Biopolis Quebec: Cross-regional collaboration at its finest

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By Shawn Lawrence

There are good things happening in Québec when it comes to the life sciences. It is a province where universities and colleges, R&D centres and the business community are constantly finding new ways to work together to leverage the province’s strengths in the sector and make the business of biotech viable.

In the private sector alone Québec companies spend a fair share (approx. $4 billion) on scientific research and development, or close to 30 per cent of the Canadian total.

Some 20 international pharmaceutical companies have their Canadian head offices in Québec. Heavy investment in scientific research and experimental development is nurtured by the fact government measures and policies are favourable to doing business in this province.

Likewise, key stakeholders in the province have recognized the importance of getting the message out there to international communities that Québec is great place for biotechnology. It is for this reason that three key regional organizations: Québec International (Québec City), Montréal InVivo (Montréal) and Sherbrooke Innopole (Sherbrooke) reached out to each other creating Biopolis Québec in the fall of 2009.

The brainchild of Michelle Savoie, general manager, Montréal InVivo, the organization’s launch coincided with the government of Québec’s announcement at BIOContact of its biopharmaceutical strategy. In line with this strategy, already the Biopolis Québec partnership is giving the whole province better visibility at the international level.

“The main purpose of Biopolis was to put together and present the overall expertise and resources that we have in the province of Québec as it relates to life sciences and health technology,” states Savoie. “We have a complementary expertise in our different regions and our objective is to create a greater critical mass when we go and present and compete at the international level. So it has two purposes – one which is promotion of the sector, but as well to identify potential areas of collaboration for our three regions.”

The formation of Biopolis Québec was made easier due to the fact that the three regions had just finished working together in establishing an international partnership with the Life Science Corridor, in France.

The process was made easier by the three organizations having worked together under one umbrella temporarily. During talks with the Life Science Corridor the three regions found it easier to sell their ideas as a whole province and to emphasize the province’s strengths. A conclusion was reached going forward to establish something permanent.

“We are seeing a new trend developing in the world where regions are coming together to increase their critical mass – and I would say that’s where the idea of creating Biopolis Québec originated from,” states Savoie.

“It was a logical choice to form an association like we can see in several other prominent regions, such as Medicon Valley,” adds Pierre Belanger. “The goal of Biopolis Québec is to promote Québec’s Life Sciences around the world, and it makes sense to work together, because together we are stronger.

As such, we want to promote Québec the place to go in Canada for life sciences whether it’s to establish a subsidiary or to gain a gateway into the American market. Companies abroad often know little about Canada, and even less about Québec. If every Canadian city promotes its own activities, people can easily get confused. Biopolis wants to attract their attention to Québec as a whole. We want them to know that they have other options than the United States. Then, and only then, can we talk about the different regions of Québec.”

Belanger goes further explaining that when talks reach this point with international partners, only then does each of the organizations work independantly for its own region. To ensure this arrangement is followed, the three parties of Biopolis Québec have signed a code of ethics and all parties agree to these principles. Thus far, the relationship is working fine.

What makes the partnership work is that the three sides bring a lot to the table. For starters, Sherbrooke, Montréal and Québec City represent approximately 95 per cent of all that is happening in biotech in the province.

In Montréal, Montréal InVivo, a non-profit organization, is the brand name for the life sciences and health technologies cluster of the metropolitan area. The cluster itself is comprised of more than 620 organizations, including 150 research organizations, and 80 subsidiaries of foreign companies. The city itself is the university research capital of Canada, and also ranks first in terms of funds dedicated to university research, the number of university researchers and the largest number of research centres. The cluster is also unique in Canada, and is one of the few places in the world, where a company can conduct every phase of creation of a new drug, from basic research through to commercialization. It has developed a world-class mass of expertise in several areas such as aging, cardiovascular, metabolic diseases and personalized medicine. The cluster provides a productive environment for every company in the life sciences and health technologies. As such, it is a fertile breeding ground for innovation, creativity and business.

Sherbrooke is itself a city of innovation and great synergy. Sherbrooke brings many assets to the table in this partnership, with experts in pharmacology, oncology, molecular imaging, genomics, aging, metabolic diseases, diagnostics and medical technologies.

Sherbrooke Innopole is the regional organization overseeing all this activity.

