$190 million over five years

Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann La Roche AG has awarded a global development mandate to Roche Canada and a commitment to invest $190 million over five years in a global pharmaceutical development site in Mississauga ON. The decision to establish a site for global trial and data management was made in conjunction with Ontario's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) which is contributing $7.8 million. When complete, it will be one of six development sites Roche operates globally.

In an email statement, MEDT says the investment "marks the first time a large pharmaceutical company brings a global development mandate to the province". It also contends that it will attract skilled researchers to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) from around the world and establish Roche Canada as a "global hub and research leader for life sciences and pharmaceuticals". It also promises a "cascade of benefits in the scientific community" through collaboration and contributions to the knowledge-based economy.

The Mississauga facility will manage operations for all stages of global clinical trial research for the firm, becoming the hub for clinical trials in more than 60 countries. The official roles it will undertake are: global study management, global data management and product development regulatory.

Roche is the world's largest biotech firm and global investor in R&D with outlays of $9.2 billion in 2010, down 5% from the previous year. Last year it announced plans to cut 4,800 jobs globally. It has substantial operations in the areas of oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and the central nervous system It is considered a world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and diabetes management.

Roche employs about 900 people across Canada. It does not divulge how much R&D it currently performs in Ontario or Canada and has not announced any R&D estimates related to the new facility. However, it says the site will create 200 new jobs. Neither Roche Canada nor MEDT provided a spokesperson for this story.

For Ontario, the Roche investment is a major win in an increasingly tough global battle for pharmaceutical R&D. Ontario has invested heavily in life sciences infrastructure and the Roche announcement tilts the balance nationally away from Quebec which has been a traditional pharma R&D stronghold. In 2010, Merck and Co Inc closed its Merck Frosst Centre for Therapeutic Research as part of a global restructuring prompted by its 2009, US$41-billion acquisition of Schering-Plough (R$, July 19/10).

The Roche investment is the single largest pharmaceutical R&D investment in recent Ontario history and will generate the largest number of new jobs. In 2008, Sanofi Pasteur announced a $100-million investment in its Toronto operations with a new research facility to accelerate ongoing vaccine research activities (R$, April 30/08). Strategic investments by the province have resulted in other recent investments by pharmaceutical companies.

Those firms and associated MEDT investments over the past four years are: Eisai ($2 million), GlaxoSmithKline ($3.6 million), Best Therapeutics ($1.2 million), Teva Canada Ltd ($6.5 million), Therapure Pharma ($.9 million), Pfizer ($0.9 million) and Purdue Pharma ($4.9 million). All investments were made in the GTA with the exception of Best Therapeutics (Ottawa).

The investments were initiated under the province's now discontinued Biopharmaceutical Investment Program (BIP). It was launched as part of the government's 2008 Innovation Agenda and funded through its Next Generation Jobs Fund to attract and leverage investments in globally significant research and help companies secure global mandates. The BPI was replaced in 2010 by the $161-million Life Sciences Commercialization Strategy.

Ontario is ranked as the fourth largest biomedical research centre in North America, which includes 25 research and teaching hospitals, 10,000 scientists, clinical investigators and other researchers. The pharmaceutical, biotech, medical technologies and contract services sectors employ 41,500 people in the province.

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