Northern Exposure - When global companies expand into new countries, these firms often co-locate in local areas that are a business hub for other companies in the same industry. These hubs, or industry clusters, are regional concentrations of inter-connected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, and associated institutions that allow all of these companies to do business with each other efficiently. Ontario's $15 billion commercial life sciences cluster, based in the Toronto region, is an example. The availability of these business resources is a powerful draw for life sciences companies that want to access the lucrative North American market.

The region is anchored by the city of Toronto and covers a 100-kilometrer radius to include the cities of Hamilton, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo. With over 700 pharmaceutical and medical device companies, the area is home to one of North America's largest commercial life sciences clusters. Expansion-minded companies recognize the value of locating where peer companies are already established.
Thirty-two of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies have Canadian headquarters here, along with dozens of small and medium firms. Many of these companies are geographically concentrated in Mississauga, a community just west of Toronto.
The largest global medical device firms are also well represented in the region. 3M, Agfa HealthCare, Boston Scientific, GE Healthcare, Medtronic, Siemens, and over 250 other companies are located in three hubs in Toronto, Mississauga and Markham, a community just north of Toronto.
In addition to an experienced workforce of close to 40,000 people, international life science companies are well-served by an established base of business and support services. All the essential functions to support commercial operation are locally available, including more than 220 companies that provide specialized services for the life sciences sector: research; clinical; manufacturing; sales and sales operations; marketing and market research; supply chain management; regulatory; and market access.

• Global logistics and distribution 
  Integrated firms manage the unique requirements associated with the acquisition and transport of chemicals and temperature-controlled ingredients and products. Sector-specific services include cold chain storage and delivery, clinical trial supply logistics, and reverse logistics. Wholesale and retail channels are well-developed.
• Health care marketing
  The industry calls upon an extensive range of marketing, advertising and communications firms that specialize in prescription, over-the-counter and direct-to-consumer products. Graphic design, illustration, photography, direct mail, market research, and professional publication services are also available.
• Physician education and training
  Two dozen suppliers develop and manage continuing health education (CHE)/continuing medical education (CME) symposia and events for the industry.
• Contract research 
  Sixty contract or clinical research organizations (CROs) are located in the Toronto Region. These firms provide pre-clinical studies, study design, regulatory, patient monitoring, site management, biostatistics, data management, bio-analytical and medical writing services to meet the sector's needs.
• Manufacturing
  More than 30 contract manufacturing companies supply active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients, and perform custom synthesis, purification and analysis. Packaging services for liquid, semi-solid and solid products include: site licenses and cGMP/ISO certification, encapsulation, tableting, blending, blistering, bottling, shrink wrapping, labeling, card sealing, cartoning, lot and date coding. Manufacturers also produce regular or small runs, first runs, pilot batches and experimental runs as well as packaging for clinical trials.

Exceptional Research Infrastructure
The pharmaceutical and medical device industry also benefits from a wide range of clinical, research and educational resources in the region. It is home to one of North America's largest health sciences complexes, with more than 60 hospitals, 37 medical institutions, 8,200 physicians and 54,000 health professionals. The University of Toronto and McMaster University medical schools have 12 affiliated research hospitals.
Several state-of-the-art research facilities are located in Toronto's one-square mile Discovery District, including: The Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics; Ontario Cancer Biomarker Network; The Centre for Applied Genomics; Structural Genomics Centre; Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research; and Industrial BioDevelopment Laboratory. McMaster University in nearby Hamilton is globally-recognized as a center of excellence in coordinating large, international clinical trials.

Economic Stability and Positive Business Environment
Canada's economy has weathered the economic downturn better than the other G7 countries and is expected to continue its relatively strong performance. In 2010, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's stable and well-managed financial system as the soundest banking system in the world. In addition to a relatively strong and stable economy, Canada offers some of the most generous R&D tax incentives of any industrialized country, and corporate income and capital taxes are lower than in the U,S. With the fewest steps and shortest time required to set up an enterprise, companies will find a positive business climate.