Most health-care innovations are built in a lab, but materials scientist Latchmi Raghunanan developed a fertility drug delivery patch from her kitchen counter in Toronto.

The CEO and chief science officer of Maman Biomedical Inc. – who spent a decade working in research and development in the medical device industry – launched the company after undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and learning how many injections were required in that process.

“It was obvious that we could solve this problem with the technologies that exist,” Dr. Raghunanan says, adding that most patients require multiple daily injections for up to two weeks. “We take the drugs as they exist and reformulate them to go into our microneedle patches, which are painless and go on like a Band-aid, instead of daily injections.”

Though Maman was founded to address a need in fertility treatment, Dr. Raghunanan says the patent-pending drug delivery patch could eventually be licensed for a range of medical uses.

“We call it a platform product, meaning as long as the drugs are compatible, we can use it in a wide range of products,” Dr. Raghunanan says. “It’s our goal to be known for delivering women’s hormone therapy, from as early as contraception to menopause, but there are huge opportunities in areas like diabetes, vaccine patches, and we have the opportunity to license the technology as well.”

The journey from the prototype Dr. Raghunanan made on her kitchen countertop to commercialization, however, is several years long, and will require access to some costly equipment and resources, as well as significant research and development funding. Until recently, accessing those tools and resources would likely have required leaving the country.

“We’ve been able to tap into the university network through the accelerator system, and we recently got accepted by SpinUp Lab at the University of Toronto, so we can grow the science off our kitchen tables,” says Dr. Raghunanan.

The incubator program at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus – which opened its doors to its first 15 startups in the first cohort in May – is one of the few in Canada to offer startups access to a “wet lab,” where they can conduct life science research.

“The lack of lab availability in our ecosystem is a real concern, and we want to make sure that they are well set up to move on within our ecosystem, rather than going elsewhere,” says Raquel De Souza, director of partnership and innovation at U of T Mississauga, who led the creation of SpinUp.

“They might leave because of lab space availability, they might leave because they are having trouble accessing early-stage funding, but often they don’t leave because they want to, so it’s about giving them the resources, so they have a choice to stay.”

Canada has a wealth of talent, robust early-stage government funding programs for research and development and a growing ecosystem of postsecondary institutions and accelerator programs for health technology startups, she explains.

For example, early-stage health care companies can apply for funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Credit Program, to name just a few. This year, the Government of Canada intends to invest nearly $16-billion combined in science and technology.

Though the country will likely remain overshadowed by the funding powerhouse across the border for the foreseeable future, Dr. De Souza believes it’s come a long way in making it easier for entrepreneurs to keep their companies in Canada – even if they need to look for funding elsewhere.

“We want them to expand beyond Canada, but we would like for them to continue having a presence here, because that generates jobs, it keeps innovation here, and it keeps the great talent that we have growing within these companies,” she says. “We definitely have the potential; the resources are growing through this ecosystem, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”

Canada hasn’t always been a major player in the development of health tech solutions, but its reputation is gradually building as it develops an ecosystem capable of supporting a growing crop of home-grown innovators and entrepreneurs.

“I’ve been through seven different accelerators, and those accelerators do a really good job of preparing you to think big and go to market,” says Vishar Yaghoubian, CEO and co-founder of Toronto-based Toothpod. “What we lack is funding for these founders, for these companies, for these ideas.”

Like many entrepreneurs in the field, Ms. Yaghoubian looked for capital south of the border to help fund her startup, which developed a “smart gum” designed to promote oral hygiene without the need for a toothbrush.

Since its founding in 2022, Toothpod has partnered with the Harvard School of Dental Medicine to conduct clinical trials, and a major Dental Service Organization with 400 dental clinics in the United States, where its product will be rolled out in the coming months.

“Being in the U.S. my business grows a lot faster because there’s more people, there’s more money, and there’s more risk tolerance,” Ms. Yaghoubian says. “It’s not about where you end up raising money, it’s about whether you come back to Canada.”

This year American venture capitalists are projected to invest between $4-billion and $4.5-billion each quarter in health care technology companies. By comparison, the entire Canadian venture capital ecosystem invested $6.9-billion in all of 2023, just a small fraction of which went to health care-related startups.

As a Canadian newcomer who built her startup with support from Canadian universities and government programs, Ms. Yaghoubian is one of a growing community of health tech entrepreneurs committed to keeping their company in Canada.

“Funding from Canadian universities and Canadian accelerators and incubators have helped me get here,” she says. “We’re continuing to build a community here, which is at the end of the day what will keep more people here.”

Editor’s note: Raquel De Souza holds a PhD and should be referred to as Dr. De Souza. The copy has been updated.