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A premier life sciences centre

Ontario ranks seventh in North America in terms of life sciences employment and eighth by the number of life sciences establishments, also in North America. We are home to a remarkable cluster of top-ranked institutions, researchers, developers and manufacturers.

Multinational companies include:

Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Teva

Homegrown companies include:

Apotex, Nordion, Nucro Technics, Patheon, Plantform, Sanofi, Therapure Biopharma, Trudell Medical, Xagenic

How 100 years in Ontario shaped Sanofi Pasteur's successful history

The world's largest producer of human vaccines discovered the ideal environment for innovation in Ontario. Innovation is the lifeblood of life sciences organizations. But taking great ideas from bench to market requires the right talent, support from private and public partners, and a competitive intellectual property regime.

There is a growing life sciences cluster here, in Ontario, and it's developing rapidly. I like to refer to it as an ecosystem. There are large companies like ourselves, universities and research institutions, skilled labour, small companies - all of this coming together.

- Mark Lievonen, President, Sanofi Pasteur Ltd

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Great talent from great institutions

• Six of Ontario's universities have associated medical schools, including the University of Toronto, one of North America's largest medical faculties.
• Our 44 universities and colleges produce some 40,000 graduates in science, engineering, mathematics and related technologies each year.

Why Roche chose Ontario

Exceptional talent drives success in the highly competitive life sciences market, but it's not always easy to find the scientific and business talent you need to innovate, commercialize and succeed on a global scale. Hoffman-La Roche kept this in mind as it was choosing a site for a global pharmaceutical development centre. In addition to a talent pool of around 60,000 life sciences workers, Ontario boasts a high concentration of business specialists with over 43,000 students graduated from business related programs in 2013.

Two of the top 10 international business schools are in Ontario.

I think the biggest asset Ontario provides to companies like us is its deep talent pool. We have been very impressed with the quality of the people we have hired locally for the site and I think this reflects the fact that the province does wonderful research. It produces great scientists, and sometimes you need to look locally before you look globally

- Ronnie Miller, President & CEO, Roche Canada

A history of innovation fuelling tomorrow's discoveries

Ontario is a place where today's innovative ideas are fast becoming tomorrow's world-renowned scientific, medical and technological breakthroughs, with the potential to improve millions of lives globally.

• Did you know that Ontario is home to the following major medical breakthroughs and innovations?
  • blood-forming stem cells
  • cancer stem cells in leukemia
  • discovery of the neuroleptic receptor
  • early-onset Alzheimer's disease
  • external cardiac pacemaker
  • identification of genes for cystic fibrosis
  • insulin
• Our excellence in life sciences is nurtured by public and private investments and forged through collaborative partnerships. Together, there is truly no limit to where innovation can take us.

Snapshot: Ontario R&D

• About 51% of Canadian life sciences R&D spending occurs in Ontario.
• 51% of Canada’s total R&D personnel in life sciences are in Ontario.
• Ontario's 24 academic research hospitals have invested as much as $1.4 billion in R&D and employ 18,000 researchers and research staff across the province.
• The world's top ten pharmaceutical companies by revenue (and others) conduct clinical trials in Ontario.
• Canadian industry patents exhibit relatively high impact (cited about 20% more than the world average).

World renowned research and academic institutions

• Ontario is a biomedical research powerhouse, with specialized academic and research centres across the province conducting investigations into virtually every area of life sciences.

Tax incentives

• A broader range of costs qualify for deductions than in many jurisdictions, and tax credits can be carried back for three years or forward for 20 years.
• Companies that earn federal Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive credits in Ontario are also eligible for a 4.5% non-refundable Ontario Research and Development Tax Credit.
• A 20% refundable Ontario Business Research Institute Tax Credit (up to $4 million annually) for contract R&D performed at eligible research institutes in Ontario such as universities or community colleges, hospital research institutes, Ontario Centres of Excellence or non-profit organizations.
• For small- and medium-sized companies, there is an additional 10% refundable Ontario Innovation Tax Credit worth up to $300,000 annually.
• The marginal effective tax rate of 16.6% on new capital investment (provincial and federal) is lower than the U.S. and OECD averages.

