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Stephen Scott
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Stephen Scott
2021-06-01 20:01
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good evening.
Clause 261 is a proposed amendment to provide the National Research Council with the ability to incorporate and stand up arm's-length entities such as not-for-profit organizations. Under this amendment, the NRC would be able to establish special-purpose collaboration models that increase and deepen linkages between NRC researchers and academics and the private sector.
The NRC's new biologics manufacturing centre facility, which will be operated through a public-private partnership over the longer term, is an example of where a new collaboration model could be used.
Stephen Scott
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Stephen Scott
2021-05-17 15:56
Yes, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon.
My name is Stephen Scott, and I work as the director general of policy, strategy and performance here at the National Research Council. I am joined by my colleague, Christine Jodoin, director general of the biologics manufacturing centre project.
The NRC legislative amendments are about positioning the NRC to deliver domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity in Canada going forward. There are two proposed amendments to the National Research Council Act. First, there is a proposed amendment to enable the National Research Council to manufacture and produce medical products, such as vaccines, on a larger scale to respond to pandemics and other public health needs.
Currently, the NRC is authorized to produce medical products, on a smaller scale, for things like clinical trials and experiments. This new authority would provide the NRC with the ability to manufacture vaccines on a larger scale, once the new biologics manufacturing centre at the Royalmount campus in Montreal receives regulatory approval by Health Canada.
Second, there is a proposed amendment to provide the NRC with the ability to incorporate and stand up arm's-length entities, such as not-for-profit organizations. Under this amendment, the NRC would be able to establish special purpose collaboration models that would increase and deepen linkages among NRC researchers, academics and the private sector.
The new biomanufacturing facility, which will be operated through a public-private partnership over the longer term, is an example of where a new collaboration model could be used.
Thank you, and we would be happy to take any questions.
Christine Jodoin
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Christine Jodoin
2021-05-17 16:03
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
On a practical basis, to give an example of the interpretation, under this current authority NRC is able to do R and D and production of an experimental nature. Right now, for example, our human health therapeutics research centre can do production on a 20-litre, 50-litre, 500-litre bioreactor capacity basis. Depending on the material in question, this can be up to 250,000 doses a month, for example. This is under the current authority.
With the biologics manufacturing centre, the capacity that we are building and designing is to produce with the capacity of a 500-litre bioreactor and a 2,000-litre bioreactor, and thus a total bioreactor capacity of 2,500 litres. As Stephen said, this is the equivalent of approximately 4,000 litres of production capacity a month, an equivalent of two million doses a month, with the caveat, of course, that it depends on the vaccine type and the manufacturing yield.
This is just to give you the comparative notion that this is larger-scale manufacturing. That's why we're proceeding, to ensure certainty that we can manufacture at that scale, with the biologics manufacturing centre.
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, as you know, the greater Montreal area and other parts of Quebec are home to thousands of tech start-ups. At the beginning of the pandemic, they told us that the wage subsidy program was inadequate in terms of coverage. A start-up is, by definition, a business where someone puts up their own money while working towards a technological development, which, once ready, they can sell and reap the benefits of. The government turned to the innovation assistance program, administered by the National Research Council of Canada.
Now, some start-ups are asking why the program was not extended until September 25, like other income support programs. As we know, the innovation assistance program provides more than $250 million in funding, largely to start-ups. Some have even warned that, if the program ends, they could go bankrupt by the end of the pandemic.
Why end the innovation assistance program when we are this close to the goal line?
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you for your question.
I must say, I certainly recognize how important Montreal's innovation ecosystem is. Toronto, where I'm from, has a similar ecosystem. Mr. Julian is here, and Vancouver, in his riding, has an ecosystem as well. The same is true of many other Canadian cities and municipalities.
Start-ups are a very important part of our growth plan. Canadian innovators will find quite a few measures in the budget that are meant to help them, especially small and medium-sized businesses wanting to make growth-oriented investments.
The budget truly focuses on growth and the future, with numerous programs that will be particularly helpful to these types of businesses. If you like, I can put together a list and send it to you.
Roger Scott-Douglas
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Roger Scott-Douglas
2020-06-04 15:54
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair, committee members and other witnesses. It's a pleasure indeed to be here.
I'm Roger Scott-Douglas, secretary general of the National Research Council. I'm very happy to be joined today by David Lisk, vice-president, industrial research assistance program; Jean-François Houle, the vice-president responsible for our COVID pandemic challenge response program; and Lakshmi Krishnan, director general, human health therapeutics branch.
Like others, I will begin by briefly explaining a little bit about the National Research Council.
We are the largest federal science organization, with close to $1.2 billion in expenditures. Over the course of the last 104 years that we've been existence, we've served as an instrument of the federal government in trying to find scientific and technological solutions to significant challenges, which is very much the call of the moment. We do that in two principal ways. We have a research and development side where over 2,000 scientists, engineers and technicians work in 14 research centres across 22 sites. On the IRAP side, the industrial research assistance program side, we also have about 400 people of whom 255 are industrial technology advisers working with close to 8,000 firms annually—high-potential, early-stage innovative firms that are so important to the innovation economy of the country.
In the context of COVID, the National Research Council, as part of the Prime Minister's announcement of the $1 billion that's been given over to COVID, received funding and support for, effectively, seven measures, which I would like to briefly outline. Then my colleagues and I would be most interested in answering any questions that members might have. I'll walk through each of them at a very high level, explaining a little bit of what lies behind them. I might, before getting into those details, talk about the important work the National Research Council, along with other science organizations across the country, has tried to provide to the community.
