Novartis invests in Victoria centre

Animal Health and Research company invests $2.8 million in Victoria facility

CAPTION2: CAPTION: P.E.I. Premier Robert Ghiz, left, jokes with President of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Riad Sherif and Novartis Director of Aqua Health Reasearch and Development and Marketing Gunter Schuele Friday morning at the Novartis Animal Health Research and Development centre in Victoria. The company announced it is investing $2.8 million in the facility for enhancements. PHOTO Ryan Quigley / Journal Pioneer

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

VICTORIA- Novartis Animal Health Canada announced a $2.8 million investment in its Research and Development centre in Victoria Friday morning at the facility.

P.E.I. Premier Robert Ghiz and Agriculture Minister George Webster joined Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada president Riad Sherif, Novartis Animal Health Canada Inc. Business Unit Head Frank Carochi and Novartis Director of Aqua Health Reasearch and Development and Marketing Gunter Schuele at the press conference Friday morning to announce the investment.

With the money, they hired 14 new employees as well as began a two-phase expansion. The first half of the renovations, currently underway, will be expanding the laboratory to create a new state of the art one. The second-phase, scheduled for 2012, will have the company creating more offices and meeting spaces for the facility.

Novartis is a health care company, which employs about 95 people on the Island. The Victoria Research and Development centre is part of their Animal Health sector where 30 scientists work on researching and developing vaccines for the prevention of viral and bacterial diseases in fish.

In 2007, Salmon in Chile became infected with Infectious Salmon Anemia. The vaccine used to treat the issue was developed in the Victoria centre, Sherif said during the press conference.

The company’s investment in its Victoria facility is to upgrade and enhance the research that can be done there, said Sherif.

“We have more researchers and more office space,” he said. “Our presence in P.E.I. is a strategic presence and it’s really for the long term.”

Because of how small P.E.I. is Sherif said it hasn’t been easy to attract potential employees.

“(The Island) has pros and cons. The pros are we have very strong support from the authorities, that we can call and ask for specific help, the cons are still it’s a small island and to remain small island,” he said. “So it has pros and cons, as any city.”

Sherif said the company will be creating more jobs in the future on P.E.I.

“Our plan is to continue to grow. We see this market of vaccine, in Salmon mainly, is a growing market and we see our investment continue to grow.”

Although no public money was in the company’s investment, Ghiz said Novartis has been given rebates for bringing in new jobs.

“Since 2006 it’s probably been a $600,000 investment, which really considering the size of Novartis is very good,” said Ghiz. “The expansion they’re doing here, they weren’t looking for any government dollars. They did it all on their own.”