Biopharmaceutical Industry Profile

Most of Canada's private and public biopharmaceutical companies are small and medium-sized (SME) firms engaged in research and development of new therapeutics. Many biopharmaceutical innovations arise from research conducted in Canadian academic health research institutions, hospitals and government research laboratories.

  • Major biopharmaceutical clusters are located in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
  • In 2010, there were an estimated 180 private and public biopharmaceutical companies, mostly SMEs, in Canada.
  • There were over 500 new products in development by Canadian biopharmaceutical firms, including products with multiple therapeutic indications.
  • The top three therapeutic classes for biopharmaceutical products in development were oncology (41 percent), neuroscience (14 percent) and infectious diseases and vaccines (11 percent).
Figure 1: Biopharmaceutical Products in Development in Canada, by therapeutic area
Figure 1: Biopharmaceutical Products in Development in Canada, by therapeutic area [Description of Figure 1]
  • About 60 percent of the biopharmaceutical pipeline in Canada is in research and pre-clinical phases.
Figure 2: Biopharmaceutical Products in Development in Canada
Figure 2: Biopharmaceutical Products in Development in Canada [Description of Figure 2]
  • The large number of therapeutic products at various stages of development offer alliance opportunities with Canadian biopharmaceutical firms.
  • Canadian biopharmaceutical company partnerships with global pharmaceutical firms include: Cardiome and Merck; OncoGenex and Teva; EndoCeutics and Bayer; and Alectos Therapeutics and Merck.