Ontario Invests in Innovative Life Sciences Technologies to Strengthen Pandemic Supply Chain

Ontario Together Fund continues to secure critical medical supplies from provincial manufacturers

News.Ontario.ca
April 6, 2022

The Ontario government is supporting an investment of more than $3.7 million by Toronto Research Chemicals (TRC) to develop a line for chemicals used in the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kits, including those used for COVID-19 detection. The province is investing $2.5 million through the Ontario Together Fund to help scale up current production and fully develop TRC’s product line and other biochemicals. This will create 13 jobs in the Greater Toronto Area.

“Through the Ontario Together Fund, our government is supporting Ontario businesses, so they can fully develop their ideas and solutions to help fight COVID-19,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “Ontario is proud to partner with Toronto Research Chemicals and will continue to support them as they look to open a new manufacturing site in Vaughan in 2024."

Toronto Research Chemicals, part of LGC’s Standards Division, is a Toronto-based life sciences company that delivers chemicals worldwide with wide-ranging applications in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, environmental and forensic sciences. It is at the front end of the global scientific supply chain, offering a catalogue of over 350,000 chemicals and made-to-order complex, organic small molecule biochemcials. With this investment, it will scale up current production and fully develop TRC’s product line of specific chemicals.

“The investment provided by the Ontario Together Fund is incredible support for us as we continue to use and develop our ‘Science for a safer world.’ By expanding our existing Toronto Research Chemicals team into Vaughan, we are excited to commit to developing a state-of-the-art facility and create new jobs,” said Michael St. Pierre, TRC’s Executive Vice President and General Manager “As a leading manufacturer and supplier of synthetic organic biochemicals, we will continue to use our local expertise to work with the scientific community across the globe.”

“I am pleased to welcome today’s announcement that LGC, a leading global life science tools company, is a recipient of the Ontario Together Fund for its Toronto Research Chemicals subsidiary to be located in Vaughan,” said Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, City of Vaughan. “When the new 200,000-square-foot facility opens in 2024, it will create good, local jobs and serve as LGC’s global centre of excellence for synthetic chemistry. In partnership with the Province of Ontario and our local business community, the City of Vaughan remains laser-focused on taking an innovation-based approach to accelerate our thriving economy.”

Supporting innovative projects like TRC’s is why Ontario has invested an additional $50 million in the renewed Ontario Together Fund in 2021--22. The fund continues to support local innovators and businesses to further enhance Ontario’s domestic supply chain capacity, promote Ontario’s medical technology ecosystem and build up our manufacturing sector to ensure the province is well-prepared for future challenges.

The renewed Ontario Together Fund is focused on supporting homegrown manufacturing and innovation to combat COVID-19, and providing other goods critical to the health, safety, and security of Ontarians beyond the pandemic.

Quick Facts
As of March 31, 2022, Ontario has supported 45 companies and 10 organizations in supplying emergency products, including personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as other solutions.
The government recently announced Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level, the province’s plan to grow Ontario’s life sciences sector and secure new investments in next-generation health technologies, medicines and vaccine manufacturing. The strategy sets out ambitious goals over the next decade, including growing Ontario’s biomanufacturing and life sciences sector to employ 85,000 Ontarians in high-value jobs by 2030, a 25 per cent increase from 2020.
Ontario’s Action Plan: Protecting People’s Health and Our Economy brings total investments to $16.3 billion to protect people’s health and $23.3 billion to protect our economy.