The rich experience shared at our forum demonstrates that Montréal has what it takes to succeed in the field of life sciences and health technology (LSHT). This conference, organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, was held on November 7, bringing together over 300 of the city’s decision-makers and influencers.
The Minister of Economy, Science and Innovation and Minister responsible for the Digital Strategy, Dominique Anglade, took advantage of this opportunity to send a very positive signal to the sector. In fact, she announced the creation of the BioMed Propulsion program, with a $100 million budget.
Here are the three takeaway ideas from this strategic forum:
1. Integration of innovations into the health care sector should be a priority
One of the established priorities concerned the importance of developing a long-term vision to modernize our health care system. We must urgently facilitate the integration of locally developed innovations into our network. Not only will this modernization benefit our companies and our economy, it will also help patients, who will have access to better quality care. The Quebec health care system must fully grasp the role that innovation plays in ensuring its sustainability.
2. A sector that must be developed and showcased internationally
LSHT represents close to US $2,000 billion in revenue worldwide. Montréal can carve out a place for itself in this growing sector. The city must focus on its main strengths, that is, on its pool of talent, its R&D know-how, and its favourable investment climate.
However, the sector’s stakeholders complain that our attractive features suffer from a lack of visibility internationally. We must further promote our LSHT strengths, while bolstering pride in our know-how and locally developed innovations.
3. Support our companies at every stage of growth
Greater Montréal boasts a very vital LSHT ecosystem, which is made up of a large number of companies. Our speakers emphasized the great value of locally developed products and technologies that are exported all over the world.
Our entrepreneurs nevertheless face barriers to obtaining funding at every level of their companies’ growth. Some Quebec flagships now find themselves having to look to foreign investors.
The LSHT sector offers exceptional performance and development potential, which must be promoted to local investors. To bolster our companies and to maintain wealth and jobs locally as much as possible, we must improve access to funding and mobilize all of the actors in the chain.
Coming up next
The sub-sector of technology applied to health will see massive growth in the coming years, and having existing metropolitan LSHT and ICT clusters in Montréal is definitely an advantage. TELUS Health, a company with Montréal roots, has carved out an enviable position for itself.
Attend our lunchtime conference on November 24 to learn about the vision of a leader: Mr. Paul Lepage, President of TELUS Health.
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The Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal has drawn up a portrait of the life sciences and health technology sector.
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