INSIGHT: Susan Marlin, President and CEO of Clinical Trials Ontario, and Garrett Tone, Executive Director, Life Sciences at Invest Ontario
As part of a bid to strengthen its position as a global leader in life sciences, the UK recently introduced major reforms to its clinical trials regulations – the most significant in two decades.
The changes represent a key step forward for clinical research in the UK, creating a more streamlined framework designed to narrow the gap between the set-up of trials and the delivery of new treatments to patients.
But the significance of these changes doesn’t stop at the UK.
In an increasingly connected international life sciences landscape, stronger clinical trials systems don’t just benefit the countries that build them, but also help advance clinical research around the world. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats.
For jurisdictions with established research partnerships, these reforms create an opportunity to strengthen collaboration and build on shared expertise.
At a time when companies are reassessing where they invest and innovate, Canada is increasingly emerging as North America’s partner of choice. Beyond its scientific excellence, Canada’s reputation has been built on collaboration, bringing together governments, researchers, healthcare institutions, industry and academia to solve shared challenges.
As like-minded countries look to strengthen ties with trusted partners, that collaborative model has become an increasingly important competitive advantage.That is particularly true for the UK and the Canadian province of Ontario, which have a long history of working together to advance health research and life sciences innovation.
The province is the most productive clinical trials hub in the G7 relative to population, supporting 15 industry-sponsored trials per 100,000 people compared with 0.83 for the UK. It is also home to more than 2,000 life sciences businesses, alongside a network of world-leading research hospitals and over 94,000 STEM graduates a year.
That success has been built on an approach that prioritises efficiency, predictability and collaboration – principles that sit at the heart of the UK’s recent reforms and have helped position Ontario, and Canada more broadly, as a trusted destination for international life sciences investment and research partnerships.
This includes streamlined ethics review processes, a standardised agreement for industry-sponsored pharmaceutical trials, predictable regulatory timelines underpinned by Health Canada’s 30-day default review period and a research environment that supports patient recruitment.
As the UK moves to modernise its clinical trials system, there is an opportunity to build on Ontario’s experience and strengthen UK-Ontario parallel research partnerships, particularly around oncology, precision medicine, rare diseases, AI-enabled trials and real-world evidence generation. By working together socially, economically and academically, both jurisdictions can create a stronger platform for innovation than either could alone.
Stronger collaboration creates opportunities for companies to leverage the UK and Ontario as complementary innovation hubs rather than separate markets. In an increasingly competitive global environment, companies are looking for jurisdictions that can work seamlessly across borders.
For example, businesses can run parallel, multinational trials that allow access to diverse patient populations and accelerate recruitment, leveraging Ontario’s strengths in clinical trial execution, scientific talent, AI and digital health alongside the UK’s globally recognised research institutions and scientific expertise.
That opportunity is already being demonstrated by companies working across both markets. AstraZeneca, the UK-headquartered global biopharmaceutical company, has established a significant research and clinical development presence in Ontario, including its Global Clinical Trial hub.
Last year, the company announced an $820 million CAD investment to expand its research and development facilities in Mississauga and relocate its Canadian headquarters, creating more than 700 new jobs in Ontario’s life sciences sector.
In the last three years alone, Ontario has secured landmark investments from AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Roche totalling over $1.6 billion CAD.
The UK’s regulatory reforms create a timely opportunity to deepen relationships across the Atlantic, but collaboration does not happen through policy alone. It depends on researchers, companies and governments identifying where their strengths align and building the partnerships needed to unlock new opportunities for clinical research that delivers better outcomes for patients around the world.
