Canada pledges $20.5M in funding for biomanufacturing at Polytechnique Montréal

The Honourable Soraya Martinez Ferrada, minister of Tourism and minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, visited Polytechnique Montréal today to announce the cross-Canada results of Stage 2 of the Canada Biomedical Research Fund and Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund competition, representing an investment of nearly $574 million. Of that amount, $20.5 million has been earmarked for the RAMP-UP biomanufacturing initiative at Polytechnique Montréal, which is intended to support local production of vaccines and biologic drugs, as well as train the coming generations of specialists in this field. That research group will also benefit from specialized equipment procured thanks to $11.7 million in support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Government of Québec and the partners in a biomaterials development project.

The COVID-19 crisis exposed flaws in Canada’s capacity to rapidly counter a pandemic outbreak, notably because of the scarcity of vaccine production infrastructure and a shortage of scientists with the skills to manage large-scale manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals. To ensure Canada is prepared to face future pandemics, last year the federal government invested in the creation of five pandemic readiness hubs. The Eastern Canada Pandemic Preparedness Hub has been granted funds to support four projects, including RAMP-UP at Polytechnique Montréal.

Maud Cohen, President of Polytechnique Montréal, underscored the key role of these investments in structuring research and ensuring that universities across the country drive direct benefits for the health and welfare of Canadians.

“We are all here today because we are committed to making tangible contributions to shaping a future in which innovation and progress will serve the greater good,” she said. “The vital support of the government, through various programs and organizations, is decisive in establishing infrastructure, recruiting skilled talent, and implementing projects that hold great promise for the future. I want to commend the Government of Canada for its vision in recognizing the role of our institutions in achieving this ambitious goal of restoring biomanufacturing capabilities that have been dormant for too long in our country.”

Producing vaccines and training the next generation

Headed by Gregory De Crescenzo, full professor in Polytechnique’s Department of Chemical Engineering, the RAMP-UP initiative comprises experts from Université de Montréal, Université Laval and the National Research Council Canada (NRCC) along with key players from the College Centres for Technology Transfer (CERASP, TransBioTech) and the biomanufacturing industry.

The group’s objective is to set up a series of platforms to ensure rapid production of vaccines for clinical trials, after identification of a target protein. In addition to establishing cell lines for manufacturing of bioproducts, the group will develop scalable bioprocesses and analytical protocols for controlling quality at every stage of production. It will also work closely with its partners to optimize technology transfer to the market, shortening the path from discovery to commercialization. Ultimately, RAMP-UP’s mass-production capacity and expertise will enable it to reliably produce bioproducts formulated for Canadians.

At the same time, RAMP-UP will help prepare the emerging generation of biomanufacturing specialists at all stages of biopharmaceutical research, from identification of targets to generation of cell lines, paying particular attention to scale-up of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes. In doing so, it will rely in part on the Process Engineering of Emerging Nano-Medicines (PrEEmiuM) program at Polytechnique Montréal, also led by Professor De Crescenzo. Through this program, yearly cohorts of interns from the Montréal region develop interdisciplinary and intersector collaboration skills, helping to counter the silo effect that has historically prevailed in the biopharmaceutical industry.

“Every link in the chain is important, and all the members’ work is interrelated,” Professor De Crescenzo explains. “Biochemists and cell biologists focus on the initial stages of identification, and then engineers oversee subsequent steps like scale-up to production and quality control.”

Three projects in all for the Université de Montréal campus

In addition to the RAMP-UP project at Polytechnique, three other projects of the Eastern Canada Pandemic Preparedness Hub, led by Université de Montréal, are being funded. Université de Montréal has obtained funding for two projects: $21 million has been allocated for creation of novel antibiotics, and $16 million has been awarded to improve pandemic response capacity for children. Université Laval, meanwhile, will be receiving $42 million to support creation of a national primatology centre for pandemic preparedness.