Architectural rendering of the OmniaBio facility at Hamilton’s McMaster Innovation Park. Photo credit: Invest Ontario
A new state-of-the-art life sciences facility is going to be built in Hamilton.
Announced on Thursday, March 31 by the Ontario government and OmniaBio Inc., the new building will be a cell and gene therapy manufacturing facility, using innovative medicine to fight cancer, cardiovascular diseases, Parkinson’s, and diabetes. The ultimate goal is to eventually create cures, not just treatments, for multiple different health issues.
The announcement also advances the City of Hamilton as a hub for life sciences jobs and healthcare innovation, creating 250 jobs at the site by 2031.
The Ontario government is contributing a loan of $40 million for the construction. The building will be located on the grounds of the McMaster Innovation Park and will begin operations in 2024.
The facility is part of a larger strategy – called the “Ontario’s Life Sciences Strategy” – to grow Ontario’s biomanufacturing and life sciences sector to employ 85,000 Ontarians in high-value jobs by 2030. The growth would be a 25 percent increase to the industry compared to 2020. The “Ontario’s Life Sciences Strategy” is part of an even larger plan called Ontario’s “Plan to Stay Open.”
Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli welcomed the overall $580 million investment in the OmniaBio Inc. facility last week.
“This plan will make Ontario a global hub for biomanufacturing and life sciences and improve our preparedness for future challenges,” said Fedeli. “It will create high-paying jobs, strengthen our healthcare system – and make it clear that Ontario is a world-leading partner in developing the medicines, vaccines and health technologies of the future.”
The government identifies that one of the goals of this larger strategy is to ensure preparedness for future pandemics by supporting domestic production of personal protective equipment (PPE), vaccines, treatments, and a long-term PPE stockpile for the province’s use.
Four sub-sectors have been identified by the government as areas where they want to grow Ontario’s competitiveness: medical technology, pharma/biotech, digital health and personal protective equipment.
Local Hamilton MPP Donna Skelly (Flamborough-Glanbrook) said that the province “will continue to strengthen Hamilton’s, and Ontario’s, global competitiveness and leadership in life sciences” by “building on Ontario’s numerous advantages: a skilled workforce, leading North American tech cluster, robust network of startups, state-of-the-art research and development facilities and the largest publicly funded health care system in Canada.”
OmniaBio Inc. is being spun out of the Toronto-based Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), a leader in developing and commercializing regenerative medicine-based technologies and cell and gene therapies.
Ontario’s life sciences sector is the largest in Canada, comprised of about 1,900 firms and employing around 66,000 people.
Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Kevin Geenen reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He is a regular contributor with The Hamilton Independent and has also been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, Niagara Independent, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. He is known for Hamilton crime updates and social media news graphics. 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 from Governor General David Johnston. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
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.
