Grow Your Business in Québec
Alongside World-Class Medical Companies
As a major health biotechnology hub, Québec offers a robust environment where the life sciences can thrive, particularly precision medicine. Access all the resources you need, from cell and gene therapy to biomanufacturing, e-health, RNA therapeutics, and beyond.
Québec’s long-established vitality in the field is proven by the major healthcare players who have set up shop here. These include Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Medicago, Merck, Moderna, Novartis, Pharmascience and Sandoz, some of whom have roots that date back over 100 years.
A Vibrant, Diverse Ecosystem
Convenient
and affordable
facilities
Québec is home to industrial parks that are hubs for the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, a cluster that offers you a convenient headquarters with access to the industry players you need. What’s more, the province’s operating and office rental costs are among the lowest in North America.
Dedicated
local support
The various levels of government offer the support you need to set up shop in Québec and get rolling. With the Québec Life Science Strategy, core programs and projects, tax credits, preferential tariffs, tax holidays, incentive deductions, investment funds, grants and loans to count on, you can focus on innovation.
Qualified
young talent
Québec has some 30,000 students enrolled in life science and health technology programs. And over 7,600 graduates in these areas of expertise enter the workforce annually.
Overview of Precision Medicine Assets in Québec
Academic expertise from top-tier research universities
- AI
- Bioinformatics
- Cell-based immuno-oncology
- Genomic disorders
- Pharmacogenomics
- Tissue Engineering
- Stem Cell Bioengineering
- Dedicated research institutes (Ex. Institute of Genomic Medicine, McGill University)
Industry Leaders
- Biomarkers
- Companion diagnostic
- Diagnostic tools
- Cell-based immuno-oncology
- Cell therapy
- Gene therapy
Cutting-Edge Genomic Research Infrastructure & Platforms
Industrial Research Funding
Cell Therapy Production
GMP manufacturing unit for regenerative medicine and cancer immunotherapy
Training Programs
Focus:
- Blood products
- Cell, tissue and gene therapies
- Vaccine production
Research Networks
- Quebec Cell, Tissue and Gene Therapy Network
- Ethical Framework for Research
Biobanks & Genomic Data Centers
Sector Specific Operational Support
- Clinical Research:
- 80+ CROs to streamline your clinical trials: patient recruitment, clinical trial operations, data management, quality control, regulatory approval, etc.
- Clinical research framework to accelerate trials
- 40+ CMOs & CDMOs
- Pre-clinical in vivo studies
- Health Canada certified release testing laboratory
- AI
- Bioinformatics
- Cell-based immuno-oncology
- Genomic disorders
- Pharmacogenomics
- Tissue Engineering
- Stem Cell Bioengineering
- Dedicated research institutes (Ex. Institute of Genomic Medicine, McGill University)
- Biomarkers
- Companion diagnostic
- Diagnostic tools
- Cell-based immuno-oncology
- Cell therapy
- Gene therapy
GMP manufacturing unit for regenerative medicine and cancer immunotherapy
Focus:
- Blood products
- Cell, tissue and gene therapies
- Vaccine production
- Quebec Cell, Tissue and Gene Therapy Network
- Ethical Framework for Research
- Clinical Research:
- 80+ CROs to streamline your clinical trials: patient recruitment, clinical trial operations, data management, quality control, regulatory approval, etc.
- Clinical research framework to accelerate trials
- 40+ CMOs & CDMOs
- Pre-clinical in vivo studies
- Health Canada certified release testing laboratory
Why Choose Québec?
-
1st
Québec is Canada’s leader in R&D as a percentage of GDP. In recent years, amounts allocated to R&D have climbed to nearly $10 billion.
-
+75
Access to 77 platforms, facilities, services and specialized equipment dedicated to the life sciences, pharmaceutical and medtech sectors, available within universities, colleges, hospitals and government research installations.
-
+300
research organizations
Thanks to the presence of hundreds of research organizations, Québec has developed leading-edge expertise in oncology, neuroscience, cell therapy, precision medicine, artificial intelligence, and beyond.
-
+10,000
researchers
Thousands of researchers work out of the three key hubs of Montréal, Sherbrooke and Québec City, providing a collaborative ecosystem that’s always pushing the boundaries on innovation.
-
+85,000
Almost 30% of the jobs in life sciences and health technologies in Canada are found in Québec, representing a pool of some 85,000 workers and researchers, 90% of which are distributed among the three hubs of Montréal, Québec City and Sherbrooke.
-
$1.6 billion
From 2015 to 2019, $1.6 billion in venture capital was invested in Québec’s life sciences and health technologies. And there’s more to come, as the government currently has a $211 million envelope to invest in the sector, including new contributions of $110 million.
“Quebec offers an incredible array of resources ranging from a talent pool fueled by a unique academic environment to a world-class research infrastructure, all supported by a robust and ambitious government life sciences strategy that fosters a highly fertile ecosystem.”
- François Drolet, Executive Director, Access, Policy, Government Relations, Roche Diagnostics
“Sherbrooke offers a large pool of bilingual scientific and technical labour, emerging continuously from colleges and universities […]. Sherbrooke is also a unique ecosystem because it’s possible to complete a full research project: basic preclinical research as we do, clinical phases I to IV, through to manufacturing and marketing.”
- Nathalie Hébert, General Manager, Charles River Laboratories
Get in touch
Reach out to us and one of our business development directors will contact you with the necessary details about setting up operations in Québec.
Investissement Québec, a key economic development organization, offers a wide range of services and programs to help international businesses grow in the province.
We are here to assess your needs and connect the members of your team with the industry’s main networks and players.
Partners
What’s
Québec
all about?
Québec is
-
4 distinctseasons
-
3.9 millionbilingualpeople
-
99%green,renewableenergy
-
24nationalparks
-
- 3 times the size of France
- 5,300 kilometres of bicycle paths, and that’s just along the Route Verte
- 1 restaurant establishment per 373 inhabitants
-
- 11 indigenous nations
- 22% bodies of water
- 6.4 million Francophones
- 400 museum institutions
