Halifax, NS – March 26th, 2020 – As the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to grow globally, Nova Scotia’s innovative health and life sciences community including IMV Inc., Sona Nanotech, BioVectra and others are ramping up efforts to study the virus, develop vaccines, provide medical supplies and protective equipment to hospitals, and retool their abilities to support the healthcare community.
BioNova, the organization leading the health and life sciences sector in Nova Scotia has been working behind the scenes to support the sector by facilitating critical conversations between industry, government, the academic community and the healthcare community to identify the most pressing needs in health and life sciences.
“Our member companies are working hard to develop resources that will protect the health and safety of Nova Scotians and support international efforts to fight this pandemic and we’re working hard to ensure they have the support they need to continue to innovate within this very uncertain business environment,” said Scott Moffitt, Executive Director of BioNova.
BioNova is working closely with national organizations such as MedTech Canada and Innovative Medicines Canada whom are critical to the continuity of Canada’s health care supply chain to prevent shortages of things like diagnostic tests that enable the diagnosis of disease, personal protective equipment for front-line health and life saving medicines such as Insulin.
As part of this preventative health supply strategy BioNova is also working with federal and provincial governments to ensure funding and operational needs are met within the sector and to identify medtech and pharmaceutical companies as ‘essential services’ exempt from certain business restrictions so that they, along with their employees can continue to work and supply life saving products to healthcare. This has already happened in other provinces such as Ontario.
Locally, BioNova has been identifying member companies who can support the Nova Scotia Health Authority with testing for COVID-19 as they may reach capacity limits internally. They have also offered to support the Health Authority in sourcing essential medical supplies and protective equipment from the sector and have connected them with suppliers and manufacturers across Canada.
For more information on how the health and life sciences sector in Nova Scotia is coming together to fight COVID-19 visit www.BioNova.ca
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