Allison Brown is the site head of BioLabs University of Toronto, the first Canadian location in a global network of shared lab and office facilities spanning twenty biotech innovation clusters around the world. Located in the MaRS Discovery District, it puts her at the epicentre of innovation and commercialization in Canadian life sciences.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with Allison about a journey that began in the Rouge Valley in Scarborough and took an unexpected turn when her father, a chemical engineer, arranged a meeting with a University of Toronto engineering professor. That single conversation changed the course of her life.

Allison talks about her PhD in chemical engineering, life as employee number four at a scrappy startup operating out of the corner of an academic lab, and the leap out of the lab and into management consulting that shaped the rest of her career. She has since worked in pharmaceutical marketing, at CCRM, and at Medicine by Design, spending her career at what she calls the commercialization spectrum.

Allison also explains how the BioLabs model works, why Toronto is coming into its own as a global life sciences hub, and the areas of convergence she believes will define the next wave of innovation.

Andrea Ladouceur is President and CEO of the Biosciences Association of Manitoba, or BAM, a not-for-profit industry association based in Winnipeg that is focused on growing the province's life sciences sector.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with Andrea about a side of Manitoba that surprises almost everyone. The province's number one export is not grain or canola, it is pharmaceuticals, with thirty percent of all medicine exported from Canada manufactured in Manitoba. Andrea explains why global pharma companies have quietly put down roots there, how the province trains twenty percent of Canada's bioscience talent, and what it will take to unlock the sector's next level of growth.

Andrea also makes a compelling case for partnership over competition, the strength of Manitoba's tight-knit ecosystem, and why she believes the province deserves a bigger seat at the national table when Canada tells its life sciences story to the world.

Trigger warning: This episode touches on themes of mental health and loss of life. Listener discretion is advised.

Neil Fraser is one of the most respected leaders in Canada's medtech sector. He spent 38 years at Medtronic Canada, serving as president from 2004 to 2022, and has been a longtime advisor on health innovation policy and a director on numerous boards.

In this archive episode of NGBideas, host Jim Wilson speaks with Neil about a journey that began in a nomadic, trans-Canadian family and led him from chemical engineering at UBC to the leading edge of Canadian healthcare. Neil reflects on the early Procter and Gamble years where he patented a world product, his role introducing aluminum cans and curbside recycling to Ontario at Alcan, and the serendipitous move to a then-tiny Medtronic that shaped the rest of his career.

Along the way, Neil shares the lessons that stayed with him, from a founder's belief that everyone is responsible and the patient comes first, to his passion for value-based healthcare, and why he believes the status quo can always be changed with a well-made, evidence-based argument.