Life Sciences Giants Expand R&D, Informatics
AstraZeneca’s R&D hub in Mississauga, Ontario, is adding more than 700 workers to the roughly 1,500 employees already on site. In January, the U.K.-based pharmaceutical and life sciences company announced a $576 million investment aimed at strengthening its R&D clinical trial design work in oncology, immunology and infectious diseases. (All monetary figures are U.S. dollars.) In 2024, AstraZeneca acquired Hamilton, Ontario–based Fusion Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in radiotherapy for cancer patients.
“AstraZeneca’s continued investment in Ontario is crucial to advancing innovative medicines that treat, prevent and may one day cure complex diseases like prostate, lung and breast cancer, as well as rare diseases,” said Gaby Bourbara, president, AstraZeneca Canada, in a statement. “AstraZeneca’s investment, alongside the Government of Ontario’s contribution through Invest Ontario, will strengthen the province’s life sciences strategy, driving economic growth, and foster innovation that benefits patients in Canada and around the world.” The province is contributing an $11.2 million Invest Ontario Fund grant to the project.
Ontario already is home to the largest concentration of clinical trials with 10 of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies by revenue conducting trials in the province. Approximately 2,000 life sciences companies — nearly half of all such companies in Canada — operate in Ontario employing more than 70,000 workers. The province generates nearly 60% of Canada’s revenue in the life sciences sector.
Also in Mississauga, Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada) is adding up to 250 new jobs in such areas as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, computational biology and data analytics. The company says it’s investing $91 million to establish Roche Canada as one of the top five informatics technology hubs supporting the Roche global business. The province is contributing $2.5 million to the project.
Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Corporation in November broke ground on a new lithium-ion battery separator manufacturing facility in Port Colborne, Ontario.
Image courtesy of Business Wire
Collaborative Partners Are Key
“Investments like these are possible because we have collaborative partners across public, private and not-for-profit sectors willing to address health care challenges more effectively, together,” said Brigitte Nolet, president & CEO, Roche Canada Pharma, at the November 2024 announcement.
“Transformative technologies like artificial intelligence are reshaping health care, offering new solutions for improving access and altering how companies operate in the sector,” added Roche Canada Mississauga Informatics Site Lead Brian Mereweather. “The expansion of our Informatics division right here in Ontario will enable us to leverage unique approaches and technologies to enable data-driven decision-making, allowing us to analyze data much more quickly and enhance various aspects of health care.”
“In Ontario, there’s just great value. There’s a very healthy talent pool, and there are great academic institutions that are producing highly skilled staff that would go either into research or into manufacturing.”
— Mitchel Sivilotti, President and CEO, OmniaBio Inc.
Mississauga isn’t landing all of Ontario’s recent life sciences capital investment. Thirty miles to the south, in Hamilton, OmniaBio Inc. in October 2024 opened a cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing and AI center of excellence. The facility occupies 120,000 sq. ft. where 250 employees work. It is Canada’s largest contract development and manufacturing organization dedicated to CGT. The overall project investment is $408 million; the province provided a $28 million loan through the Invest Ontario Fund.
Beyond Financial Support
“The Invest Ontario investment in OmniaBio was primarily a financial investment, but it really went beyond that,” says Mitchel Sivilotti, OmniaBio’s president and CEO, in an Invest Ontario case study video. “They had the ability to help us share awareness about our organization, but also getting the industry excited about what’s happening in Ontario. In Ontario, there’s just great value. There’s a very healthy talent pool, and there are great academic institutions that are producing highly skilled staff that would go either into research or into manufacturing.
“Another element of Ontario that we found over time is the access to government support that supported research development programs, development of our major departments within our organization, and also to build out that infrastructure that we’ve been working on in Hamilton here for a few years now,” adds Sivilotti. “The technologies that we’re working on today are going to have a major impact, and we’re going to change lives together in this.”
Not all recent capital investment projects in Ontario are life sciences related. The province is supporting companies in a variety of industries:
Linamar Corporation, headquartered in Guelph, Ontario, is investing more than $704 million in six projects that will create more than 2,300 jobs. The manufacturer of vehicle powertrain solutions and green automotive technologies is retooling multiple facilities in Ontario to meet the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) demand for auto and EV parts in North America. Ontario is providing a $70 million grant; the federal government is contributing $119 million through its Strategic Innovation Fund.
Tokyo-based Asahi Kasei began construction in 2024 on its $1.2 billion manufacturing facility in Port Colborne, in the Niagara region, where it will produce lithium-ion battery separators, a key component of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The company has a joint venture with Honda Canada Inc. to oversee construction and production activities at the Port Colborne plant.
Earlier in 2024, Honda announced plans to establish Canada’s first comprehensive electric vehicle supply chain with four new manufacturing plants including this separator plant in partnership with Asahi Kasei. With phase one expected to be complete in 2027, the separator plant is projected to produce enough material to supply approximately 1 million EVs annually and create more than 300 jobs in the region.
According to Invest Ontario, since 2020, the province has attracted over $31 billion in EV and battery investments from companies including Honda, GM, Ford and Stellantis.
Goodyear Canada Inc. is investing $400 million to expand its facility in Napanee, in eastern Ontario, where it produces original equipment (OE) and replacement EV and all-terrain tires. The expansion will add 200 jobs, bringing the facility’s workforce to more than 1,000. The province is contributing $14 million to support innovative technologies and skills training. The federal government is investing $31 million through its Strategic Innovation Fund.
