Mussels, potatoes, ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ and now biologics

Abstract

Arriving for a visit to BioVectra, a Canadian contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), one is reminded that pharmaceutical services companies are an idiosyncratic lot. Most are small- to medium-sized firms whose offerings vary as widely as do their cultures. CDMOs can be found in out-of-the-way places such as foothill villages in the Swiss Alps and the cornfields of Iowa. They pop up on the outskirts of major European travel destinations like Lisbon and Paris. They cluster around Milan and can be found in the hinterlands of China. The idea of a CDMO on Prince Edward Island—the tiny Maritime Province best known as the setting for Lucy Maud Montgomery’s novel “Anne of Green Gables”—may seem one step beyond the pale. BioVectra, however, has grown in the 18 years since it began producing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to become a world-class player. Most recently, BioVectra ventured across the Northumberland Strait to