Posted by Tom @ MaRS, February 8th, 2010
Outcomes of the Green Energy Finance Forum
Last Friday saw an extraordinary number of Ontario’s financiers in the MaRS auditorium. Why? The Green Energy Act has brought into being an entirely new class of financial asset: financing Feed-in Tariff based renewable energy projects. In easy terms: the FIT guarantees a good rate of return for wind, solar, hydro and biogas projects. It’s like a government guaranteed bond that pays upward of 10%.
On Friday, MaRS was educating Bay Street about the opportunity. The message: renewable energy projects are no longer a fringe play; they’re a strong, mainstream finance opportunity.
Posted by John Mc @ MaRS, February 5th, 2010
Money for the biotech industry?
BIOTECanada has made further announcements on the financial condition of the Canadian biotechnology industry.
A recent survey indicated that 70% of Canadian biotech companies have at least a year of cash on hand versus a mere 30% in July 2009. According to the January 25 news release this turnaround was achieved by companies restructuring their operations (read “downsizing”) and increased access to foreign investment (read “fire sale”). With the important proviso that I haven’t seen the underlying survey data, I can’t help but wonder if the upswing in apparent financial viability was driven by closures of less financially fit companies than any genuine positive momentum.
Posted by John Mc @ MaRS, February 3rd, 2010
Watch MaRS Future of Medicine™ TV
Announcing the MaRS Future of Medicine™ online video channel highlighting outstanding presentations from the inaugural MaRS Future of Medicine™ Conference held in Toronto on November 12, 2009.
The mission of MaRS Future of Medicine™ is to showcase Ontario’s leading life sciences innovations, share best practices for commercial development and help facilitate industry partnership and investment. If you missed the sessions or just want a refresh, tune in now!
Posted by Keri @ MaRS, January 29th, 2010
Consumers turn to the Kindle
A new year, a new set of technology predictions from Deloitte. Last Wednesday, Deloitte unveiled their annual TMT (technology, media and telecommunications) predictions for 2010 at MaRS and looked back on how their 2009 predictions fared.
Most notable of their 2009 predictions were the rise of netbooks, social networks, smart phones and 3D in theatres and on TV (think Avatar and all the new 3D electronics from Sony and Samsung among others at CES 2010). They were also awfully close on their prediction that one in 10 newspapers in the US would die in 2009 – the actual statistic was one in 12.
This year, the theme was “good enough becomes better than perfect” – meaning that we still want our data anywhere and anytime, but we want to access it economically (and we don’t necessarily need the best device to do it).
So what does Deloitte think that 2010 has in store for technology? Here’s a sampling from their Top 10 Canadian TMT Predictions for 2010:
Posted by John Mc @ MaRS, January 28th, 2010
What's the buzz on cord blood stem cells?
Dr. Colleen Delaney and colleagues at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center published a significant breakthrough relating to new treatment options for acute leukemia and other blood cancers this month in Nature Medicine journal.
Promising news for cord blood stem cell applications.
