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French pharmaceutical company Sanofi officially launched a new $925-million vaccine manufacturing facility in North York on Wednesday — a site that will be used to create high-dose flu vaccines for seniors in Canada.
At a Toronto news conference announcing the facility, federal Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly said Canadian leaders discovered key vulnerabilities with access to vaccines and medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said leaders promised to never be in that position again.
“We were able to turn a strategic vulnerability into an opportunity,” she said. “We need to make sure that as a country we stand on our own two feet and we make our country more resilient and that we don’t need to depend on others during difficulties.”
Joly said the federal government invested $450 million in Sanofi in 2021, primarily in the hopes of producing vaccines in Canada.
She said Sanofi’s expansion is expected to create about 1,200 jobs across the country, with 300 of them at the campus in Toronto.
Premier Doug Ford, along with several other political leaders, spoke at the news conference announcing the new vaccine manufacturing facility on Wednesday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Premier Doug Ford said the province has invested $55 million into Sanofi’s facility to support biomanufacturing capacity in Ontario.
“During the pandemic, we all learned how important it is to have reliable domestic supplies of critical medicines and vaccines,” he said at Wednesday’s news conference. “With this new facility, we’re making sure Ontario has the capacity for generations to come.”
In 2023, the premier announced $4 million in spending to bring manufacturing capacities to Ontario to create respiratory vaccines. Later in 2024, provincial leaders joined Sanofi for the grand opening of their $800 million facility in Toronto.
Deputy Premier and Health Minister Sylvia Jones celebrated the opening of the manufacturing facility, saying companies like Sanofi “play an important role in strengthening the innovation taking place right here in Ontario.”
Leaders hope campus legacy will continue on
Sanofi’s new campus, called the Charles Best building, is named after one of the co-discoverers of insulin. Dr. Frederick Banting and Best isolated insulin, a treatment for diabetes, at the University of Toronto in 1921.
Sanofi’s new building is now at that very same site where insulin was discovered, said federal Minister of Health Marjorie Michel. She said she hoped the work there would continue to have a global impact.
Michel said the building now represents what happens when all three levels of government in Toronto unite to build up Canada’s life sciences industry.
Mayor Olivia Chow, who was present at the announcement, said she was personally thankful for the discovery of insulin, which helped her father after he was diagnosed with diabetes.
She said the legacy on the campus will continue with Sanofi’s dedication to developing influenza vaccines and by removing Canadians’ reliance on the global supply chain for medical essentials.
“As we face down global turbulence, disruptive trade policies from the White House, the people of Toronto here in Ontario are ready to step up,” said Chow.