Strengthening innovation policies will create jobs and economic opportunities for Canada, says Rx&D

In a submission to the federal government last Friday, Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry outlined concrete measures aimed at improving productivity and attracting more much-needed pharmaceutical and life sciences investment to Canada.

“Our industry is committed to working with governments at all levels to increase investment and create more high quality jobs in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector,” says Russell Williams, president of Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D), adding: “With the right policy tools in place, we can bridge the innovation gap and make Canada a global player in the knowledge economy.”

The Rx&D submission to the Expert Review Panel on Research and Development chaired by Thomas Jenkins says that, rather than handing out subsidies, the federal government can reverse the trend of declining global pharmaceutical investment in Canada by taking bold policy action in several areas. These include strengthened intellectual property (IP) rights, regulatory modernization and the public procurement of innovative medicines and vaccines. The submission also calls for improvements to the Federal Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit to spark additional commercialization of new products in Canada. Currently, significant levels of industry investment are not being recognized or accepted under SR&ED.