edical technology firm Becton Dickinson & Company (BD) moved into the booming healthcare-associated infection (HAI) field in early 2006 with the acquisition of GeneOhm Sciences, a San Diego-based firm founded in 2001. GeneOhm's 2004 merger with Québec City-based Infectio Diagnostic, gave it an extensive base in the field. With BD's new business growing and projected to continue growing at a robust base, the Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based firm began looking to move out of its leased space and establish its own manufacturing facility.
   BD's search brought them to the Parc Technologique du Québec Metropolitain, Québec City's high-tech business park.
   Jamie Condie, vice president and general manager of BD Diagnostic's Gene-Ohm division, says history and talent kept BD in Québec City. He says Infectio Diagnostic's technology came out of the University of Laval and the original manufacturing facility is still there; R&D is in Québec City.
   "We looked at several locations and determined Québec City is the best place," Condie says. "There's an excellent base of people in manufacturing and R&D, and it's important to keep it in the same city. Some incentives from the government also made it a very interesting place to build."
   The market for these types of diagnostic products is huge and growing fast, Condie says. He estimates the global market for MSRA (drug-resistant hospital infections) to be US$700 million. The new facility, a $34-million, 64,500-sq.-ft. (6,000-sq.-m.) building, will include 30,200 square feet (2,800 square meters) of manufacturing space. It will create 40 new jobs initially when it opens in May 2008 and up to 100 over the next three years.
   Condie says the technology park is attractive for logistics reasons with its proximity to the Aeroport de Québec. It is also just 15 minutes from the city's downtown area. The Québec government will provide $2.8 million over the next three years for the expansion.
   "The incentives helped at the end of the day," Condie tells Site Selection. "I'm a little biased because I grew up there, but that had nothing to do with the decision, by the way. The Québec government has always been good at giving incentives for R&D, but you have to be headquartered there. There were some political concerns about the province in the past and one of the reasons you didn't see companies leave were the incentives which helped them weather the storm."
   Sandoz, the generic arm of Novartis, is investing $76 million to expand its manufacturing complex in the Montréal suburb of Boucherville. The project includes construction of a second manufacturing site, expansion of the drug development laboratory, addition of new manufacturing equipment and land acquisition. Demand for the company's generic sterile injectable pharmaceuticals is rising steadily in both the U.S. and Canada.
   Pierre Frechette, President of Sandoz Canada, says the decision to expand in Boucherville is based on several factors, including having a presence on the site with significant technical and managerial expertise. The Boucherville operation also has a proven track record of achieving, implementation, validation and approval of new products.
   "For us, it is a matter of timing," Frechette says. "It's a complex undertaking to design, build, validate and get approval from regulatory authorities for a site making sterile products. So if you slip by a year or two, it has significant consequences. Also, there is a fairly small labor component in this type of manufacturing, so higher labor costs are not a big issue over other considerations. We are fairly automated from beginning to end and that's an additional driver.
   "Another aspect is our products are quite sensitive to transportation," says Frechette. "Many are temperature-controlled and light sensitive and are not easily shipped by sea. This means there are incremental costs in having to air-ship products from say, India, China or other low-cost locations."
   The Montréal areas' talent pool is another big attraction, Frechette says. Sandoz has various partnerships with research universities. He says the critical mass of the region's life sciences sectors has produced a large talent pool makes that makes it reasonably easy to find good engineers, chemists, microbiologists and drug validation experts.
   The corporate tax environment isn't bad either, he says.
   "With regard to corporate tax rates, it is a favorable environment," Frechette says. "It's not the lowest in the world, obviously, but it compares favorably to equivalent western-world markets."
   Construction on the Sandoz expansion began last winter. Plans call for the building to be complete by the end of the year. Frechette expects Sandoz to receive approval to sell products made in the new facility by the end of 2008.    Québec has a long history as a major center of Canada's life sciences development. The sector has plenty of momentum, as these recent expansions indicate:
   • Boehringer-Ingleheim is investing $34.5 million to expand its Laval R&D center. The expansion will create 40 jobs. The facility is one of four of the company's major global R&D centers and specializes in antiviral drug discovery.
   • GlaxoSmithKline has designated its Laval facility as the North American headquarters of its vaccine division. The site will conduct leading vaccine R&D as well as serve as an administrative center. GSK created more than 60 jobs and invested $50 million to expand and upgrade existing laboratory facilities.
   • Schering-Plough Canada, a developer of prescription, consumer and animal-health products, is investing $18.5 million in a new head office in Kirkland.    Québec, especially the Montréal area, continues to flex its muscle as one of North America's growing centers of development of interactive games. The sector employs more than 6,000 at more than 70 companies. Ubisoft, one of the largest operations, is increasing its previously announced expansion and now plans to invest $383.9 million over the next six years as it ramps up its staff from 1,600 to 3,000 employees by 2013.
   Beenox, a division of Activision, specializes in developing video games and multi-platform games conversion. It already has 80 employees and plans to expand its studio, creating an unspecified number of jobs.