Authors: Aaron Pinto, Ontario’s Senior Economic Officer, New York & Chelsea Peet, Ontario’s Senior Economic Officer, San Francisco
The life sciences industry has long been a major player in North America, with Ontario, Canada being at the forefront. With a rich history of medical breakthroughs, including insulin, stem cells, and remote robotic surgery, Ontario's life sciences sector is Canada’s largest, employing over 70,000 people and generating over $65.2 billion in revenues from 1,900 firms. Over the past two and a half years alone, global biomanufacturers have invested nearly $3 billion in the sector and in diverse regions across the province, from Windsor to Hamilton and Ottawa to Thunder Bay, which underlines Ontario’s appeal as a destination for life sciences.
Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level
Recognizing the significance of health as an economic driver, Ontario launched its strategy, Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level last year. This strategy aims to build on the sector’s momentum to further collaboration, innovation, and growth by securing new investments in next-generation health technologies, medicines, and biomanufacturing.
Ontario's life sciences sector is unique in its connection to the fourth industrial revolution, which is focused on creating cross-sector links particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) as a means of transforming healthcare in unimaginable ways. Ontario is positioned right at the nexus of the industry, producing life-changing technologies to diagnose, treat, and even prevent disease – leading the shift to patient-centered healthcare.
Homegrown Biotechs and Industry Giants
Ontario has cultivated many homegrown biotech companies and has become a prime destination for global life sciences giants. Plenty of Ontario’s biotech and life sciences companies are driving innovation and changing lives with cutting-edge technologies: Cyclica, a world-class team focused on AI-driven drug discovery; PointClickCare, a cloud-based healthcare software provider; and BlueDot, an outbreak intelligence platform, which was among the first in the world to discover the spread of the COVID-19 virus. OmniaBio Inc. is also driving global leadership in cell and gene therapy as it builds out a new biomanufacturing facility in Hamilton’s McMaster Innovation Park.
The Province has also attracted some of the biggest names in the industry, including Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Medtronic, and Stryker. And it's no wonder why – Ontario offers a highly skilled talent pool, a leading North American tech cluster, some of the most generous R&D tax credits, a politically stable economy, cutting-edge R&D facilities, and the largest publicly funded healthcare system in Canada. Plus, the government has reduced the cost of doing business in the province by $8 billion annually, making it an even more attractive location for companies looking to grow.
Ontario is also a hub for clinical trials, with the world's top ten pharma companies by revenue conducting research across the province.
These key value propositions are leading to significant investment and engagement in Ontario’s life sciences sector, including from heavy hitters in the industry:
· Roche, the world's largest biotech company, continues to build on its success in the province. The company has created a new Ontario-based Center of Excellence for AI in partnership with Toronto’s Vector Institute, and invested in a global pharma technical operations site at its Mississauga headquarters.
· To meet the challenge of the pandemic, in May 2021, Resilience Biotechnologies, the Canadian subsidiary of National Resilience, a San Diego and Boston-based company, upped its manufacturing and fill-finish capacity for several vaccines and therapeutics in Ontario.
· In June 2022, Sanofi also opened an AI Centre of Excellence in Toronto, developing and scaling advanced AI products implemented globally, while AstraZeneca announced plans in February 2023 to expand its rare disease research operations and create 500 skilled scientific and research jobs in Mississauga.
Research Excellence and Talent
Home to some of the world's most groundbreaking discoveries in life sciences, Ontario universities are globally recognized for their research excellence. For instance, the University of Toronto is ranked among the top 10 universities in the world for clinical, preclinical and health programs. In addition, the province has two national research hubs focused on understanding and managing infectious diseases and health threats, anchored in the University of Ottawa and McMaster University.
Ontario also boasts a diverse, multilingual talent pool to support the growth of the life sciences sector. The Province is a top producer of STEM graduates, with 48 higher education institutions offering courses such as biotechnology, genomics, bioinformatics, and biomedical engineering. The number of Ontario STEM graduates, which is already more than 65,100 a year, is forecasted to keep growing well into the future, making Ontario ripe for life sciences investment and exploration. Moreover, Canada’s job permit processing is among the fastest in the world, with permits for highly skilled global talent available in as little as ten business days.
