COVID-19 response: Building the infrastructure

Building the infrastructure

Two new biomanufacturing facilities on the NRC’s Royalmount site in Montréal are designed to support Canada’s domestic production of vaccines and other biologic medicines.

Each facility will support a different stage of product development. The clinical trial material facility will help advance new drugs through the clinical trial stage, while the Biologics Manufacturing Centre will enable full-scale domestic production of approved biologic drugs.

This new infrastructure strengthens Canada’s overall biomanufacturing capacity and pandemic readiness by enabling vaccines and other biologic medicines to be developed entirely in Canada—from innovation to final production.

Biologics Manufacturing Centre

Unique in Canada, the new Biologics Manufacturing Centre is compliant with good manufacturing practices (GMP) and intended specifically for public-good projects. Its dual purpose: to produce biologics that would not otherwise be available for Canadians; and to pivot during a public health emergency to produce cell-based vaccines or other drugs needed to keep Canadians safe.

Operated by an independent not-for-profit corporation, the Biologics Manufacturing Centre has 2,500 litres of bioreactor capacity across 2 production suites to support the Canadian production of approved vaccines and other biologic drugs for their clients.

Learn more about the Biologics Manufacturing Centre

Clinical trial material facility

Providing a bridge from research and development to full-scale production, the clinical trial material facility has a bioreactor capacity of 500 litres to produce materials for NRC clients and collaborators to complete the clinical trial stage of biologic medicine development.

Run by the NRC as part of the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, the clinical trial material facility supports the development of vaccines and other biologics, enabling Canadian-made innovations to advance to clinical trials in Canada.

Learn more about the clinical trial material facility