This Week’s Biotech Highlights

This week saw the release of Canada’s 2010 federal budget. Maybe next year, I’ll see if blogging qualifies me to join the lock-up; but for 2010 I stuck to web-based review and analysis:

• The budget was fairly popular among the science and innovation crowd — though reaction to the budget followed faithfully the degree to which each constituency’s requests were funded.
• The full list of relevant line items is here; but this post is a good starting point to focus on the top budget items for biotech and other knowledge-based industries, including an increase in basic research funding, a new innovation commercialization program and…
• The demise of Section 116! Section 116 had created an onerous tax filing obligation that generated zero tax revenue, and has been accused of being a major barrier to an influx of U.S. venture capital investments in Canadian companies. If Section 116 was the barrier it has been made out to be, we’ll see a new influx of capital. It would be great to be able to look back and definitively assess the impact of this change, so if anyone can think of a comparator group for a good empirical assessment, please let me know in the comments.

Meanwhile, the rest of the biotech world did not stand still. Canadian biotech deals and new scientific developments continued apace, and India continued its hot-and-cold approach to innovation. Catch up on these developments at The Cross-Border Biotech Blog or follow us on Twitter @crossborderbio.