Invest Ontario supports new biomanufacturing facility in Hamilton
Invest Ontario is all but set to provide a loan of up to $40 million to support the construction of a new biomanufacturing facility in Hamilton's McMaster Innovation Park.
The provincial investment agency announced its intend to the fund the project on April 1. The scope of work calls for construction of a biomanufacturing campus at a cost of more than $580 million.
The facility’s anchor tenant would be OmniaBio, a Canadian cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).
Invest Ontario says it will also provide non-financial support to OmniaBio, including helping the company meet its future talent needs and promoting opportunities to enhance local skills development partnerships.
"As the first facility of its kind to provide commercial-scale cell and gene therapy manufacturing in Canada, OmniaBio will support our pipeline of homegrown life sciences companies, while boosting Ontario's presence in the global biotech industry,” said Execonmic Development Minister Vic Fedeli. “This is the kind of value-added, strategic investment that our government is proud to champion – creating skilled jobs, advancing our healthcare and driving innovation."
As a contract manufacturer, OmniaBio will support a broad range of cell and gene therapy companies – both homegrown and international – by providing process development and clinical/commercial production services in compliance with global health standards.
"OmniaBio will provide missing infrastructure to allow Ontario and Canadian cell and gene companies to remain here, while also attracting foreign companies,” said Chair Michael May. “Cell and gene therapy is Canada's opportunity to be global leaders in life sciences. Investing in manufacturing is a key driver, and we're grateful to Invest Ontario for its leadership and foresight."
OmniaBio 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. OmniaBio will build on CCRM's existing global client base, with the project ultimately creating a six-fold increase in biomanufacturing capacity.
The broader Hamilton project investment supports Ontario's new Life Sciences Strategy that will advance the province's leadership as a North American life sciences hub offering a collaborative ecosystem for the development, commercialization and adoption of innovative health products and services.
The province’s sector is currently the largest in Canada, and comprises about 1,900 firms employing around 66,000 people.
The campus is scheduled to open in 2031.
Featured image: Architectural rendering of the OmniaBio facility at Hamilton’s McMaster Innovation Park (CNW Group/Invest Ontario)