By Steven Loung
SANOFI PASTEUR CANADA
ONTARIO
SANOFI PASTEUR A CANADIAN SUCCESS STORY As the biotech industry grows slowly but steadily in Canada, a select few companies have become a global success story. Sanofi Pasteur Canada is one such rarity. Part of health-care giant Sanofi, Sanofi Pasteur is the largest human vaccine company in the world. It operates manufacturing facilities in countries such as China, India, France, the U.S. and Canada. As a result of work done at its facility in North Toronto, Sanofi Pasteur Canada is a leader in vaccine manufacturing and R&D.
HISTORY Founded in 1914 by Dr. John Gerald FitzGerald, the company now known as Sanofi Pasteur Canada was originally part of the University of Toronto. Then called the “Anti-Toxin Laboratories,” the labs moved north in 1917 to the facility’s current location, and were renamed the Connaught Anti-Toxin Laboratories and University Farm, honouring Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who was Canada’s governor general during the First World War. Dr. FitzGerald’s laboratory was dedicated to the production of anti-toxin for diphtheria, then a potent killer of children. In the 1920s, Connaught Labs, with Eli Lilly, became the first to commercialize insulin, Banting and Best’s groundbreaking discovery. Mid-century, Connaught scientists helped to commercialize Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine, the world’s first immunization against the disease. In the 1960s, Connaught created new vaccines against influenza and the measles, as well as a freeze-dried smallpox vaccine that would eventually lead to eradication of the disease in the 1970s – making it the only disease to be eliminated from the face of the earth. Change came in 1972, when the University of Toronto sold Connaught to the Canada Development Corporation, opening the door for the Toronto lab to be scooped up by Institut Mérieux in 1989. After various acquisitions, Connaught would ultimately become Sanofi Pasteur Canada.
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Biotechnology Focus / April 2013
Over the years, the Connaught facility has taken pioneering steps in vaccine R&D and manufacturing, evidenced by one of the company’s latest products, a fivecomponent acellular pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine – the only one in the world. The combination of this vaccine with others (e.g., diphtheria, tetanus, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B) into one shot is tangible proof of Sanofi Pasteur Canada’s global success. These pediatric combination vaccines were developed and are currently manufactured at the Connaught site for export around the world, resulting in revenues in the billions.
PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS Throughout the years, a strong relationship with the Ontario government has helped to fuel the success of Sanofi Pasteur Canada. “We’ve worked closely with the Ontario government over the years, including the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade & Employment, and the Ministry of Research & Innovation,” said Mark Lievonen, President, Sanofi Pasteur Canada. “We’ve made some major investments
