Ontario to provide new bioscience financing

The Ontario government is providing one-time special financing of $7 million exclusively for Ontario-based bioscience companies to help the sector advance programs to treat, prevent and diagnose disease.

The Ontario Bioscience Industry Organization (OBIO) is recommending that eligible companies be permitted to match this money with funds from other investors, creating up to $14 million of financing.

The government initiatives respond to OBIO’s report, Industry Generated Recommendations for Sustainability and Growth of Ontario’s Bioscience Industry in 2010 and Beyond, which the advocacy group presented to the province in 2009.  The report is available here.

“We are grateful to the Ministry of Research and Innovation for its swift response to support Ontario’s bioscience industry with urgently needed funds,” OBIO president and CEO Gail Garland said in a statement.  “OBIO has developed proposed guidelines for deployment of these funds, with the advice of finance-industry experts and bioscience-company CEOs,” she added.