Called it: Johnson & Johnson JLABS opening in Toronto

MaRS recently announced that Johnson & Johnson is opening up a JLABS innovation center in downtown Toronto.  This is a much needed, great move for biotech business in the region, and one that I called two years ago:

Ontario already has presence for a few big pharmaceutical players - GE Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche, and Teva - so although it might take a few more years, but a big red door as Urban describes should appear in Ontario.

As the Toronto JLABS center is slated to open in the new(ish) MaRS tower in early 2016, it'll be interesting to see how the JLABS team and industry mentors interact with the existing people at MaRS.

One hopes that the new center becomes a gateway with which Toronto-based startups get a presence in markets like Massachusetts and California where the other JLABS centers exist.