Life Sciences in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario

From Concept to Company

Ottawa and Eastern Ontario life science companies have a wealth of resources at their disposal to grow profitable businesses that are globally competitive. Incubation and start up support, robust technology transfer programs, abundant talent and access to all of Canada’s life science regulatory agencies provide both new and emerging companies with access to some of the best resources to grow business.

With more than 40 research centers and institutions, and company research strengths spanning stem cell research, genomics, proteomics, bioprocessing, and others, Ottawa companies are some of the recognized industry leaders in the fields of Neuroscience, Cancer, Immunotherapeutics, Radiotherapeutics, Medical Device and Convergent Technologies, Regenerative Medicine and Cleantech.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider Ottawa:

The most educated workforce in Canada boasting the highest percentage of university graduates in the country, and the highest concentration of PhDs in North America
Second highest concentration of science and engineering employment in North America
Strong entrepreneurial culture resulting in $4.1 billion (USD) of venture capital invested in Ottawa Knowledge-based industries over the last decade.
Ottawa is an established global technology centre with more than 1900 knowledge-based companies employing over 90,000 people.
Ottawa in one of the world’s top sites for R&D with the highest concentration of federally funded research laboratories for the IT and life science fields and a strong university research presence.
Ottawa is Canada’s most connected city ranking 1st among 20 Canadian cities for internet use in the home and virtually 100% of Ottawa’s schools, universities, hospitals, libraries, research institutes and municipal facilities are wired with high speed internet access.
Ottawa-Gatineau has been selected as one of the world’s most ‘intelligent’ communities by the New York-based think tank the Intelligent Community Forum for 2005, 2006, and again in 2007.
With a strong mix of multinational organizations and small to medium sized enterprises, Ottawa houses several multinational giants including Abbott Point of Care, MDS Nordion, Iogen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, Avaya and Corel.
In a recent study conducted by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Ottawa had the strongest momentum of economic activity in Canada during the first quarter of 2006.

Ottawa offers a 4.9% cost advantage relative to the U.S. according to KPMG’s 2006 Competitive Alternatives Study (a guide to international business costs). Canada leads the G7 countries for low business costs, with a 5.5 per cent advantage over the United States.