The Greater Toronto area is home to a vast number of health biotechnology companies.

The University of Toronto provides an endless supply of research, graduates, and facilities to the biotechnology field, with a teaching hospital and numerous related departments. A strong research base is most evident in the contributions of major hospitals, the Toronto Hospital, one of the founders of the United Health Network and Mount Sinai, founder of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. There is a breadth of research at the University of Toronto with more than 16,500 researchers on campus and at its affiliated teaching hospitals.

Toronto researchers are world leaders in some of the most highly competitive and rapidly advancing areas of modern health care research, including the exploration of human diseases at the cellular and molecular levels.

Active principal investigators are found at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, and at research institutes such as Mount Sinai Hospital (The Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute,) the Hospital for Sick Children, the Ontario Cancer Institute (Princess Margaret Hospital,) the Toronto Hospital, Sunnybrook Hospital, St. Michael’s Hospital, Women’s College Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, (formerly The Clarke Institute of Psychiatry) and other hospitals and health institutions in the area. Together they employ more than 7,000 researchers, technicians and support staff.

The Medical and Related Sciences (MaRS) Discovery District initiative is currently underway to create a commercialization centre in a high-profile location in the heart of the city’s research community. The centre will provide research laboratories and administrative facilities for new biotech companies emerging from academic research being performed at the University of Toronto and affiliated research institutes.

The Toronto Biotechnology Initiative (TBI) is a non-profit organization founded to further biotechnology in this region. With more than 300 members, TBI is one of the largest regional biotechnology organizations, bringing together the worlds of research, business, academia and government through programs involved in education, regulatory affairs, finance, public awareness, technology transfer and international business.

Sources of Information:
Toronto Economic Development Office
Toronto Biotechnology Initiative