Hundreds of new jobs expected as B.C. biotech firm plans new facility
A Vancouver biotechnology company is getting an injection of $45 million from two levels of government to build a facility expected to create hundreds of jobs.
The Canadian and B.C. governments are evenly splitting the public contribution to Stemcell Technologies' $138-million manufacturing project, which will be constructed in Burnaby.
Dr. Allan Eaves, the company's founder and CEO, said the funding will help Stemcell produce the substances necessary for clinical trials in areas like tissue engineering, gene therapy and regenerative medicine.
"We've had to contract out to the United States … to make these reagents, because we don't have the facilities here," Eaves told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.
"This money will help us build this facility here and bring those jobs back to Canada."
The new facility will be constructed over the next five years, generating 675 new jobs by 2022, and as many as 2,170 by 2031, according to the federal government.
The remaining $93 million needed to complete the project will be provided by Stemcell, which currently employs about 875 people in the Vancouver area.
The company has developed technologies to support cell growth that have been used for everything from cancer research to growing human organs.
With files from Susana da Silva
