As originally published in Investment Reports, featured by Newsweek on 10th April 2026
Over the past year, have you seen any changes in Canada’s regulatory environment that make the system faster, more efficient, or easier for innovative medicines?
Overall, the issue persists, but we are seeing progress on two fronts. One is at the level of Health Canada, which has seriously tackled the opportunity for regulatory reliance. That means relying on trusted agencies such as the FDA and European regulators instead of redoing all of the reviews. The expectation is that this will speed up the process at the regulator level. The policy is currently under consultation, and we have submitted our views.
We believe there needs to be more ambition. Health Canada wants to start with a pilot in pediatric medicines, which is great, but we need to look at broader therapeutic areas as well. The other area where we have made progress is public reimbursement, which remains a major bottleneck after regulatory approval.
What progress have you seen on the public reimbursement side, particularly in getting medicines to patients faster?
As you may recall from last year, after Health Canada approval it still takes, on average, two and a half years for innovative medicines to get onto a public formulary. For cancer medicines especially, when a patient receives a devastating diagnosis and their doctor says there is a great medicine but it is not available, that is devastating. We have made progress in Ontario, where we worked closely with Premier Ford and officials to create a new pathway.
That pathway is called FAST. After regulators have deemed a medicine safe and effective, and after the Canadian Drug Agency has made a positive recommendation, the medicine is immediately reimbursed by public insurance in Ontario. Negotiations with the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance then happen in parallel, followed by reconciliation if needed. The result is significantly faster access for patients in Ontario.
Could these kinds of policy changes also strengthen domestic innovation and make Canada a better R&D center?
That is an interesting question. A good place to start is the Global Innovation Index. Canada ranks very strongly on innovation inputs, which reflects major investment in research, a highly educated population, strong universities, and excellent research institutions. But when it comes to innovation outputs, Canada falls behind, which shows that the challenge is not generating research but translating it into innovation and commercialization.
Part of the issue is that even when Canadian companies succeed, the domestic market is constrained because public reimbursement takes so long. A startup company simply cannot afford that. So the whole commercialization pathway in Canada has to improve. The work we are doing to accelerate that pathway is good for innovation in Canada as well. There is huge potential, but startup companies will continue to need collaboration with multinationals so Canadians can get the medicines they need.
Beyond regulation, has Canada’s life sciences ecosystem improved over the past year, and are there any notable developments from the field?
A year is a very short time frame, so it is important to view this in a global context. What is happening right now has been heavily influenced by the most favored nation executive order signed by President Trump in May 2025. That sent a shockwave around the world in terms of recalibrating how innovation is funded, where it is happening, and where it is supported. Companies are now reassessing where governments are willing to pay for innovation and where the path to reimbursement is predictable and short.
In Canada, government has done an incredible job of decreasing prices for innovation, which has been good for Canadians, but at the same time Canada has not been paying its fair share for innovation. Companies are now deciding where to invest in launches and in life sciences more broadly. Canada has to do some serious reflection and work with government to ensure it is proactive, pays for innovation, and offers a more predictable and shorter path to reimbursement. Right now, Canada is about three and a half years behind the U.S. when it comes to launches, so it is not at the top of the list for strategic investment decisions.
Aside from your advocacy on regulation and reimbursement, have you launched any other initiatives lately that you are excited about?
What we are really excited about right now is that the Canadian government has committed to creating a task force between industry and government. At that table, we will be discussing the entire pathway to innovation, where the barriers are, and what some of the solutions could be, so that Canada remains a top country for innovation, for the life sciences sector, and for industry investment.
This is the first time we have managed to get a table like this to look at the entire pathway and ecosystem with government and work together on solutions. We are very excited about that opportunity because we have not had it before, and I believe it is a crucial ingredient in building a productive ecosystem where companies continue to invest and bring innovation to market.
What are your priorities for the next 12 months?
I am really ambitious about the outcomes of this table between industry and government.
Our goal is to decrease the time to patient by at least a year. There is also a major opportunity to ensure that the Canadian government recognizes the importance of the life sciences sector, the importance of being ambitious for the sector, and the importance of investing more in innovative medicines.
That is really the focus. It is all about greater value for innovation and faster value for innovation in Canada. That matters for the entire ecosystem: local research, the translation of that research, local startup companies, and collaboration with the multinational industry. It is a tall order and a lot of work ahead, but we are very excited to see significant progress on the access front in Canada over the next year.
Who will be involved in this new industry-government task force, and what will that table look like?
On the government side, it is led by the Ministry of Health and co-led by the Ministry of Economic Development. Other participants include the Department of Finance, the Department of Trade, the Prime Minister’s Office, and GAC. On the industry side, there will be big pharma, and what we are hoping for is a very tight table so that we can actually get work done, similar to the success we had in Ontario.
We also expect Biotech Canada to be at the table, along with some life sciences organizations focused on the economic development of the homegrown industry. We believe the generic industry will also be represented, as well as some academic thought leaders. Our goal is to keep the table small enough to be effective, while still looking at the entire ecosystem, from research and innovation to commercialization and patient access.
