New BioAccelerator home to Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL) Expanded Training Facility
$50M government investment in new BioAccelerator to grow biomanufacturing capacity and training for Canada
Charlottetown, PE – The Governments of Canada and Prince Edward Island today announced funding for a $50 million BioAccelerator, which will be home to CASTL’s headquarters and expanded training facility. The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for ACOA, and Premier Dennis King made the announcement in support of Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy and the province’s strategic plan for the bioscience sector.
A national initiative to address the growing life sciences ecosystem, CASTL offers training specializing in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. CASTL delivers on-site customized hands-on and theoretical training for entry-level employees through the senior management and post-secondary students. CASTL is supported by its global partner, NIBRT and lead national partner adMare BioInnovations and the adMare Academy.
“This is an important milestone for CASTL’s growth as we establish our headquarters and continue to expand our national program. We’re proud to be anchored in PEI. The PEI Bioscience cluster continues to punch well above its weight, already surpassing 2025 growth targets and being well on their way to $1 billion in revenue by 2030,” said Penny Walsh-McGuire, CASTL Executive Director. “This new facility will allow CASTL to expand its training capacity, increase specialization opportunities, and serve the growing sector in the region and across the country.”
In October 2022, CASTL opened its first Biomanufacturing Training Facility in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in the newly constructed Bioscience Manufacturing Incubator within the PEI BioCommons. The facility contains state-of-the-art pilot-scale bioprocessing equipment that allows trainees to gain practical skills that are immediately transferable to process scale-up and clean room environments. It is also equipped with laboratories and classroom spaces built to deliver the highest quality training to industry professionals.
In January 2023, CASTL announced its second Biomanufacturing Training Facility will open in Montreal, Quebec in Fall 2023. Other locations across Canada are being determined to ensure broad geographic access to CASTL’s biomanufacturing training opportunities.
The BioAccelerator will provide much needed capacity and expertise to support fermentation and downstream bioprocessing in areas of biologics, probiotics, natural product chemistry-derived products, animal and fish health products. These are areas where capacity is extremely limited in North America and especially so in Canada.
Spearheaded by the PEI BioAlliance, in partnership with Charlottetown Area Development Corporation (CADC), the 75,000 sq. ft. biomanufacturing facility will build much-needed capacity, providing services to support research, product development, company scale-ups, and skills and training.