A new provincially funded initiative to promote and develop Alberta’s bio-products sector is a huge step toward marketing environmentally sustainable practices and life-science innovations to the world, proponents say.

Alberta Innovation and Science last week pumped $250,000 into the creation of BioProducts Alberta, a strategic network that will look for innovative research and business opportunities in several areas, including agriculture, energy, forestry, health and the environment.

Some advocates even visualize a time when Alberta’s economy is fuelled not only by diminishing oil and gas supplies, but through commercialized, “home-grown” discoveries in partnership with industry.

“Bio-products are a brand-new wealth-creation mechanism for the province,” said Neal Oberg, co-chair of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), a government agency that promotes and supports research in agriculture in partnership with the private sector.

“If our goal as a province in the energy business is to be able to put ourselves in a position to sell the very last drop of petroleum oil worldwide, that will be the best possible position we can have. But we’ve got to start developing something else before we hit that last drop,” said Oberg.

More than 100 researchers and biotech business leaders gathered in Calgary last week for the announcement, made at the start of a showcase featuring several companies on the
leading edge of health and
agricultural research.

“It’s essential for a new industry to have a strong network to help expand opportunities,” said Mark Redmond, chief scientific and operating officer for Edmonton-based biotech firm Ceapro Inc., which develops products based on extracting healthy ingredients from oats.

“My perspective is that we’re great innovators who come up with a lot of useful technology. But taking that technology to market and leading by example is going to be the key to the general public’s understanding and appreciation of what the technology can do.”

BioProducts Alberta is a joint initiative between Alberta Innovation and Science and BioAlberta, a non-profit
industry association.

BioAlberta chair Andrew Baum said Alberta is only starting to capitalize on using biotechnology to manufacture value-added products from its natural resources. But he said this province, with its vast natural resource base, is uniquely suited to “grow” its bio-product industry.

“I think if we declare ourselves as a province that’s committed to being a pioneer and a leader in this field, we’ll get the private-sector involvement,” said Baum, who is CEO of Calgary-based SemBioSys Genetics, which uses plant oilseeds to develop protein-based pharmaceuticals.

Bio-products will be produced as long as Albertans grow crops and hew wood. Such products can include functional foods, industrial enzymes, biochemical feedstocks, nutraceuticals, and bioenergy and other fuels and lubricants. The waste streams from one sector can become a valuable resource for another.

The journey from the laboratory to the store shelf can be a challenge for researchers seeking funds to commercialize discoveries. It can take years to navigate regulatory requirements, let alone establish pathways for products and negotiate contracts, particularly in international markets.

But for University of Calgary researcher Andre Buret, the new BioProducts initiative will help open doors to what he said is a promising medical discovery.

His fledgling U of C spinoff company, AB Biopharma Inc., has developed a natural protein – a milk peptide called Epidermal Growth Factor – that coats the intestinal tract and acts as a shield against
gut-loving pathogens and microbes that can cause disease and diarrhea. The company has received more than $1.2 million in financial support from AVAC and AARI, and expects to have its first nutraceutical products available in three years.

“The major advantage is that now you have an organization that actually justifies our exercises,” said Buret, an associate professor in biological sciences who co-founded the company. “They (BioProducts Alberta) will give us access to people in a network from the private
sector, the government and
scientists. And these people will be able to redirect us to where we should go to develop our product with more advantages.”

Young companies developing novel health solutions such as AB BioPharma are growing contributors to the economy. According to BioAlberta, the province has about 60 bio-
technology/pharmaceutical
companies employing more than 800 people.

Ceapro’s Redmond agreed the public often doesn’t realize the impact the industry is having in Alberta, and too often associates biotechnology solely with the hot-potato issue of genetically modified foods.

“That tends to overshadow a lot of the other successful
applications of the technology,” he added.

“Trust is something we have to work on growing.”

Last week’s BioProducts showcase also featured speaker John Oliver, president of the Ontario-based consulting firm Maple Leaf Bio-Concepts.

A founding member of the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association, Oliver said
companies are seeing new opportunities in the “bio-
economy” by manufacturing more environmentally benign, cost-competitive products using non-traditional resources.

“But we can’t license out our technology cheaply and then buy it back,” he added. “We have to do the whole thing here, and then apply it to our natural resource base, because that’s where the big opportunity is going to be.”

Additional funding partners, as well as a budget, for the BioProducts network are expected to be finalized in the coming months.

“What I like about this approach,” said BioAlberta’s Baum, “is that business and industry is involved from the beginning, so there will be a real commercial focus and discipline that has to make sense
economically, as well as
scientifically.”