Last fall, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) opened the first medical school in the Greater Toronto Area in over a century. It’s a key piece in elevating Brampton’s position on the innovation corridor, a stretch of land from Kitchener through Oshawa.
“Understanding that many physicians are actively looking for ways that they can solve problems that they deal with day to day means that if we can build in this as a core tenant to how people are trained they’re more likely going to see that as part of their everyday activity and they’re going to become job creators,” said Dr. Jobin Varughese, the Assistant Dean of Primary Care at TMU.
But there is a piece missing to really kick Brampton’s life sciences industry into overdrive – a wet lab, and that is something that will require funding from other levels of government.
“The wet lab was a huge demand and request of the MedTech Task Force, as it was seen as a critical piece to really grow the med tech sector here in the City of Brampton,” explained Deputy Mayor Harkirat Singh. “It seems other cities that have a robust med tech sector, they all have wet labs and dry labs in close proximity. And so we are advocating for a wet lab here in the City of Brampton, and our federal counterparts have shown some significant interest.”
Right now, there’s an actual shortage across Ontario for wet lab facilities. These multi-million dollar labs are critical for life sciences research, something Denise McClure, Director of Economic Development and International Relations with the City of Brampton’s Economic Development Office, says is needed to help the city transform from an advanced manufacturing hub to a hotspot for health care and scientific research.
“I would argue that Brampton already is very strong in health and life sciences,” she explains. “We have large companies that have been here for quite some time. Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Sun Pharma, and Dynacare are here in Brampton. Now we really want to bring together those large companies with this new medical school and look at how we can attract some of the startups and really build out that ecosystem of healthcare.”
There are 100 biotechnology firms within a 30-minute drive from Brampton, and 40 per cent of Ontario’s life sciences companies are within the GTA. The idea is to attract even more to the seventh-largest city in Canada.
“By having the wet lab on site or nearby, really helps us ensure that as we work with startups, we can have a space to really focus down on how we can get that experimentation, how we get that actual clinical information at a high quality level, something that’s not been seen in years,” said Dr. Varughese.
Something else that hasn’t been seen in years, an influx of new doctors. The first full-graduating class of TMU MDs won’t actually happen until 2029, but the first post-residency trainees, in this case 11 new doctors, will be ready to get into the field as early as this fall.
