“Things are going well in the industry,” said Benoît Larose, vice-president for Quebec of Medtech Canada. It is an incremental development, generally less risky than in pharmaceuticals ”, partly because of the diversification of medical technology products and the fact that the products of companies in this sector take less time to develop and obtain approval than pharmaceutical molecules.
Medtech Canada represents 120 companies in the medical technology sector in Canada. Most are local subsidiaries of multinationals like 3M, Roche, Siemens and Philips. About thirty of these subsidiaries are present in Quebec.
In Quebec, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation (MEI) lists 369 companies in medical technologies which represent 13,990 jobs. Almost 80% of these companies have less than 100 employees. These jobs account for 38% of the 36,930 in the life sciences sector, which also includes biopharmaceuticals and natural health products.
According to Benoit Larose, this census is quite incomplete, because the MEI does not include digital health companies that develop applications related to health.
“I discover new digital health companies almost every week,” he explains.
The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously had an impact on the sector, in particular that of the production of personal protective equipment. For example, the Montreal company Medicom decided to build a first factory in Montreal to produce medical masks.
First export
But for the majority of companies in Quebec’s medical technology sector, success still lies in exporting their products abroad rather than selling locally. The few hundred SMEs in the sector rely mainly on the United States, which is more keen on innovation than Quebec, to market their products.
There are no companies that develop [des produits] only for Quebec. Too often, companies develop here [leurs produits] with public money and it is patients outside Quebec who will benefit. The integration of innovation is not easy in Quebec.
Benoît Larose, Vice-President for Quebec of Medtech Canada
While the size of the Quebec and Canadian markets plays a role in this dynamic, Mr. Larose emphasizes that the philosophy of the lowest bidder is detrimental to the adoption by the Quebec health system of innovative products designed here.
“Here, you force SMEs to be assessed in the same way as multinationals [et] to offer the lowest possible price, explains Larose. SMEs are not always able to lower their prices ”as multinationals can.
Soundbite to the United States
PHOTO IVANOH DEMERS, PRESS ARCHIVES
Soundbite markets a technology that helps dislodge calcium plaques in blocked arteries, especially in the arteries of the legs of patients with hypertension, diabetes and kidney disease.
It is also to the United States that the Montreal-based company Soundbite is turning to market its product, a technology that dislodges calcium plaques in blocked arteries, especially in the arteries of the legs of patients suffering from hypertension, diabetes and kidney disease. Another version of its technology frees heart arteries and prevents coronary bypass surgery.
“It’s like a miniature jackhammer”, illustrates Lori Chmura, CEO of the company established for more than five years in the HUB Montreal, near many companies in the life sciences, and which started in a laboratory. from the University of Sherbrooke.
The company plans to market its product in the United States first to focus its limited resources in a process of licensing for a larger market.
“We need to launch the product where there is a big market, and not just small pockets of isolated cases,” says Mme Chmura. Canada is a smaller market than Texas or California. ”