Vancouver Island Life Sciences association (VILS) is a volunteer, nonprofit society that brings together the life-sciences community in Victoria and around the Island, and connects it with the global life science community.

Did you know there are over 50 companies and entities in the Victoria and island area working on life sciences innovations? Neither did we, until we started meeting up in late 2016, since the life science community is famously low-key and Victoria-and-Island was no exception.

Our membership and community of course includes highest-profile local life sci companies such as Aurinia Pharmaceuticals with its nearly USD 2 billion market cap, ImmunoPrecise Antibodies at >200 million market cap, or Starfish Medical with global reach and tens of millions in revenue, but importantly includes a rich variety and growing number of life science companies, providers, and researchers at every stage of development from startup to profitable SME. See some of our community members on our community map.

Our membership is open and involves no dues (thanks to our many sponsors and supporters) ; it merely requires an interest in and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and innovation in life sciences. Our members include biotech, diagnostics, medical devices, pharmaceutical, and software companies; local health authorities; students; secondary education institutions; local government; and more.

Everyone is welcome to join the VILS.ca community by signing up today and get reminded of each monthly meeting by subscribing to our mailing list

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ABOUT US

 

BIOINNOVATION HUB

 

NEXT VILS MEETING AND OTHER EVENTS

 

CURRENT JOBS/CAREER OPENINGS BOARD

 

TOP NEWS AND LINKS

 

PREVIOUS MEETINGS ARCHIVE

(Learn about VILS and get an idea of what our meetings look like by browsing our past meetings.)

 

Most recent news and meetings:

03 MAY 2023: We are pleased to announce with our Provincial colleagues the grant to VILS of $2.5 million towards a new pilot facility on southern Vancouver Island that will provide 6+ companies at a time the space to convert their life science innovation into proof of commercial scalability. This is to be the first of its kind facility in the area to accelerate life science and biomedical innovations through commercial development, on a not-for-profit basis.

Our most recent meetings have included several sessions meetings and celebrations in the new BioInnovation Hub! Firstly we held the launch event with our partner UVic on 31 August 2022,


then we held the Victoria Hand Project birthday party and first charity fundraiser bash on 14 September 2022!

 

A map of our member and supporter companies and organisations (send us a link and map location if you don't see your firm here):

 

 

 

 

(April 2017 meeting at UVic)

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© Vancouver Island Life Sciences, 2016 to 2023