The Edmonton region is home to a well-established pharmaceutical manufacturing infrastructure, accessible health datasets from 4.5 million people, and globally-recognized universities.
We’re well positioned to be an emerging hub for pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing. From the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals to a strong ecosystem that supports their creation, the Edmonton region has the expertise to bring new medical innovation to life.
The University of Alberta is home to many medical and interdisciplinary research centres, including the Alberta Diabetes Institute, Drug Development and Innovation Centre, La Ka Shing Institute for Virology and Li Ka Shing Institute for Applied Virology and more.
The region is also part of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) has been collaborating with Alberta Health Services— Canada’s largest single healthcare system— since 2015 to integrate AI in hospital and research settings.
The Government of Canada provides a number of perks, including an investment tax credit ranging from 15% to 35% for scientific research and experimental development opportunities, and the $1.26 billion Government of Canada Strategic Innovation Fund for large R&D and commercialization projects across all industries. The Government of Alberta’s Innovation Employment Grant will support businesses that invest in R&D with a grant worth up to 20% of qualifying expenditures.
On the talent front, post-secondary institutions in the region train professionals to conduct pharmaceutical R&D, where the University of Alberta’s faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and faculty of medicine and dentistry are ranked in the top 90 worldwide. Immigration-friendly government policies also make it easy to attract and retain international talent.
Here, investors have opportunities to collaborate with hundreds of health companies, within arm’s reach of manufacturing and logistics to make new innovations a reality.
The Edmonton region is also home to a foreign trade zone, allowing companies to ship materials and unfinished products here where they can be manufactured or assembled and sold to global markets as Canadian products within existing trade agreements. This is a major advantage in today’s challenging trade environment.
“The Edmonton region is home to a large concentration of chemical companies, world-class expertise, accessible health datasets from 4.5 million people and a university that is ranked 3rd globally in AI re search.We’re well positioned to be an emerging hub for pharmaceutical R&D and production from our planned facility once it is funded.”
-API CEO, Andrew MacIsaac.
“When I think back on the UK biotech wave in the 70’s and the one that happened in the bay area of California – both of which I was a part of – I’m totally convinced that Alberta will succeed in the biotech industry. I think we’re at the perfect time for personal investors, organizational investors and pharmaceutical companies to come here – that’s my message…It’s a great time to catch the Edmonton wave.”
-Dr. Michael Houghton, Nobel Prize Laureate (2020)
