Winter 2010
Welcome to the winter edition of the TRRA e-Newsletter. For more information on any topic that interests you, please click on the appropriate headline or tab.
| Features |
Investment Attraction Update
TRRA makes Chinese and Japanese connections; prepares for Asian mission in 2010
TRRA completed an unprecedented round of meetings in Japan and China from October 7 through 27, 2009, targeting the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Sam Lee, TRRA's Director of Bio Life Sciences, traveled to five cities in Japan and six in China and met with a total 27 companies and two research hospitals. The mission started with the 3-day BioJapan 2009 conference in Yokohama, in concert with a delegation led by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. TRRA continued on to meet with other potential R&D business contacts and held those meetings separately with representatives from St. Michael's Hospital and Pacgen Biopharmaceuticals Corp.
Making economic development inroads into Japan and China is an important long-term activity for Toronto Region. Japan is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world, and Japanese pharmaceutical companies are now expanding beyond the Japanese market. TRRA met with 10 Japanese pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms in the Tokyo and Kansai regions that might consider establishing a presence in Toronto Region. TRRA will continue to work with the province of Ontario on advancing investment decisions from such companies. The business case for investment by Japanese companies already has precedence, as several major Japanese pharmaceutical companies have already located in the Toronto Region or have licensing deals with Toronto Region biotechnology companies. The follow-up work now involves providing details on business operations in Canada and providing actionable business options to these prospect companies to win more investments.
The pharmaceutical sector in China is different from Japan's as most pharmaceuticals manufactured and sold in China are generics. These companies are interested in investments higher up in either the value chain or the supply chain. Meetings with the two Chinese research hospitals (a general hospital and a cancer hospital) highlighted the scale of their health care services. For example, one hospital serves a catchment population of over 12 million, close to half of Canada's population. Since these meetings, there have been ongoing discussions on creating research and clinical partnerships among these hospitals and Toronto Region research hospitals. TRRA will continue to support research connections between Asian and Toronto Region biotechnology companies, which are typically at the product development stage in both cases.
TRRA welcomes expressions of interest to participate in 2010 Asian mission
These leads and contacts have positioned TRRA to undertake further FDI activities in the region for 2010. Our experience has shown that involving decision-makers in our delegation is an effective strategy tp to open doors and facilitates follow-up opportunities rapidly. If you are interested in a joining the 2010 mission this fall, please contact Sam Lee. We will be seeking investment leads in the form of licensing, equity investments, and through other creative deal opportunities of interest to our local stakeholders and partners.
International trips in IT security and waste management sectors
TRRA participated in two sector-specific trips to Europe during the fall. The first focused on IT security firms in London, Frankfurt and area. TRRA conducted eight meetings with companies with potential to establish R&D, sales or manufacturing operations in Toronto Region. The economic development meetings were supported by targeted research, identifying regional assets specific to the companies' areas of business and needs.
The second round of meetings coincided with the Pollutec trade show in Paris, which focuses on noise, water and air pollution innovations. In pre-arranged meetings, TRRA met with and presented targeted Toronto Region assets to 12 companies from Germany; France; Israel; the U.K.; Begium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. An additional 15 meetings were conducted in conjunction with the trade show. TRRA follow-up with all these firms is underway, the goal being to encourage the international companies to visit Toronto Region for a first look at the potential to locate operations here.
TRRA identifies regional assets in biometrics
New data from TRRA reveals that Toronto Region is among the top players in global biometrics research, an offshoot of the region's strong IT Security & Cryptography cluster. Biometrics recognizes humans based on one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. The region's particular expertise lies in our research into physiological biometrics, traits such as fingerprints, DNA, facial attributes, palm prints and iris. TRRA prepared this data to support the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade's (MEDT) approach to a key French company in the sector. View Biometrics in the Toronto Region presentation. Contact Karen Sievewright
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