Life Sciences Assets
Ontario’s open environment for innovation and collaboration extends to leading organizations like the University Health Network, the largest research hospital network in Canada, which includes the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre – a leader in stem cell research and one of the largest treatment centers in the country. There are many other remarkable life sciences assets in Ontario, such as Medical Innovation Exchange, Canada’s first industry-led hub dedicated to helping medtech startups scale; Synapse Consortium; Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; Ontario Genomics Institute; Ontario Brain Institute; Waterloo Eye Institute; BioCanRx; Stem Cell Network; Ottawa Heart Institute; and the Structural Genomics Consortium. Together, they have helped create dozens of startups and accelerate the development of new research, treatments, and technologies.
To further support the province’s life sciences sector, the Government of Ontario is investing in a new innovative hub in Kitchener and Waterloo. The University of Waterloo’s Innovation Arena will be a $35 million facility that promotes the development and commercialization of new health technology. It will be the future home of a health-tech incubator, a small business centre, and a shared wet lab to support local startups.
It doesn’t stop there. Ontario is actively working to support entrepreneurs and innovators in the life sciences sector. With a network of incubators and accelerators, including MaRS, North America's largest urban innovation lab, and more than a dozen research partnership programs and grants, such as Mitacs, FedDev, and the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), there is no shortage of support for those looking to bring their ideas and prototypes from the lab to the marketplace.
The MaRS-adMare Therapeutics Accelerator, led by MaRS and adMare BioInnovations, seeks to unlock scarce wet lab space and bring together early-stage biotech ventures to commercialize and scale, while Ontario’s 17 Regional Innovation Centres are helping to connect companies with award-winning researchers to conduct pre-market clinical testing of advanced health technologies.
Investment Opportunities and Funding Programs
The strides Ontario is making in life sciences are paying off. The Province achieved record-breaking results in attracting new investment in 2021, with more than half of all venture capital (VC) investments in Canada going to Ontario with approximately $8.4 billion, including approximately $846.8 million in life sciences.
To further support businesses, the Ontario government launched a $15 million Life Sciences Innovation Fund, delivered by OCI, to support life sciences entrepreneurs and innovators to scale their made‐in‐Ontario health solutions. Additional funding programs include OCI’s Ready 4 Market fund, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF), Graphite Ventures, and VC funding through Venture Ontario. The Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization also hosts an annual Investment Summit to showcase some of Ontario’s early-stage life sciences industry to the global investment community, and Invest Ontario, the province’s investment agency, is equipped with financial and non-financial incentives to attract investment opportunities from global biomanufacturers.
Ontario’s Global Business Network
As heads of Ontario's Trade and Investment Offices in New York and San Francisco, we lead teams on both U.S. coasts focused on promoting trade, investment, and R&D commercialization linkages between Ontario and the U.S. Central to our role is facilitating direct connections with potential buyers, distributors, OEMs, and R&D partners. We also open the door to investment opportunities in Ontario.
Together, we work to showcase innovative technologies of Ontario companies. Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, the Honourable Vic Fedeli recently led 29 companies to represent the province at two of the world's largest technology and innovation conferences, including the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference and Biotech Showcase. The Province is also excited to bring some of its most innovative life sciences companies to the BIO Convention in Boston and Collision in Toronto in June 2023.
If you are interested in learning more about Ontario and its thriving life sciences sector, please reach out to Charley Ford and Marisa Goepel, our Senior Commercial Officers in New York and San Francisco respectively. They would love to connect with you and provide more information about the opportunities available in this dynamic industry.
Aaron J. Pinto Consul & Senior Economic Officer, Ontario International – New York Trade & Investment Office | Government of Ontario, Canada; Chelsea Peet Consul & Senior Economic Officer, Ontario International – San Francisco Trade & Investment Office | Government of Ontario, Canada