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www.lexpert.ca 5 in and desire to understand the industry spurred by a global virus "has been both the blessing and the curse of the COVID pandemic," she says. Many players are investing in research and development and developing innova- tive R&D partnerships and trial designs. A notable example is a collaboration between Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, which produced a vaccine within eight months of the pandemic declaration. at was remark- able, and the acceleration of research and development is exciting, says Grant. "What's coming out of it and what will last for years to come is that kind of dynamism, that acceleration of growth, that focus on novel research and development partner- ships, and making invest- ments in the sector that are more broadly charac- terized than just money." Even before COVID, "the prediction was that this was going to be the decade of health innova- tion," says Cheryl Reicin, practice leader of the Life Science Group at Torys LLP in Toronto. at's due to the convergence of artificial intelligence and older digital soware and the need to keep aging baby boomers healthy. Telehealth Telehealth refers to a broad range of technol- ogies that provide virtual health care, medical and education services through advanced technologies and related platforms. In February, Global Market Watch predicted that telehealth could become a US$175-billion market in the next five years, and at least one telecommunications company has gotten in on the action. In 2017, Right Health, a Toronto-based company that combines virtual with face-to-face health care for Canadians, acquired Akira Medical, an on-demand mobile health-care platform providing instant access to health-care practi- tioners via text and video chat. Less than two years later, Telus Health, a division of Telus, purchased Right Health. Telus now has "a very robust telehealth solution," says Michael Watts, a partner at Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto, which has acquired and offers health and well-being solutions that consumers and allied health professionals can access. Telus' Babylon app allows users to see a doctor, mental health counsellor or dietitian via their smartphones. e app now has a licence in Canada and is partnered with Babylon Health in the U.K. In December, MindBeacon Holdings Inc., a Toronto-based company providing mental health services through an online platform, closed an IPO that raised $7.5 million. And Dialogue Health Technologies Inc., which describes itself as "Canada's premier virtual health-care and wellness platform," closed an IPO in March that raised approximately $100 million. "What we've seen now is some of these early startups be acquired . . . and now some of them have gone public," says Watts, whose firm worked on the MindBeacon and Dialogue IPOs. "We've assisted them in becoming some of the first virtual, digital health-care apps to go public." The biotech and biomedical boom "I think the biggest innovations of the 21st century will be the intersection of biology and technology," Steve Jobs was once quoted as saying in referring to his son's choice to work in biotech rather than computers. "A new era is beginning, just like the digital one was when I was his age." According to Toronto-based investment firm Bloom Burton & Co., which focuses on the health-care sector, Canada accounts for about three per cent of the biotech sector's global market capitalization. Canadian biotech companies raised $3.2 billion in financing in 2020, compared to more than $110 billion raised globally. ere is also international interest in Canadian offerings. In June, Repare erapeutics, a clinical-stage precision oncology company based in St.-Laurent, Que. and with an office in Boston, raised US$253 million in its IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. e company preferred to list exclusively on the U.S. "CANADA WAS A LEADER IN THE CANNABIS MARKET AND CONTINUES TO BE A LEADER IN PSYCHEDELICS, TOO." Cheryl Reicin TORYS LLP

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