February

Toronto-based Novadaq Technologies Inc.’s SPY Intra-operative Imaging System received a Japanese patent. Novadaq developed the SPY system, which monitors blood flow through grafts during cardiac procedures, in collaboration with the National Research Council.

Novadaq’s HELIOS system had just received FDA 510(k) approval in January. Plastic surgeons use the fluorescent HELIOS system to monitor blood flow in reconstructive plastic surgery.

May

BIO 2007 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, was the largest to date.

June

BioTransfer 2007, a collaboration of McGill University and the National Research Council’s Biotechnology Research Institute, showcased two dozen new technologies for potential investors at NRC-BRI in Montreal.

The Health Care Products Association of Manitoba (HCPAM) votes to phase in a new name, Life Sciences Association of Manitoba (LSAM), with a new logo to match.

October

The federal government announces $105 million in funding for seven Centres of Excellence, including three neurology-based institutes: the Brain Research Centre at the University of British Columbia; McGill University’s Montreal Neurological Institute; and the Life Sciences Research Institute in Halifax. The LSRI’s Brain Repair Centre is affiliated with Dalhousie University as well as both the NRC’s Institute for Biodiagnostics and the Industrial Research Assistance Program. The BRC has also received funding through the Canada Foundation for Innovation and through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Atlantic Innovations Fund.

November

IMRIS Inc., an NRC spin-off, raised $40 million in their oversubscribed initial public offering (IPO) on the TSX. This is one of the largest Canadian medical device company IPOs in TSX/TSE history. See the profile of IMRIS in this issue.

The 14th annual BioNorth Biotechnology and Life Sciences Conference, focusing on commercializing Ontario biotech companies, was held November 19-20 in Ottawa.