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Surrey Board of Trade Says Life Sciences and Biomanufacturing Strategy will Create Jobs and Businesses

As part of the StrongerBC Economic Plan, the new BC Life Sciences and Biomanufacturing Strategy provides five pillars to secure BC’s position as a leading global hub for life sciences and biomanufacturing, and to develop commercial-scale biopharmaceutical and medical manufacturing.

“The Surrey Board of Trade has called on the government to implement a global investment hub for vaccine research since 2020,” said Anita Huberman, President & CEO, Surrey Board of Trade “During the pandemic, we saw how the development of vaccines and other medicines faced significant challenges. We are pleased that the BC Government is taking action, but it needs to be expanded to include international access to ensure that we can bring these vaccines to international markets in an efficient manner.”

The Province is investing $10 million in a new wet lab facility with adMare Bioinnovations. This investment and strategy are steps in the right direction, however, more needs to be done.

“We are excited about Surrey’s upcoming new 75,000 square feet of wet lab space, with additional possibilities to expand up to one-million-square-foot of wet lab space in the future building phases at Surrey’s Health and Technology District. This will be a key anchor in developing the Cascadia economic corridor.”

The study of pathogens, and associated vaccine research, costs hundreds of millions of dollars with a very high failure rate (>94%). With immediate and ongoing financial support, labs and manufacturers can increase their efforts with greater scientific resources applied to each problem and the investigation of multiple potential solutions. Unfortunately, vaccines for emerging diseases are not generally an attractive investment for large pharmaceutical companies, given that by the time a vaccine is developed and licensed, an outbreak may have been contained.

Read the full SBOT policy here https://businessinsurrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Global-Research-Fund.pdf

Read the BC Life Sciences and Biomanufacturing Strategy here https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/initiatives-plans-strategies/technology-industry/life-sciences-biomanufacturing/bc_life_sciences_biomanufacturing_strategy_final_april_2023.pdf

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Anita Huberman, 604-634-0342, anita@businessinsurrey.com