Moderna. Grifols. Jubilant Pharma. Novartis. Roche. That is just a sample of the many life sciences and health technologies (LSHT) companies that have invested in Greater Montreal over the past five years. The region's local ecosystem has flourished to become a pilar, showcasing some 1,300 companies and more than 45,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, Asian investors have significantly upped their contribution to Montreal's economy with projects worth $341 million in 2023 - a 20% increase compared to the previous year.
What's driving the recent surge of investments in Greater Montreal?
"Generally speaking, Montreal's highly qualified talent pool and world-class universities along with a competitive cost advantage constitute the main reasons cited by investors," explains Yun Li, Director of Business Development for Asia at Montreal International. "But when it comes to the life sciences industry and Asian investors, there's a common ingredient: artificial intelligence."
Home to world-renowned AI expertise
First, LHST companies have been increasingly turning to AI to accelerate development of breakthroughs in medicine and health technologies. And Montreal, home to world-renowned researchers such as Yoshua Bengio and Joelle Pineau, has attracted major investments from pharma and biotech companies that seek to leverage technology in their R&D.
An example of that is InSilico Medicine, a biotech company with offices in Hong Kong, New York, and elsewhere in the world. In 2023, the company inaugurated its R&D center in Montreal, focused on deep learning for drug discovery. "Montreal's world-class university research programs in AI, its thriving ecosystem of start-ups and the public sector support led the company to choose the region for this new R&D centre," explained the company during the inauguration.
Accelerating drug discovery with AI is also what convinced Salt Lake City-based Recursion Pharmaceuticals to set up its own R&D centre in Montreal. More specifically, Recursion seeks to develop machine learning methods and models and, ultimately, create one of the most complete, technology-enabled drug discovery solutions in the industry.
Yun Li, Director of Business Development for Asia at Montreal International
"Not every city has the assets that we have in Montreal," added Li. "Plus, recent data shows that Montréal offers an impressive 31% cost advantage for businesses in AI and other high-value sectors like IT, fintech, and aerospace compared to the average across the 20 largest metropolitan areas in Canada and the U.S."
Home to the world's largest academic centre for deep learning
Recursion is among the more than 140 companies that partnered with Mila, the world's largest academic centre for deep learning, and a cornerstone of the city's thriving AI hub. Mila brings together a community of +1,300 researchers - including Turing Award Laureate Yoshua Bengio - and students committed to advancing AI.
Beyond life sciences, Mila is very active in AI research related to various subjects, including robotics, language and image, environment and energy, and ethical AI. Since 2019, the centre has hosted one of Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), where the company conducts advanced research on voice recognition, machine translation, and natural language understanding.
Samsung is among a growing number of Asia-based tech companies present in Greater Montreal. Other examples include Panasonic, Sony, Fujitsu, Hitachi Global, and FTP Corporation – all of whom have partnered with Mila to tap into its team of experts.
A group of seven entrepreneurs from Seoul AI Hub attend a summer residency program at Mila to advance their startup in various industries, including health sciences and fashion
Photo: Mila, June 2024
This Fall, Li will attend BioJapan 2024 to meet with investors and discuss the city's assets for the life science industry and Asian companies. She can be reached on LinkedIn or visit Montréal International online (www.montrealinternational.com).