Health investors from the United States are discovering vast prospects in Toronto as a hot-spot for biotech innovation and a place to invest in cutting-edge life sciences startups. 

To Jerel Davis, managing director of Versant Ventures, the global venture capital firm behind recent landmark deals in the city, "Toronto is pretty remarkable," as a "completely under-tapped" market with strengths in fields ranging from regenerative medicine and oncology to heart disease, children's health, radio medicine and imaging. 

"The opportunity is huge," he says, noting that U.S. capital and large pharmaceutical companies are attracted by Toronto's capacities "across the board" in science and healthcare delivery. "There's a very strong cluster of hospitals and research institutes in a very concentrated area. Many of them are top in North America, if not the world...

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LSN is gearing up for the upcoming Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference in Toronto's MaRS Discovery District, and we're seeking fundraising CEOs with the most promising early stage healthcare technologies to showcase in the RESI Innovation Challenge on April 4, 2017. 

LSN's scientific team is preparing to review the RESI Innovation Challenge applications from therapeutics, medtech, diagnostics and healthcare IT companies around the globe. All applicants will be vetted based on not only the quality of the company's scientific work, but also the strength of the management team and how well-positioned the company is to receive investment...

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Big pharmaceutical companies have been a major player in the life science investment space for decades, yet historically they have been known to "just license, and say goodbye." Today, these large corporations have taken new partnership models in the form of smaller funds set aside, innovation centers, and the like. Strategies and approach to these strategies have been changing in the last 5-7 years. With 40-60% of successful assets having come from external opportunities, it is with great note that big pharma is very closely following and adapting along the trends within the biotech ecosystem.

On January 10th, LSN gathered five highly experienced big pharma representatives for the Redefining Early Stage Investments panel in San Francisco around JPM. Moderated by Barbara Sosnowski, Vice President, External R&D Innovation, WRD of Pfizer and panelists representing Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, and Amgen shared insights around these trends in a variety of topics well-recommended for entrepreneurs and players in the space to take careful note...

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