Cell and gene therapy (CGT) is transforming medicine and McMaster Innovation Park (MIP) in Hamilton, Ontario is fast becoming a leader in the spinout, incubation, and scale-up of companies gaining a global foothold in this bursting field of biotechnology.
“MIP is more than a business park. We bring together an ecosystem that connects companies and delivers the elements that support their growth and expansion in our nascent CGT cluster. Our vision is to grow the CGT cluster in Hamilton into like what we see in Cambridge, San Francisco, Philadelphia and the United Kingdom.” Says Scott Rasmussen Vice President of Leasing and Business Development at MIP.
Those elements include research and manufacturing spaces, innovation supports, links to investors and service providers, access to regional talent and connections to supply chains.
“Companies cannot exist in isolation. Clusters create cohesive relationships that fuel long-term growth and success.”
Hamilton’s innovation ecosystem includes McMaster University and Mohawk College, both research leaders in their own domain . Other differentiating strengths include powerful healthcare institutions, and the convergence of deep capabilities in both advanced manufacturing and life sciences, combined with a planned buildout of MIP to a life sciences innovation mega-hub at 3.5M square feet when fully developed.
“The mission of MIP is to help ventures start, scale and thrive and we do that by complementing what is happening in Toronto and the region by providing step-up and scale-up spaces so that more of our high potential biotech ventures remain in in Ontario and in Canada,” says MIP’s Chief Executive Officer Ty J. Shattuck.
MIP provides the “spatial alchemy” necessary for a CGT cluster built around homegrown and global research, manufacturing expertise, and a culture of collaboration that is firmly rooted in Hamilton, he says.
“We provide the elements that identify the hurdles and reduce the friction for life sciences companies so they can grow quickly to their potential.”
The anchor of Hamilton’s burgeoning CGT sector is contract development and manufacturing organization OmniaBio, a subsidiary of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) in Toronto. At a planned 400,000 square feet, OmniaBio will be the largest CDMO exclusively manufacturing for cell and gene therapies in Canada. The first phase, 90,000 SF is currently under construction and will be ready for occupancy in Q3 2023.
Other CGT companies Triumvira Immunologics and Century Therapeutics Canada– as well as Radiopharmaceutical company Fusion Pharmaceuticals, all spinouts of McMaster research – have already taken up manufacturing in MIP after attracting hundreds of millions in investment capital.
Visit mcmasterinnovationpark.ca to learn more.
For more Life Sciences articles, click here.
