Major pharmaceutical investment

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

A major investment in yet another Canadian pharmaceutical head office positions the West Island and Quebec as Canadian leaders in the pharmaceutical market, Quebec Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand said last Thursday in Kirkland.

An $18.5-million investment by Schering-Plough Canada for a long-term leasing and renovation agreement for its new Canadian head office on Highway 40 near the eastern border of Kirkland means it becomes the latest Canadian pharmaceutical company to bring its Canadian head office to the West Island, joining the likes of Pfizer, Merck Frosst (both in Kirkland) and Novartis (Dorval).

“This is very good news for the West Island and for Quebec,” said Bachand, who took time out from the campaign trail. “Pharmaceutical interests are a key sector of our economy and we have 42 per cent of Canadian research and development right here in Quebec and 36 per cent of the entire Canadian pharmaceutical market.”

The head office will mark the company’s third West Island installation, along with a manufacturing facility in Pointe Claire and a distribution centre in Kirkland.

Bachand said major government investments in innovation and the preservation of a 15-year window before generic versions of patented drugs hit the market can be credited for the latest upswing in pharmaceutical interest in Quebec. “We are determined to keep Quebec a leader in this market,” he said.

Couple that announcement with the financing of a pharmaceutical-technology DEC program at Collège Gérald-Godin last month, and the West Island is quickly becoming a nerve centre for the industry.

“We’re always happy to have the taxes,” Kirkland Mayor John Meaney said, beaming. “And it’s always nice to steal something from Pointe Claire,” he said, referring to friendly competition between the two cities for landing large corporations as residents.

Schering-Plough Canada president Carlos Dourado said the company will hire 40 new employees to staff the new head office, which will bring the number of West Island jobs at the company to about 590.“The need for a new head office is the result of our company’s employee expansion over the next five years. Our commitment of $18.5 million over a 15-year lease for this head office clearly demonstrates the importance of our ongoing relationship with Quebec and Montreal, our home for the last 80 years,” he said.