Seventeen American biopharmaceutical firms participated in the North American Bio Forum 2010, created with a view to furthering alliances between five CROs in the Biotech City – Algorithme Pharma, Cirion, Corealis, LAB and Warnex – and the U.S. biopharmas.

This event was developed together with our five CROs. In fact, it was during a conversation with one of them that the idea for scientific conferences with buyer meetings was conceived. We then approached the others to gauge their interest in the project, whose overriding objective was to further alliances between our CROs and U.S. firms.

This is a unique event because by inviting companies to Laval, we also help increase foreign investment. The fact is that every dollar spent by the U.S. biopharmas in a Laval CRO is a dollar invested in R&D in Laval and in Quebec. The investments are extremely important because they lead to wealth creation in Laval.

The initial results are already encouraging. Not only have the participants written to tell us how satisfied they were with the event, particularly the solid meetings with potential R&D partners, but negotiations are underway to formalize partnerships. I believe concrete sales will soon follow. Finally, some firms have already expressed an interest in setting up operations in the Biotech City.

To see organizations like the International Business Centre combine exporting and investments is rather unusual. The tendency is to work on each aspect separately but the truth is you get more synergy by addressing them together.

I’m convinced that our strategy will lead to a winning economic development model. Time will tell if I’m right.

Véronique Proulx, MBA