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Pasteur Mérieux Connaught
Committed to Protecting Life

Pasteur Mérieux Connaught is the world’s leading producer of vaccines for human health and a member of the Rhône-Poulenc global family of companies. The company’s history in Canada dates back more than 80 years to the beginning of vaccine production in this country. Today, Pasteur Mérieux Connaught’s Canadian operation in Toronto produces vaccines and immunotherapeutic products that protect against 17 different diseases.

PMC Canada is also one of the most research-intensive biotechnology companies in this country and a major contributor to Pasteur Mérieux Connaught’s research programs worldwide. In 1996, it supported $43 million in research and development programs from its North York site.

Research projects currently underway place PMC Canada at the frontiers of vaccine and immunotherapeutic research. They include:

the development of a genetically engineered HIV pseudovirion for treating AIDS patients or as a vaccine against HIV infection;
an improved, acellular vaccine against pertussis (whooping cough);
a potential new vaccine against the Respiratory Syncytial virus (croup);
new combined vaccines that protect against many diseases with one vaccination;
new vaccine targeting systems that stimulate much more effective immune responses; and
an oral vaccine delivery that could eliminate the need for injections.

In 1996, PMC Canada generated vaccine sales of more than $121 million to its major markets in Canada, the United States, and Europe. The Canadian operation is also responsible for managing the Mexico business which achieved sales of $44 million in 1996.

Cancer Vaccines

A major new research priority for Pasteur Mérieux Connaught is the development of vaccines against pathogens responsible for several types of human cancers. This emerging field of preventive and therapeutic cancer vaccines is expected to double the size of the worldwide vaccine business by the year 2005. As part of this research, PMC Canada has developed the first biological product approved for the treatment of superficial bladder cancer in North America and parts of Europe. There is significant interest within Pasteur Mérieux Connaught and the Canadian government in establishing a cancer vaccine research facility at the company’s North York site.

Cooperative Research

PMC Canada also funds cooperative research projects at nine Canadian universities through its $15 million Canadian Universities Research Program. To date, more than $13 million has been invested in these programs which have become a benchmark for academic/industrial cooperation in Canada. The company also supports several programs designed to encourage more students to pursue studies and careers in the biological sciences.

The company’s fully integrated research and manufacturing operation in the Toronto municipality of North York, Ontario, has a highly skilled workforce of more than 900 people, including nearly 300 employees with university or post graduate degrees.