Canadian Critical Drug Initiative

The CCDI will add much-needed capacity to produce and manufacture critical medicines, fortifying Canada’s health system and accelerating the growth of the life sciences industry.

Specifically, the CCDI will equip Alberta to:

Build out and equip a new 50,000+ ft² manufacturing facility that will produce critical medicines.
Upgrade the 72,000 ft² Biotechnology Business Development Centre (BBDC) to incubate more local companies in the scale-up stage.
Produce critical hospital drugs that are high-risk due to market challenges, creating a secure supply of drugs critical to Canadians’ health, and a facility that can be mobilized in the event of a crisis.
Propel innovations from researchers across Alberta that will provide life-saving drugs.
Create more than 350 jobs in Alberta.
Increase API’s ability to support more companies through all phases of drug development, from early drug discovery to clinical trials to manufacturing.

Anticipated completion for the upgrades to API’s existing 72,000 ft² facility is 2024. This will add facilities and equipment including:

An additional Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) lab
Core facilities and improvements to enable the incubation of life science scale-up companies
Small molecule chemical synthesis, capable of producing 200 liter batch sizes of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients

Anticipated completion and opening for API’s new 50,000+ ft² facility is 2026. This will build out key facilities and equipment including:

Sterile/aseptic fill/finish facility, capable of an annual throughput of up to 70M doses
Multipurpose robotic filling line for small to medium volumes ranging from 1ml to 100ml; both liquid and powder fill; over 43,000 vials per hour
Rotating autoclave for emulsion products
2 to 4 manufacturing suites
Cold storage and flash freezer