Dr. Wendy Young says there is a very good reason why medical patients are interested in aiding doctors in clinical studies of new drugs.
The lead physician of the Blue Sky Family Health Network says patients benefit from participating in the trials because they get to spend a lot more time one-on-one with their doctors, are more educated about their illnesses, and have access to drugs which are not yet on the market or available through health plans.
Set up in late 2002, the Blue Sky Family Health Network is Northern Ontario's first Family Health Network, a provincial program designed to increase access to primary medical care for patients.
Dr. Graham says the Health Network system also offers general practitioners a unique opportunity to become involved in medical drug testing.
"There has been a shift in the industry," she says in relation to the drug testing market. "The industry is less interested in testing products in the lab and more interested in testing in real-life situations."
She says because general practitioners see a wide variety of patients, and help co-ordinate the treatment of diseases ranging from cancer to liver and lung disease, they are able to offer drug manufacturers a diverse selection of people on which to test medication.
"We also know the medical history of our patients," she adds. "We know their history and the medical history of their families."
Graham, along with 12 other doctors involved in the program, have opened an office in North Bay for the "sole purpose of being involved in the biotechnology industry," she says.
Working with drug manufacturers, the doctors select patients from their database, who meet the needs of these companies, in order to test new medications for effectiveness and possible side effects.
She says patients involved in the process are able to see their medical conditions documented as part of their work in the clinical trials, and participate in regular check-ups, that range from 45 minutes to an hour, with doctors.
Randy Moggach, a medical laboratory technologist who teaches at Canadore College, says there are currently "several studies" operating in North Bay between drug manufacturers and doctors, and it is part of the city's growing biotechnology sector.
"The biotechnology industry is a 24-hour-a-day operation," he says. "That is why it has become a driving force in our economy and is breaking new frontiers on a daily basis."
He says manufacturers prefer the demographics of Northern Ontario because the North has indigenous populations where residents live in similar situations and are exposed to many of the same environmental and social influences.
"Clinical trials are going to show up the North in a number of areas," he predicts, adding there is a point in the development of new medicines where companies need "to begin testing it on humans."
Called clinical trials, these are the areas where companies will contact doctors looking for test subjects with specific characteristics like gender, age and medical histories on which to test new drugs. A number of studies are currently being conducted in the city. Moggach says a local dermatologist is involved in clinical trials, as are a group of doctors at the Northgate Medical Clinic.
Moggach heads up the biotechnology program at Canadore College and says the field is growing rapidly in North Bay.
The program started seven years ago after the 25-year-old medical laboratory technology program took a "nose dive" in the mid-1990s, along with other health science professions with the readjustment of the health system.
About 11 schools were offering the same course, now only four medical laboratory programs are operating in the province, with Sudbury and North Bay in Northern Ontario.
"We actually had a lot of things in place when we did the switch over of the program," he says, in reference to the two- to three-year course. "We updated the programs and added a field placement."
While the college only accepts 32 students each year, statistics from Human Resources Development Canada show the industry is looking for more professionals.
"It is still lucrative, and the last statistics show they are still looking for 4,000 people," says the Moggach. "Enrollment has just been excellent; we fill the program every year,"
Moggach warns that while the sector is growing in the city, North Bay, and Northern Ontario in general, still lacks the human and technical infrastructure needed to realize the full potential of the industry.
"What we lack in Northern Ontario is intellectual mass," he says. "You need to have people at the PhD level and who have research experience. The researchers need high-ended support, we need people researchers can rely on."
The missing component included experts who were able to map genes and conduct protein analysis, as well as equipment like fluorescent microscopes.
"The drawback is that this industry is mainly located in large centres; it basically has to be located where there are really good resource facilities at the university and college level, and this is one of the major problems we are trying to address in Northern Ontario," says Moggach. "We don't have any supportive industries in North Bay, that is why we are working with the economic development commission to see if we can bring that here."
Nancy Creighton, executive director of the North Bay EDC, says biotechnology is going to hit every sector of the Canadian economy the same way information technology did a few years ago, from manufacturing to product development.
"It is said that for every one person who is doing research in science you have eight jobs created," Creighton says. "We already know there are companies doing clinical trials here and that is just the tip of the iceberg."
She says the key for North Bay is that there are clusters of research going on in the city and other areas of the province, but while this is the case, the raw materials for the research will come out of the field, including the forests, doctor's offices, mines and agricultural sectors in Northern Ontario.
"It is going to be happening in our community, and there are things we are trying to do to encourage these things to take place in North Bay," adds Creighton.
She says the EDC is currently researching the sector and is educating itself on what biotechnology is, who is doing it, and how the city can integrate into existing activities.
Creighton says the city wants to keep itself aware of what is going on in order to provide opportunities for both the researchers based in Ottawa, Toronto and Guelph, and the businesses located in North Bay.
"We have a number of partners who have come together to encourage biotechnology," she adds, naming Fed Nor, the local chamber of commerce, hospitals and educational institutions.
"We are short of researching it out and seeing where we can go and what we need. I think biotechnology is going to be a slow process in Northern Ontario. Instead of looking at one large industry hiring four hundred people, we are going to see 20 different places hiring 400 people in total."