It operates as an economic development organization whose goal is to attract or create new businesses based on Sherbrooke’s research and ingenuity, as well as supporting existing industries, including the life sciences and biotechnology, in their efforts towards expansion, innovation and internationalization. The mandate of Sherbooke Innopole is to stimulate the growth and innovation of businesses and to actively support them.

“Life Sciences are at the heart of Sherbrooke’s development with two universities generating more than 1,000 graduates each year in the several Life Sciences related programs,” explains Josée Blanchard director, business development, Life Sciences.

“The University of Sherbrooke owns more than 330 patents and generates from its discoveries and inventions some of the highest annual revenues in Canada. Sherbrooke University Hospital alone employs more than 5,200 people, 550 doctors and 150 scientists.”

Sherbrooke also has a large industrial footprint in the biotech space.

“Our Life Sciences industry dynamic, with about 30 companies, supported by more than 20 research centres in various fields such as molecular imaging and genomics.

Sherbrooke has been chosen by some major players including Charles River Laboratories and Baxter,” comments Belanger.

Québec City provides cutting-edge expertise in the areas of biopharmaceuticals and diagnostics, natural health products (nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals), of medical technology and information technology related to health. In fact, many innovative companies in the province reside in this region, AEterna Zentaris, Anapharm-Pharmanet, BD GeneOhm, Diagnocure, GlaxoSmithKline, and Medicago to name a few.

Many biopharmaceutical companies in the metropolitan region of Québec are derived from research conducted at the University Laval. This reflects the quality of research being done in its laboratories and the power of technology platforms that they develop.

Québec International is responsible for economic development of the industry in this region through its life science arm.

Together, the three regional organizations hope to meet many goals going forward. In addition to promoting the sector at the international level, each is looking at new ways to impact the development of the sector in the province.

An example of this is the organization’s involvement in the Québec-France Symposium-Biotechnologies. The three sides are working together to promote this event in Québec and particularly in its own region. Each region has also planned to bring a small delegation to this event to develop partnerships with France.

The three sides also worked together at the 2010 BIO International Convention held in Chicago. The event was the organization’s first official opportunity to promote Québec as a whole instead of focusing on the three different majors.

As part of the BIO 2010, Biopolis Québec also signed an agreement with Biocat, the most influential life science cluster in Spain. The collaboration agreement will foster the completion of projects between Spain and Québec and stimulate sharing in the sectors identified as highly strategic between the two. Essentially, the partnership will produce benefits for life science companies on both sides of the ocean.

Savoie explains that the objectives of this agreement are not only look at potential areas for partnership, but also to look at the potential for knowledge transfer.

“Right now there is discussion between us and Biocat, exploring the possibility of developing or creating a summer school in life science. So that is a project that is currently being looked at,” said Savoie
“We believe this agreement can not only lead to fruitful collaborations between Spanish and Québec companies, but eventually, to the establishment of foreign subsidiaries in Québec,” adds Belanger.

In terms of priorities on the research side, Montréal InVivo proposed to its partners within Biopolis Québec to concentrate its efforts in developing a personalized medicine initiative in the province of Québec. As part of this initiative players from all three regions, including university, private sector and public; the pharmaceutical, the biotech, medical device, and diagnostic technology industries will be involved.

“Personalized medicine is a world wide trend and we feel Sherbrooke, Montréal and Québec City have everything at hand to become a leader in this field,” states Belanger citing his own regions great expertise in Imaging, Diagnostics, and Genomics as examples.

The nice thing about personalized medicine adds Savoie, is the fact that it’s not actually related to one specific disease area.

“Each of the regions have developed certain expertise in the personalized medicine space, whether it’s developing biomarkers, developing some type of platform technology, we all have overall resources that we will need to compete at the international level,” she says.

Overall, all three partners find working within the Biopolis Québec framework very similar to working within their own individual organizations. The challenges are pretty much the same, but so are the goals.

Savoie explains that as you bring together groups within your own clusters, and within your own regions, it’s always a challenge to get people to agree on common objective. But as soon as you agree on the objective then it becomes easier. Biopolis Québec has already agreed on the common objective and identified issues or potential opportunities that are common in our three regions. Most importantly, they have agreed on the goal.

“I think that this is quite unique, having the three regions partnering together and working together to develop a provincial strategy, states Savoie. “I think that this is the first time that this is happening, but based on the success so far, it probably won’t be the last.”