GE Healthcare will partner with the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) to build a center for advanced therapeutic cell technologies in Toronto.

GE Healthcare and FedDev Ontario have committed a combined C$40 million ($28.1 million) toward the center, which they said is being established to speed up development and adoption of cell manufacturing technologies—with the goal of improving patient access to new regenerative medicine-based therapies.

CCRM and GE Healthcare said they will join with partner companies in pharma, biotech, and cell therapy in creating the center.

“This new center will enable us to work with cell therapy companies to push beyond existing technical limits and problem-solve,” Kieran Murphy, CEO of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business, said in a statement.

Located within Toronto’s hub of stem cell science, bioengineering, and clinical trials activities, the center is designed to work with industry partners to introduce new technologies to solve emerging technical challenges and bridge gaps in current and future workflows.

The center will also help cell therapy companies establish manufacturing processes that can produce the large cell numbers required for clinical and commercial use, by offering facilities and expertise, GE Healthcare, FedDev Ontario, and CCRM said.

CCRM supports development of regenerative medicines and associated enabling technologies, especially cell and gene therapy. The organization’s network includes an industry consortium of nearly 50 companies specializing in pharmaceutical, devices, reagents, tools, biomaterials, and cell therapies—as well as academic researchers, strategic investors and entrepreneurs. CCRM is a Canadian not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence program, the Province of Ontario, and academic and industry partners.

“We believe that supporting this new, world-class facility will have significant benefits for innovative health-related technology in Canada and around the world,” added Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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