Select the best description of your operation to see possible after-tax savings you could achieve in on your R&D expenditures in Ontario.

Small and medium-sized manufacturers Large non-manufacturers Small and medium-sized non-manufacturers Small Canadian-controlled private corporations

Some examples

About 1,900 life sciences firms operate in Ontario, from start-ups with just a handful of employees to well-established companies with thousands. Here are some examples:

Promising start-ups

• Toronto-based Alpha Cancer Technologies has more than 20 international patents and recently attracted nearly $3 million in provincial and angel investments.
• ChipCare, the innovator behind a handheld point-of-care analyzer based on mobile technology, recently attracted one of the largest health-care angel investments in Canada's history, with Phase 2 financing of $2.05 million.
• Ottawa's eSight Eyewear has developed a pioneering wearable assistive device that helps people with low vision to see.
• Profound Medical is developing a minimally invasive treatment for prostate cancer based on MRI-guided high-frequency ultrasound therapy that is designed to reduce the collateral damage and side effects associated with current treatments.
• Rna Diagnostics is developing molecular diagnostic tools to radically improve the management of cancer chemotherapy. Early in 2012 Rna Diagnostics completed a $925,000 equity financing involving a syndicate of four accredited angel groups in Ontario, representing one of the largest angel financing deals in Ontario's med tech history.
• The potential market for Xagenic's lab-free diagnostic technology is more than $2.5 billion, and the firm has secured more than $30 million over two funding rounds financing from private- and public-sector sources.

Midsize innovators

• Natrix Separations, which is developing and commercializing innovative products for use in vaccines and biopharmaceuticals, is investing $5 million to expand its facility in Burlington.
• Nucro-technics is Canada's largest privately owned pharmaceutical contract support organization, and for the last 40 years, has been providing a wide range of custom-designed R&D and consulting services to the world's pharmaceutical and biotech community.
• Pillar5 Pharma, an Ontario pharmaceutical manufacturing firm with about 100 employees, is in the process of expanding its manufacturing facility in Arnprior.
• Qvella is developing an automated laboratory system for the rapid identification of bacterial species. The Qvella identification platform provides a more accurate and faster diagnosis of bacteria identification while improving workflow and reducing costs for the microbiology lab.
• Therapure Biopharma recently invested $28 million in an expansion of its facilities in Mississauga.
• Baylis Medical is a privately owned medical device company specializing in leading-edge interventional cardiology and radiology, and minimally invasive spine technologies.

Mature companies

• GlaxoSmithKline maintains five business offices in Ontario, including its Canadian headquarters and a $120-million state-of-the-art manufacturing and product development facility in Mississauga.
• Hoffman-La Roche has invested $190 million to establish a new global pharmaceutical development site in Mississauga.
• Medtronic, whose Canadian headquarters are located in Mississauga, is the global leader in medical technology, alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world.
• Novocol Pharmaceuticals has invested $54 million to expand production and R&D capacity at its Cambridge facility.
• Patheon has grown from a small operation in Fort Erie, Ontario to 14 facilities in five countries, 7,000 employees and $700 million in revenue (in 2011). The company won the European outsourcing award (EOA) in the category of Most Effective Scale-Up and Technical Transfer award.
• Sanofi Pasteur is the vaccine division of Sanofi-Aventis Group, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. In 2011, Sanofi Pasteur opened a $101-million vaccine R&D facility in Toronto, with $13.9 million in support from the Government of Ontario. This facility was established as Sanofi Pasteur's North American Centre of Excellence in analytical and bioprocessing R&D.
• Teva Canada launched a $56-million expansion of its High Potency Manufacturing Centre of Excellence in Stouffville, making the facility one of the most advanced pharmaceutical plants in North America.