Federal government commits $20 million to help scale up health innovations
Posted July 29, 2019 2:46 pm.
Last Updated July 29, 2019 4:01 pm.
VANCOUVER — The federal government has committed $20 million to help scale up innovative Canadian companies in the health and biosciences sectors.
The funding will go towards establishing a marketplace on which smaller companies and startups will be able to sell health technologies to participating hospitals and health providers.
Small Business Minister Mary Ng says the CAN Health Network will provide easy access to a large, consolidated domestic marketplace to both scale up companies at home and help them expand abroad.
The federal government will initially put up $7 million to establish a western Canada network led by the Saskatchewan Health Authority and a southern Ontario network led by Trillium Health Partners.
The network, which could later be expanded nationally, is designed to reduce the barriers to entry for smaller Canadian companies and help them understand the needs of health providers.
The federal government says Canada’s health-care spending totalled $253 billion last year while the international market for medical technologies is estimated at $500 billion annually.
The Canadian Press
