Global Life Science Opportunities in Biotech & Digital Healthcare

Alberta’s biotech sector presents significant opportunities for startups and established businesses focused on the biotechnology industry. The region’s strengths in pharmaceuticals, environmental biotechnology, and agri-biotech are anchored by financial support from the provincial government and academic institutions, as a proactive approach to clinical and drug development. This includes innovation hubs, incubators, and accelerators from Innovate Calgary and the Alberta Innovates system.

The biotech sector in Alberta is geared towards expansive growth from the earliest stages of development, providing valuable lab space and resources for early-stage biotech companies, akin to already world-renown biotech hubs like the California’s San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego, or Boston, Massachusetts. The Biotechnology Business Development Centre in Edmonton is a biotech business accelerator hub in Canada, providing infrastructure like wet labs and office spaces to reduce the cost and time to market for biotech innovations. The BBDC’s collaborative environment in Edmonton Research Park, its flexible leasing, and access to shared high-cost equipment are perfect for startups and scale-ups aiming to expand in the life sciences sector, offering a strategic advantage in the competitive biotech industry.

In 2023, Celero Global, a worldwide clinical development, Singapore-based company, established its North American headquarters in Edmonton, Alberta. A business expansion decision attracted by the city’s strong innovating and passionate life sciences research hub. This move is expected to significantly contribute to the regional economy, emphasizing Edmonton’s growing importance in the global life sciences sector. Specializing in efficient and cost-effective clinical trials for biotech firms, Celero plans to start its operations in Edmonton within three to six months, focusing initially on obesity and nephrology trials. Celero Global, having conducted 80 clinical trials across over 25 countries, offers competitive advantages such as lower costs for Phase 1 trials and services that extend beyond clinical trials to assist in commercialization and scaling.

Alberta is setting a new benchmark in healthcare innovation and funding, as the Canadian government and Alberta have recently entered into a $1 billion agreement to enhance healthcare over three years, focusing on primary care, mental health services, and digital health data access. This funding is part of a larger $200 billion national healthcare improvement plan. It offers significant opportunities for digital health startups and international investors to contribute to Alberta’s healthcare advancements. 

Alberta Innovates facilitates the advancement of digital healthcare technologies, targeting international partnerships, external investors, and life sciences industrial market expansion to drive economic development throughout Alberta, along with enhancing the quality of care in the medical industry, improving patient care, and promoting wellness and health outcomes throughout the world. With a focus on artificial intelligence, mobile applications, and other advanced technologies, the initiative seeks to transform healthcare delivery, offering a pathway to high-quality care that prioritizes patient experience and equitable value-based care. Funding-driven programs facilitated by Alberta Innovates, including AI-Better Health, Accelerating Innovations into CarE (AICE), and LevMax Health, are designed to support the commercial potential of innovative projects, driving the commercial viability of medical technologies within the global healthcare market.

Alberta’s healthcare system is notable for its transformative digital health information technology sector, making it unique in Canada for providing an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system to all citizens. This includes:

• Netcare
• MyHealth Records
• ConnectCare

The integration of these systems, supported by Alberta Health Services as the single healthcare provider, enables a unified dataset of medical records for healthcare organizations and startups to test and scale innovations effectively. The EHR system enhances patient care by reducing medical errors and improving the quality of care through streamlined access to patient medical history and records. 

The adoption of EHR systems in Alberta facilitates improved health care delivery by offering real-time access to electronic patient records, supporting healthcare providers in making informed clinical decisions, and improving patient outcomes. For the healthcare industry, key benefits include electronic records, instead of paper charts, for operational efficiency, optimized care coordination, and enhanced patient safety. Moreover, the digital infrastructure of cloud-based EHR integrations in Canada provides a solid foundation for businesses and startups to develop and commercialize new medical technologies, directly contributing to improved treatment plans, reduced medication errors, and better patient health outcomes.

Alberta’s expertise spans across various industries, notably including the petrochemical sector, which lays a solid foundation for advanced continuous manufacturing critical to the medical device industry. The abundant access to cheap feedstocks, basic chemicals, and chemical derivatives supports a wide range of medical device manufacturing, especially in the production of APIs and medical devices. This resource-rich environment is conducive to medical device contract manufacturing, offering medical device companies and contract manufacturers a unique advantage in developing high-quality products while maintaining control over production costs and adhering to strict quality standards. 

The presence of Alberta Health Services as a single healthcare provider in the province enhances the potential for streamlined contract manufacturing services, facilitating easier collaboration between medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers. This synergy ensures that medical products, including a broad range of medical devices, meet the healthcare industry’s demands for innovation and quality management systems.

The global medical devices market is expected to reach nearly US$800B by 2030 fueled by demand for innovates devices (wearables) and services (health data). For contract manufacturing partners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Alberta presents a strong opportunity in the medical device contract manufacturing process, from design, materials, to manufacturing, ensuring products meet international standards and regulatory controls while optimizing time to market.