We once delivered medication to a patient in Arctic Bay — the furthest north we’ve ever shipped. We worked closely with multiple carriers and airlines to fly it thousands of kilometres from our BC pharmacy. Soon, we’ll be delivering to another location only accessible by a float plane that flies once a week. This patient works in remote resorts, so we have to get creative to ensure their medication arrives on time,” says Calvin Chan, Pharmacy Manager at BioScript Pharmacy British Columbia.

Bridging the gap

Across Canada’s vast and varied landscape, BioScript Solutions is using logistics, technology, and, above all, compassion to bridge the gap between rural patients and their access to treatment.

Visit bioscript.ca to learn how BioScript Solutions can support you.

This article was sponsored by BioScript Solutions

A New Approach to Innovation

Canada has the talent and ideas to lead in health innovation — with BioCanRx bold action is underway.

Canada has a proud legacy of scientific discoveries that have changed lives around the world — from insulin to stem cells to the technology behind modern vaccines. But too often, Canadian innovations are commercialized abroad, missing the opportunity to translate homegrown science into homegrown solutions.

Take, for example, Dr. Daniel Drucker’s groundbreaking work at the University of Toronto on GLP-1 peptides — the foundation of blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Although the foundational research and early development happened in Canada, the therapies were brought to market by companies in Denmark and the U.S., generating an estimated $50 billion global market. Canada was left largely on the sidelines.

Closing the gap

So how do we ensure Canada doesn’t miss out on the next transformative health innovation? BioCanRx, a not-for-profit

and national network focused on translating cancer immunotherapy discoveries into treatments, is doing just that by spearheading a distinctly Canadian approach to biomedical innovation.

Even if the cancer comes back, this has given me precious time, and I know the research will help manty others. It has given me a fighting chance.

- Camille Leahy

By investing in the critical translational stage between lab discovery and patient access via clinical trials, BioCanRx is ensuring that promising therapies are developed, tested, and manufactured here in Canada — for Canadians.

Proven results and real impact

Since its launch in 2015 with $40 million from the Government of Canada (leveraging nearly $110 million in partner contributions), BioCanRx has continued to receive national support — including $38 million from the Strategic Science Fund. And the results speak for themselves:

• 34 immunotherapies — including Canadian-made CAR T cell therapies — have advanced toward clinical trials

• 7 new biotech companies have been spun out

• 35 patent applications have been filed across 18 countries

• Over 400 Canadian cancer patients have gained access to novel, potentially life-saving therapies

Just as importantly, BioCanRx is building a skilled, collaborative ecosystem: linking researchers, clinicians, biomanufacturing experts, industry, regulators, and policy-makers across the country, while also seeking out global innovations and adapting them to the Canadian context. It’s a model

of how Canada can build not just scientific excellence — but the capacity to deliver it — and the results prove it can be do ne.

Taking the shot

With talent, ideas, and infrastructure already in place, what’s needed now is bold investment to support translation of Canadian research into products and decisive action.

Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take.” In life sciences innovation, Canada can’t a !ord to sit on the bench. Camille — a patient whose life was transformed through access to a Canadian-made therapy — and many others expect us to take that shot.

To learn more, visit biocanrx.com

This article was sponsored by BioCanRx.