TBA The Biotechnology Initiative

The Voice of Bioscience in Ontario



The Biotechnology Initiative closes another successful breakfast series season

The popular Members Marathon breakfast meeting in June provided an opportunity for six member companies to tell their successful business stories. Attendance at morning meeting was high, with more than 90 attendees, a very high turnout considering that many TBI members and board members were away at BIO in San Diego, CA.

The first speaker of morning was Dr. Eric Hoffman from Activaton Labs, an up and coming biotech company that has found its niche helping insurance companies pull clues together and solve crime. Hoffman described how his company is taking the science of analyzing chemistry and applying it in multiple forensic fields, developing many tools for discovery including enzyme leach, high resolution ICP-MS, soil gas hydrocarbon and more.

Kathryn Deuchars President and CEO of Attodyne, was next to the podium. Heading up a company with a cool platform technology, Deuchars is excited about Attodyne’s laser that has medical applications in many potential areas including dermatology, dental and robotic surgery as well as non-medical applications. The technology already has near revenue prospects along with high growth and huge partnering potential.

Shawn Maddaford, VP Discovery Chemistry at NeurAxon Inc was the morning’s third presenter. NeurAxon Inc. is developing new drugs for the treatment of pain and other CNS disorders such as epilepsy and depression. His company is working to address shortcomings in the area of migraine treatment through the development of NXN-188, an nNOS inhibitor that is now in human clinical trials.

President and CEO of a startup biopharmaceutical company PDC Biotech GmbH; Diane Kalina was the next presenter. Describing PDC Biotech as a female healthcare company hoping to capitalize on the increasing incidence of pre-term labour, she discussed her difficulties in finding seed financing in the current market and cited this as the primary reason her company which had its origins here in Canada chose set up shop in Vienna Austria.

The next presenter was Dr. Joseph J. Elliot of Receptor Therapeutics Inc. As the President and CEO of Receptor Therapeutics Inc., Elliot heads up a virtual company hoping to find and in license 1-3 products and create value with at least one product within 3-4 years. Explains Elliot; virtual companies are a means towards increasing the odds of success in an environment that has become increasingly hard to find cash.

Finally Bruno Maruzzo closed out the session discussing the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute's iDAPT unit, which conducts R&D in rehabilitation technology and is also responsible for transferring promising technologies developed at Toronto Rehab to industry.

The Biotechnology Initiative Breakfast series returns in September.