Sanofi Pasteur Canada: A Canadian Success Story

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.

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

at this site, which the Ontario government has supported through its Biopharmaceutical Investment Program. In fact, in 2010 we completed a new R&D building – a $100 million research and development facility of which $14 million was funded by the provincial government.”

This new facility helped the site secure the North American mandates for Analytical and Bioprocessing R&D and complements the existing manufacturing activities at the site. As Lievonen explains, what this boils down to is the development of scale-up production processes and tests to release new vaccines for clinical trials.

The facility, and its highly-skilled employees, opens up the opportunity for Sanofi Pasteur Canada to secure future global manufacturing mandates for those same products. This in turns creates jobs in R&D and manufacturing – bringing critical mass to the site in Toronto as well as to Ontario’s life science economy.

To keep up with demand for its products, Sanofi Pasteur Canada also has plans for further investment. “We are looking at “At the heart of innovation you need talent, you need the right skills and experience, you need the funding from both the private and government sectors and you need things like an intellectual property regime that is world-class competitive.”

— Mark Lievonen

expanding our manufacturing capabilities in the future,” Lievonen said.

The Toronto City Council recently decided to adopt recommendations that would enable the southern portion of the Toronto site to be redesignated and rezoned, a development that bodes well for its growth. The final steps in the approval process are expected to take place later this year.

NURTURING THE NEXT GENERATION

In addition to its manufacturing and R&D activities, Sanofi Pasteur Canada is nurturing the country’s next generation of great minds within the biotech and life sciences sector.

Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada (SBCC) is a national competition among high school students in which participants receive mentoring from academics and professionals in the field as they complete sophisticated research projects.

To date, over 4,500 students have competed in the challenge with the vast majority going on to pursue successful careers in math and science-related fields.

This competition not only cultivates future talent within Ontario and Canada, but globally as well. From the first competition which was held at the 2002 BIO convention in Toronto, the Challenge expanded to the U.S. where it is now known as the International BioGENEius Challenge.

Ontario students have always fared well in the competition; in fact, last year’s national winner was Waterloo’s Janelle Tam.

According to Lievonen, the teen put herself on a fast track to success not only for herself but for the future of the life sciences industry in Canada. “Next year she is considering going to Princeton, after which, she plans to return to Canada. She and her mother said they feel that this country has done so much for them that she will be returning to Canada upon her graduation to give back.”

Keeping talent in Canada is important to Lievonen, and is a key reason for the SBCC’s existence. He sees the SBCC as contributing to help close Canada’s innovation gap.

“Innovation is necessary to drive productivity, to drive global competitiveness, which will in turn raise living standards for all Canadians,” he said. “At the heart of innovation you need talent, you need the right skills and experience, you need the funding from both the private and government sectors and you need things like an intellectual property regime that is world-class competitive. Those are the ingredients that have to come into play to drive innovation, which, in turn, will drive productivity and global competitiveness.”

KEEPING THE TRADITION

The success of Sanofi Pasteur Canada lies not only in its world-class manufacturing facilities and R&D acumen. Its achievements are rooted in the purpose for which Dr. John FitzGerald founded the University of Toronto Anti-Toxin Laboratories: To provide life-saving public health products at an affordable price and supporting a vision of a world in which no one suffers or dies from a vaccine-preventable disease. One hundred years later, the company’s products have saved countless lives, and the site continues to thrive.

To see this story online visit http://biotechnologyfocus.ca/ made-in-ontario/