TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®), a not-for-profit membership based organization that is Ontario’s leading advocate for the health science industry, hosted keynote speaker Dr. Edward Abrahams, President of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, at its 9th Annual Public Meeting at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP on November 27, 2017.
Dr. Edward Abrahams’ presentation, “Why Personalized Medicine Matters,” described his experience founding the Personalized Medicine Coalition and updated an audience of over 90 health science industry professionals about the latest developments in personalized medicine and how it is changing health care delivery and innovation.
“Personalized medicine offers an extraordinary opportunity to make patients healthier while lowering systemic health care costs,” said Dr. Abrahams. “The growth in the field of personalized medicine has been dramatic, as the number of FDA-approved drugs with pharmacogenomic information in their respective labels has risen from five in 2008 to 132 by October 2016. While scientific discovery in this area will continue to accelerate, personalizing health care will require the combined resources of multiple stakeholders — payers, providers, patients and innovators – all of whom must be willing to invest in a paradigm change that can drive innovation, improve patient outcomes, and reduce the overall costs of health care.”
OBIO also launched its latest report at the Annual Public Meeting, “Bridging the Talent Gap”, which describes the unique value of OBIO’s Health to Business Bridge (H2BB™) business internship program in 2017. With feedback from participating companies, interns and subject matter expert advisors, the report explains how H2BB addresses the challenge of pulling top talent into Ontario’s health science industry.
“In 2017, the Health to Business Program succeeded in helping the health science industry address the talent gap,” said Gail Garland, President and CEO of OBIO. “This year, H2BB placed 55 business interns in 42 different companies and, based on our feedback, we know there is even more demand in 2018. From all accounts, OBIO’s H2BB business internship is unique in Ontario and possibly Canada because of how it engages of subject matter expert advisors to mentor interns and utilizing targeted workshops to deliver a health science industry perspective to interns.”
The 2017 OBIO Annual Public Meeting provided an opportunity to review OBIO’s activities in 2017 and look ahead to plans for 2018. MPP Cristina Martins, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development and Growth spoke on behalf of the Government of Ontario and described the supportive partnership between the provincial government and OBIO. MPP Bill Walker and MPP Catherine Fife each brought greetings on behalf of the OBIO MPP Health Science Caucus.
About OBIO
The Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®) is a not-for-profit, membership-based organization engaged in the development of an integrated health innovation economy for Ontario and one that will become a global leader in providing health technology products and services to the international marketplace. OBIO advances this goal through advocacy, promotion and strategic leadership and via collaborative partnerships with industry, academia, patients and government.
For more information, visit the OBIO website www.obio.ca and follow OBIO on Twitter, @OBIOscience.