We've had over 350 requests for technical advice, for short-term support for companies, to provide such things as the quality assurance on N95 masks that the Public Health Agency has asked of us, and for other measures that support the community, individuals, the provision of personal protective equipment, and so on and so forth. This I say only to show how connected we are with both the larger federal group as well as communities across the country.
In terms of specific measures, I'll run through the seven key things.
The first—and this is Jean-François Houle's responsibility—is the pandemic response challenge program. We were fortunate enough to receive $15 million in the medical countermeasures announcement by the Prime Minister. There are essentially four themes or pillars to that work. All of these are collaborative programs where the National Research Council scientists pair up their expertise with individuals in academia and the private sector to come up with technological and scientific solutions to these challenges. These are short-term applied scientific efforts. The first theme is around rapid detection and diagnosis. The second theme is around therapeutics and vaccines. The third theme is monitoring and surveillance, data analysis, tracking for testing and that kind of thing. The fourth is around enabling adaptive responses, including innovative solutions for the delivery of health care. We have in the organization both the human health therapeutics branch, of which Lakshmi is the director general, and also the medical devices lab, which Jean-François will be able to speak about.
The second big thrust is the announcement of, in total, about $44 million that will be used by the National Research Council to upgrade and enhance the capacity of our Royalmount biomanufacturing facility.
It's currently a research lab. We're going to be upgrading it such that it obtains levels of good manufacturing practices and enables us to provide testing for promising vaccine candidates. Ultimately, once a candidate has been found, we hope it provides the successful industrial production for first responders and so forth.
We have three vaccine collaborations as well, with VBI Vaccines , an Ottawa-based company with an attachment to Massachusetts; VIDO-InterVac from the University of Saskatchewan; and CanSino Biologics in China, which is one of the leading international vaccine researchers.
In addition to that, on the IRAP side, which I mentioned Dave Lisk was responsible for, we're working with Innovation Canada under the innovation solutions Canada program. We have been given $15 million to set up challenges for which innovative SMEs and others will provide technological solutions. We've launched three challenges so far, surveying and assessing quite a few proposals for low-cost sensors, for diagnostic kits and for made-in-Canada filtration material. We'll be launching a couple more in the days ahead.
In addition to that, IRAP has kind of red-circled, if I can put it that way, and reallocated $12.5 million of its budget to help innovative SMEs develop proposals for the kinds of products necessary for the COVID response, such as PPE, testing diagnostics, and tracking and detection products, and that kind of work. We've also organized subject matter expert teams around those broad themes to provide expert analysis when we can.
The next area, the wage subsidy, is a very significant support. Several of the witnesses have spoken about it. Some groups fell between the gaps, particularly early-stage pre-revenue innovative firms, high-potential firms. The government has provided $250 million to IRAP for the innovation assistance program, which effectively provides highly qualified personnel with a wage subsidy—it's about $10,000 per employee, retroactive to April 1—with the idea of delivering the program as quickly as possible. Unlike others, it is not an entitlement program; it's a discretionary program. We're evaluating firms with the highest potential to go forward. We're happy to say that as of May 28, we have already established 1,939 contribution agreements for close to $200 million.
The final thrust of work, which is a critically important part of our future, is youth, particularly those highly qualified future STEM innovators. In that regard, we have a couple of very important programs under way. The government has a long-standing youth employment program. It was topped up to the extent of about $153 million—IRAP will have a portion of that—and will be targeting SMEs, meeting their needs to keep graduates. Within the National Research Council, we have a need to bring on STEM grad students and post-docs, and we've allocated $7.5 million to do that.
Thank you very much.
Jean-François Houle
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Jean-François Houle
2020-06-04 16:37
Sure. I will probably talk more about the technology and the solution development around diagnostic testing, and then my colleague David Lisk can talk about the work they're doing with companies that are closer to market and dealing with more mature technologies.
Within the pandemic response challenge program, we do have a “detect and diagnose” pillar of research. That one is aimed at identifying platforms that are maybe six to 12 months out in terms of development to maturity. Our role is really to act as an accelerator to help develop those technologies. In some cases, these technologies come from academic centres. Some have in fact been supported by Rob and his group, maybe at Genome Canada or the CIHR. We provide them with the expertise and knowledge to help them robustize the technology and eventually scale it, with the hope that this will be transferred over to a company. We also work with SMEs that have promising technologies and need to deal with some thorny research issues in order to get this technology to market as well.
That has been the approach within the pandemic response challenge program. We are also launching challenges for loftier goals—higher risk, higher reward. We actually launched recently a call for proposals for technologies from academic centres and small companies that could augment some internal technology at the NRC. That would allow for a chewable diagnostic or something that could be deployed somewhere else or closer to the patient, or maybe even at home.
With that, maybe I'll turn it over to Dr. David Lisk to talk about the work we're doing with companies.
David Lisk
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David Lisk
2020-06-04 16:39
Okay.
We work with 8,000 companies a year. Many of them are in the health space. We have invested currently in 12 COVID test companies that are going to test solutions to find the virus or the antibodies; plus, we have current clients who have technology and tracking space. One of them is Thrive Health, which currently has seven million users in Canada who are actively tracking.
I'll stop there in the interest of time.
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