The new facility will create 500 jobs. Pictured: Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo Credit: Doug Ford/X.
Yet another biotech company has announced that they will be opening a new $200-million facility at Hamilton’s McMaster Innovation Park that will create 500 jobs.
OmniaBio Inc. describes itself as a “technology-focused, global cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization.”
They announced in October that they will be opening their new North American cell and gene therapy manufacturing and artificial intelligence centre of excellence in Hamilton.
McMaster Innovation Park is located on Longwood Road South near the Aberdeen Avenue intersection.
OmniaBio is reportedly Canada’s largest contract development and manufacturing organization dedicated to cell and gene therapy.
The company is a subsidiary of Canada’s Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), which is a public-private partnership that receives funding from the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, and academic and industry partners.
After being founded by CCRM, OmnioBio was later joined in partnership by South Korean company MEDIPOST Co. Ltd.
MEDIPOST will reportedly be the new facility’s first commercial-stage customer and plans to manufacture CARTISTEM® in Hamilton for North American patients.
OmnioBio describes CARTISTEM® as “an allogeneic (sourced from donor cells) umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell product used to treat knee cartilage defects in patients with osteoarthritis caused by degeneration.”
They add that the new facility, which is commercial-ready, will “enhance the manufacturing of these transformative therapies, further establishing Canada as a hub for innovation, while increasing access and affordability to advanced medical treatments across North America.”
OmniaBio will also be collaborating with pharmaceutical and biotech companies as well as academic centres.
The new 120,000 square foot site is also specifically designed to meet their needs with cold chain logistics, staff training infrastructure, designed production flows, and a multi-modality layout.
OmniaBio will be one of the first contract development and manufacturing organizations in the world to integrate advanced technologies such as robotics, biosensors, and machine learning.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford was on hand for the announcement of the new facility, with the province providing $40 million for the project.
“I’m thrilled to celebrate the grand opening of OmniaBio’s new centre of excellence in Hamilton, which will help create good-paying jobs for Ontario workers and cement our province’s role as a world leader in life sciences,” Ford said.
“This new centre, which our government was proud to support through Invest Ontario, highlights the substantial increase in jobs and investment we’ve seen in Ontario’s life sciences sector and points to the incredible opportunity this sector holds for our province’s long-term prosperity,” he continued.
The announcement follows the opening of Fusion Pharmaceuticals radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facility at McMaster Innovation Park in May 2023.
That facility manufactures targeted alpha therapies (TATs) that use microscopic precision to target and eradicate tumour cells.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
