SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Faculty of Applied Sciences Leonardo Summer Institute LESSONS LEARNED FROM STUDYING THE VANCOUVER HUMAN BIOTECH CLUSTER Monica

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Applied Sciences

Leonardo

Summer

Institute

LESSONS LEARNED FROM STUDYING THE VANCOUVER HUMAN BIOTECH CLUSTER

Monica Salazar, [email protected]

School of Communication, PhD candidate

Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology- CPROST

Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

MIT, Cambridge, June 2005



Leonardo

Summer

Institute

Outline presentation

1. What is a cluster

2. Overview of Vancouver biotech cluster

1. Garden metaphor & necessary environment

3. Lessons learned (what can we tell about the industry)

1. Firms

2. Policy-makers

3. Socio-cultural aspects

4. Conclusions: Cluster studies issues



Leonardo

Summer

Institute

What is a regional cluster?

• Porter (1998): Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities; usually there is a large firm with global reach.

• Asheim & Isaksen (2002): Clusters are regarded as places where close inter-firm communication, and social-cultural structures and institutional environment may stimulate socially and territorially embedded collective learning and continuous innovation.



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2. Overview of the human biotech cluster in Vancouver

Innovation Systems Research Network national project: 26 case studies on regional “clusters” across Canada, including high-tech and traditional sectors. The network is conformed by researchers from various academic backgrounds.

Biomed companies in Vancouver region: 90 firms, mainly small (# employees), young companies (after 1995), various phases of development

Third largest cluster in Canada, 7th in North America, but the fastest growing

Highly intensive in R&D spending, more bio-stars than Toronto and Montreal

Mainly spin out of U. of British Columbia: high survival rate (75% over 5 years old)



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Biotech cluster …. continued Lead firm: QLT (1981), highly successful, global reach company.

No manufacturing capacities, main “product” is IPR (US patents).

Neither tech collaboration nor competition: each firm works in a niche technology/disease (see following slides)

Joint ventures (R&D alliances, production and marketing agreements) mainly with US pharmaceutical companies.

No vertical integration: suppliers not important, not local customers.

Little competitions for local talent, although its availability is crucial. And, firms are able to attract highly qualified people from other places.



Leonardo

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FIELDS OF STUDY # FIRMS

Therapeutics 29

Diagnostics 9

Bio-Products 5

Bioinformatics 4

Virology 3

Neuroscience 2

DISEASES # FIRMS

Cancer 20

Infectious 9

Cardiovascular 6

Inflammatory 6



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TECHNOLOGIES/ TOOLS # FIRMS

Genomics 7

Drug delivery 7

Proteomics 6

High-Throughput Screening 6

Bio-processing 4

Lab reagents 3

Gene-therapy 3

Environmental 2



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1.2. Garden metaphor

• City landscape: Beautiful by nature

• Nursery: University of British Columbia, and others

• Seeds: ideas from local scientists and grad students

• Seeds germinate, plants grow, thanks to lots of water: first by public R&D funding, second by risk capital (angel investors & venture capitalists)

• Fertilizers: alliances with pharmaceutical companies

• Pollinators: key actors (private investors, board members)

• Vendors: local civic association BC Biotech, Leading Edge BC (provincial agency)

• Flowers (IPR) are taken by passers-by. What will happen with the plants?



Leonardo

Summer

Institute

Necessary environment for biotech companies to flourish

Attractiveness of the city-region: quality of life, lifestyle

Research from the Univ. of British Columbia and research money (to maintain it)

Talent pool

Availability of risk capital

Strong civic association (BC Biotech)

Biotech buzz and vibe These are the conditions, so what needs to be done?



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Institute

3.1. Lessons learned: firms’ perspective

Human capital: How to attract and retain talent, considering that highly qualified personnel come from all over Canada and the world (around 70% of firm employees with a PhD).

Flexible working arrangements, equity positions

Networking and joint-ventures: How to build long-lasting partnerships with big pharmaceutical companies, considering that Vancouver companies mainly sell intellectual property rights to these companies.

Good legal advice and support (patent lawyers)



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Firms ….. continued

Technology development: How to maintain a variety of products/technologies in the pipeline, not to rely on one blockbuster.

Knowledge management: How to keep and foster linkages with knowledge producers (researchers at universities).

Firms should focus more on D (development) rather than R (research).



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3.2. Lessons learned: policy-making

Federal government:

Need to provide more research money or, at least, to keep a regular flow.

Provincial government:

Good provision of health care and education

Need of an innovation policy, mandate and/or champion

Support to clusters

• Is the province the locus, or should be the city-region?

• Leading Edge BC: Is marketing enough?



Leonardo

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Policy-making …. continued Municipal government:

Provision of adequate physical infrastructure: airports, telecom, public transportation, etc..

Maintain/improve quality of life: amenities, environment, security

Foster “creative cities”: policies for attracting firms (business climate) & people (people’s climate), promotion of arts & culture

Local civic and industrial associations: Key roles: Networking and mentoring and in a lesser extent

lobbying government

Conglomerate the industry: they are the glue that keeps firms together



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Institute

3.3. Lessons learned: importance of socio-cultural aspects

What is special about Vancouver?

Beautiful by nature

The best place on earth to live and work

Lifestyle (environmentally friendly, skiing and sailing on the same day, availability of organic products, etc.)

All this is “given”, although we need to take care of it.



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Socio-cultural issues … continued

Entrepreneurial and risk-taking culture

Various private initiatives to support and incentive entrepreneurship

• Vancouver Enterprise Forum

• VANTEC Vancouver Angel Technology Network

• Telus New Ventures BC

• Western Universities Technology Innovation Fund

• Technology, Innovation, Management and Enterprise (TIME) Centre (an incubator)



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4. Conclusions: emerging issues in cluster studies

Propose new definitions and types of clusters, not just traditional Porter’s approach

For instance, ISRN results point to some common characteristics of Canadian high-tech clusters:• Highly dependent on global knowledge flows

• Local users-suppliers relationships less important, because of global linkages

• Local talent pool crucial

• Usually research coming out of universities and government labs important, but not enough to promote emergence of clusters



Leonardo

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Institute

Conclusions …. continuedTwo issues are emerging:

Clusters and regional innovation systems in Canada are limited to city-regions. It is an urban phenomenon.

The geography of talent (see R. Florida) says that some locations are more attractive than others:• What anchors firms? What anchors people? Do firms attract

people or do people attract and create firms? If people are first, what is needed then?

• Need to do more research on ‘creative cities’: urban economies (no localization economies), quality of place, cultural diversity and tolerance.

Documents

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Faculty of Applied Sciences Leonardo Summer Institute LESSONS LEARNED FROM STUDYING THE VANCOUVER HUMAN BIOTECH CLUSTER Monica