March 2025 Life Sciences Update

Toronto

MARKETS CONTENTS

Market Summary

Public & Private Funding (2024)

Fast Lab Stats

• The restrictive economic climate and limited VC funding continue to pose significant challenges for Toronto's life sciences sector. With demand driven largely by early-stage R&D companies, a lack of sufficient capital has forced many smaller firms to prioritize resource management, often remaining in their existing premises rather than expanding. • The provincial government strengthened its commitment to the life sciences sector with the launch of Phase 2 of its strategy in the fourth quarter of 2024. This phase introduces a $146-million investment to support research, a new wet labs program to improve access for companies, a scale-up fund to expand production capacity, and enhanced VC funding to fuel innovation and growth. • Vacancy relief remained scarce, with no improvement in the predominantly owner-occupied building stock or existing third-party properties. Year-over-year, vacancy rates fell 120 basis points (bps) from 1.9% to 0.7% and have held steady at 0.7% since mid-2024. • With a significant shortage of available inventory, Toronto’s first speculative life sciences development at 77 Wade Ave. is nearing completion, bringing 155,000 square feet of life sciences space to the market this year. Among its features are turnkey lab suites aimed at minimizing relocation or startup real estate costs for smaller tenants, with occupancy targeted for the latter half of the year. Meanwhile, 700 University Ave. and 2395 Speakman Drive continue seeking anchor tenants for their respective developments.

Company

Deal Type

Completed

VC Round

$ Raised (MM)

8.0 MSF Market Square Footage 0.7% Vacancy 29.3K Total Life Sciences Employment 27.2% Life Sciences Employment 10-Year Growth Rate

Radiant Biotherapeutics

Early Stage VC

Aug 2024

2nd Round

$35.0

Zucara

Later Stage VC

Nov 2024

4th Round

$20.0

Acorn

Later Stage VC

Sep 2024

3rd Round

$8.1

HDAX Therapeutics

Early Stage VC

Sep 2024

5th Round

$5.0

Poppy

Seed Round

Mar 2024

3rd Round

$5.0

Sonik (Therapeutic Devices) Accelerator/Incubator

Jan 2024

$5.0

Noa Therapeutics

Seed Round

Mar 2024

3rd Round

$1.6

Mesosil

Seed Round

Jun 2024

3rd Round

$1.6

Flora (Other Insurance)

Seed Round

Oct 2024

1st Round

$1.1

Poppy

Later Stage VC

Apr 2024

4th Round

$0.5

Representative Investment Sale Transactions (2024)

Address

Type

$ MM RBA SF

Date

Buyer

522 University Avenue

Administration/Lab

$79.3

210,000 Q4 2024 University Health Network

Life Sciences Labor: Average Monthly Job Postings

Representative Life Sciences Companies

400 Iroquois Shore Road Manufacturing

$19.2

75,000 Q1 2024 ControlChem Canada

Company

Type

300

Pfizer Canada

Canada Regional Office

250

Representative Lease Transactions (2024)

Hoffmann-La Roche

Canadian HQ

200

Bayer Inc

Regional Office

New/ Renewal

Company

Address

Size (SF)

Type

Quarter

Landlord

AstraZeneca

Regional Office/R&D Hub

150

VWR International

6040 Cantay Road

95,500 New Manufacturing Q4 2024 Orlando Corporation

Abbott Multiple Locations Multiple Locations - Canadian

100

1620 Tech Avenue

27,000 New

Q4 2024 Canpro Investments

GlaxoSmithKline

Canadian HQ/Research

SPEC Labs

2599 Speakman Drive

20.648 New Lab

Q1 2024 Slate Asset Management

50

Sanofi Pasteur

Regional Office

Deep Genomics

HQ

0

2020 2021

2022

2023

2024

Notch Therapeutics

HQ

Bluerock Therapeutics

Regional Office

Resilience Biotechnologies Regional Office

Bio Degree-Awarding Institutions, Metro Area

Annual Life Sciences Degree Completions

McMaster University Queen’s University Lawrence College University of Toronto University of Waterloo University of Windsor Western University

• • • • • • • •

2011 2,470 2021 3,295 Up 33%

Top NIH-Funded Institutions (2020-2024)

$21M University Health Network

$17M Centre For Addiction and Mental Health

$14M Hospital for Sick Children

Juana Ross juana.ross@cushwake.com Research Contributors

York University

Sources: Cushman & Wakefield Research, CoStar, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Lightcast, Pitchbook

Cushman & Wakefield

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