Bio-medical and medical spin-off companies from Canadian medical schools and affiliated research institutes.

Abstract

Although biotechnology is a relatively a new industry it is expected to have a major impact on our economy and society in the near future. The field of medicine will be affected dramatically. The spin-off phenomenon is also relatively new. Little information has been available on their effect, especially on a national basis. As a study of medical and biomedical companies created from technology developed in Canada's medical schools and affiliated research institutes, this thesis set out to answer five questions related to biotechnology and spin-offs. The five questions follow: (1) Which Canadian companies are biomedical spin-offs? (2) Who funded the founding technology of biomedical spin-off companies and the careers of the founding scientists? (3) What is the rate of spin-off creation? (4) How are these spin-off companies impacting the economy? (5) Which provinces have been "players" in this industry? (Abstract shortened by UMI.)