The Canadian province of Quebec prides itself on its creativity whether it involves entertainment at the Cirque du Soleil, scientific innovation exemplified by the creation of the 3TC molecule or the gripping visual effects of the film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Liliane Laverdiere, Invest Quebec’s Atlanta-based director for the Southeast whose downtown office opened at the 191 Building in June, traces the province’s creativity to its history of attracting “the best and brightest” from around the world.
“We have had talent and creativity for a long time,” Ms. Laverdiere told GlobalAtlanta during a video interview in Atlanta. “Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America and we have been exchanging ideas and having cross-border activities for more than 400 years.”
It’s among her responsibilities, she said, to make companies in the Southeast including Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia more aware of the opportunities for collaboration in research and development with companies in Quebec.
For this reason, she invited GlobalAtlanta to meet in the Quebec cities of Montreal and Laval with representatives of two biomedical companies, a multimedia company and an entertainment company, which embody the creativity that she considers one of the province’s distinguishing characteristics.
Montreal, the province’s capital and commercial center with a metro population of more than 3.9 million living on an island surrounded by the St. Lawrence River, is a major source of creativity and an economic generator for the province as a whole.
“The people of Montreal work hard and play hard,” Ms. Laverdiere said of the city where 80 different languages are spoken. “They are gregarious,” she added, citing the 2,400 restaurants in the city and its active social life.
But as Invest Quebec’s director, Ms. Laverdiere’s responsibilities include attracting business to the province as a whole and she knows that multiculturalism alone is not enough to propel the sort of innovation and commercial success the province of more than 7.8 million needs to sustain a healthy economy.
“Money talks, of course,” she said describing her office’s capabilities as an economic development agency and as a financial institution. Invest Quebec can provide loan guarantees and second lines of financing as well as negotiate fiscal incentives.
An important aspect of her job, she said, is to actively seek out entrepreneurs who are starting or developing companies that she thinks will be successful and then to provide the support that they need.
While citing many examples of Quebec’s innovations in the fields of entertainment and software development, she cited biotechnology as one area that has benefited from the development of a “blockbuster” drug and attracted others.
Ms. Laverdiere traced Quebec’s take off in biotechnology to BioChem Pharma Inc., a Montreal-based company that specialized in the prevention and treatment of human diseases with a focus on infectious diseases and cancer.
The firm leapt into international prominence in the late 1980s with its first therapeutic drug, 3TC Epivir, which is now an important element in HIV infection/AIDS combination therapies.
Shire Parmaceuticals Group PLC of Britain acquired the company as part of a $13 billion merger in 2000 and set the stage for Quebec’s emergence as a biotechnology center.
The province now has the third highest number of biotech companies of any province or state in North America, trailing only California and Massachusetts.
Quebec’s medical schools provide a workforce with the skills biotech companies need. But even with an enticing cost structure, the province has to actively find and attract innovative companies that will provide the scientific breakthroughs on which the industry depends.
“Incentives keep our best minds in the province,” Ms Laverdiere said and they play an important role in attracting companies actively involved in research and development of new products.
Among her prime catches from the U.S. was Methylgene Inc., a publicly-traded, clinical stage, biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutics for cancer, which came to Montreal in the mid-1990s.
Located in a science park next to the offices of leading pharmaceutical firms such as AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squib, Merck Frost, Novartis, Pfizer and others, Methylgene entered into a partnership last year with a Japanese health care group to work on severe eye diseases.
The partnership with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. was prompted by Methylgene’s expertise with inhibiting the spread of blood vessels, an important factor in diseases such as macular degeneration as well as cancer.
GlobalAtlanta visited the science park and met with Methylgene President and CEO Donald F. Corcoran, who confirmed during an interview that Quebec was attractive because of the cost incentives and pool of available scientists and researchers.
He added, however, that obtaining venture capital financing was difficult, especially in the current economic climate.
He also said that Quebec would have to remain competitive in its financial incentives because emerging countries such as China and India would increasingly have trained, competitive workforces in addition to capital.
GlobalAtlanta also met Jan Eric Ahlfors, a 30-year-old Finnish scientist whose company New World Laboratories is developing neuro-regenerative technologies that aim to restore damaged nervous systems.
Dr. Ahlfors received most of his education in Massachusetts, but was persuaded by Ms. Laverdiere to move to Quebec. “I can get twice as much research for $1 in Quebec than I can in Massachusetts,” he said.
Although Massachusetts is a leader in biotech research and science in the world, Dr. Ahlfors prefers Quebec because it is easier for him to have access to other scientists and researchers as well as local officials and suppliers than in Boston.
Acutely aware of the time it may take for him to commercialize his research, he has shied away from trying to raise funds in the U.S. and relies on financial backing from Europe where he said his supporters are more willing to be patient given his ambitious medical goals.
Dr. Ahlfors’ researchers are now based at the Quebec Biotechnology Innovation Centre in Laval, Quebec’s third largest city. The biotech incubator is extremely selective about the companies that it recruits, which have to pass through an intensive examination by the board of directors of its research and business plans.
New World Technologies provides an ideal example of a company that the incubator wants because of the potential medical and commercial upside if its research has a positive impact on healing spinal cord injuries, ameliorating the results of strokes, or dealing with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Mulitple Sclerosis.
In addition to the province’s strengths in bioscience, Ms. Laverdiere also pointed to creative developments in its software, video gaming and entertainment industries.
Quebec has become a prolific producer of video games following the province’s decision to implement an attractive tax credit program for multimedia titles in 1997. Since then more than 6,700 jobs have been created.
Producing a high-quality video game takes several years and dozens if not hundreds of employees and investments of tens of millions of dollars. But a successful game can generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues and it attracts the attention of other multimedia companies that are interested in setting up shop there as well, she said.
The city’s capabilities in digital imaging were recognized in February when for the 14th consecutive year every film nominated for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award was shaped with Autodesk Inc. digital filmmaking tools.
This year the California company Matte World Digital was the Oscar winner for its three dimensional environments, crowd simulations and matte painting created with Autodesk software for the film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Although Autodesk is based in San Raphael, Calif., its media and entertainment headquarters is located in Montreal’s Multimedia City where the company also conducts training sessions.
Besides serving media and entertaiment markets, Autodesk software also is used extensively by designers in the manufacturing, building and construction industries.
Karim Salabi, vice president in the visual communications group and marketing, told GlobalAtlanta in Autodesk’s office in the Multimedia City, that Montreal has been a magnet for the hundreds of programmers whom the company needs.
And while the antics of performers in the Cirque du Soleil are widely known, Ms. Laverdiere pointed to the company Just for Laughs, as another example of the mixing of talent and creativity that has given birth to a company based in Montreal, which spreads humor around the world.
Its founder Gilbert Rozon started the company in 1983 with the goal of making people laugh through a comedy festival that brought together16 artists to perform at 35 shows on four stages for four days.
Today, some 2000 artists and more than 2 million people take part in the event which is broadcast around the world. The company also produces festivals in Nantes, France; Toronto and Bermuda, and participates at festivals such as the annual Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.
With offices in Montreal, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Brighton, United Kingdom, Just for Laughs has more than 200 permanent employees.
A lesson that it learned in Montreal is that different people appreciate different forms of humor. For instance, artists performing before English and French speaking audiences in Montreal have disarmed their spectators by resorting to mime only.
This solution to bridging two distinct cultures is just another example of Montreal’s creativity, according to Ms. Laverdiere.
Ms. Laverdiere may be reached by calling (404) 584-5340 or by sending an email to lilianelaverdiere@invest-quebec.com
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