Ottawa

Manley: ‘result of partnership plan’.

Canadian researchers have won out over their French counterparts in a cancer vaccine development project that the Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, calls “the largest biotechnology investment ever made in Canada”.

Joint lobbying by Canadian politicians and scientists has persuaded the French parent company of Pasteur Mérieux Connaught Canada to invest up to C$350 million (US$255 million) over 10 years in research to be carried out in Canada rather than France.

The Canadian federal government will invest C$60 million in the project, which aims to develop vaccines to combat eight forms of cancer that account for 66 per cent of cancer cases in Canada (bladder, lung, prostate, cervical, breast, ovarian, colorectal and melanoma). Repayment of the contribution will depend on sales, projected at as much as C$10 billion over 10 years.

Canada's lobbying success with Jean-Jacques Bertrand, president and chief executive officer of the parent company, Pasteur Mérieux Connaught (Rhône-Poulenc Group), resulted partly from the country's tax credit system. In Canada, research and development costs companies only 60 cents for every dollar spent, as against about 90 cents in France or the United States.

Unusually, Canada provides no direct subsidies, while in France this type of research could receive subsidies of up to 50 per cent. Canada's C$60 million investment in this project will be provided through the Technology Partnerships Program, set up by the industry department to create jobs through research in aerospace and biotechnology.

The project could eventually create up to 300 jobs directly and employment for another 250 people in research centres, universities, hospitals and the private sector.

Those who had given their backing to the deal included Canada's three major research grants agencies. The industry minister, John Manley, called the project “a tangible result of this government's strategy for building an innovative economy through partnerships”.

About 60 organizations across Canada are likely eventually to be involved. The main focus of the research will be tumour-associated antigens, peptide and carbohydrate technologies, adjuvants, immunomodulators and immunotargeting.

Heather Munroe-Blum, vice-president for research and technology transfer at the University of Toronto, calls the arrangement “a wonderful endorsement of the quality of research in Canada and particularly in the Toronto area.”