CCRM’s blueprint for a sustainable CGT ecosystem in Canada

CCRM HAS MADE REMARKABLE PROGRESS IN BUILDING CANADA’S REGENERATIVE MEDICINE ECOSYSTEM

In the 12 years since its launch, it has leveraged a modest infusion of seed funding ($30M) from the federal government’s Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program to almost $1.4 billion through its portfolio of companies and key partnerships.

The organization has grown to become a team of over 220 dedicated scientists, engineers and business professionals, working together to bridge some of the biggest gaps in commercializing cell and gene therapies (CGTs), including access to capital, talent development and biomanufacturing.

the Province of Ontario and South-Korea’s Medipost. This latest contribution to Canada’s CGT ecosystem will be looked back on as a watershed moment. It’s set to be Canada’s largest contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on CGTs, setting the province of Ontario on a course to become a global hub for CGT manufacturing.

CCRM’s NCE funding ended in March 2023 and the organization is entering a stage of sustainability with a strategic plan focused on expanding its company creation, realizing exits from its current portfolio of companies, growing its contract services business and launching new, sector-focused investment vehicles.

“CCRM’s sustainability is inextricably linked to creating a thriving CGT ecosystem, and that’s why we’ve driven a comprehensive and seamless technology-to-market plan,” says Michael May, President and CEO of CCRM. “Keeping emerging companies in the country and attracting multi-national anchor companies requires access to talent, manufacturing capability and capital. We must foster these ‘stickiness factors’ into the ecosystem, while re-investing its commercial success back into the academic discovery pipeline that stimulates early innovation.”

CCRM is contributing its leadership and expertise, along with the National Research

Since its inception, and well before COVID-19 made it topical, CCRM understood the importance of building manufacturing infrastructure to support therapeutics developers and establish Canadian leadership in the global CGT industry. CCRM has spent the last decade building a continuum of advanced manufacturing capability. First with Cytiva to develop manufacturing technology platforms and process development workflows, followed by early phase clinical manufacturing capabilities in a Good Manufacturing Practices facility established and operated in partnership with University Health Network.

The next step was to develop commercial-scale manufacturing and, in March 2022, CCRM launched its subsidiary, OmniaBio Inc., with investments coming from

Council of Canada, as co-founder of a new not-for-profit corporation to govern the Biologics Manufacturing Centre (BMC) in Montreal, Quebec. The BMC will respond to pandemic and other health emergency preparedness needs, and provide biomanufacturing production capacity to ensure that vaccines and other biologics can be safely manufactured in Canada. This is an example of CCRM’s commitment to working collaboratively to build Canadian strengths in areas that represent the future of medicine.

Looking outside of Canada, CCRM is scaling its unique public-private partnership model and solidifying Canadian leadership in the global life sciences industry. CCRM Australia is already operating and there are plans for additional hubs around the world.

Find out more by downloading CCRM’s annual report.