Mark Redmond may not be the best of golf partners, but shareholders who have partnered with the doc and his gang at Ceapro Inc. haven’t had much to complain about with the company’s share price surging.

Redmond, Ceapro’s CEO and a indefatigable scientist who holds 60 patents, confesses to having counted the dimples on the golf ball when he should have been teeing off, but that sort of thoroughness might be welcomed by shareholders who have watched their shares tee off in the past year in quadrupling fashion.

Redmond, BioAlberta’s 2003 entrepreneur of the year, is no ordinary CEO, nor is the company he heads.

Unlike most of its peers in the biotech sector, Ceapro boasts real profits, deriving revenue from a diverse range of high-tech products from oat shampoo for dogs to oat cosmetics.

Jack Dagley photos, for Business Edge
Ceapro CEO Mark Redmond hold the flags of the many countries and provinces where his company’s products are available.

But Redmond’s ace in the hole may be the company’s development of a diabetes screening kit known as AccuScreen. If you’re contemplating a round of golf with Redmond, read on.

1. What were your boyhood passions growing up in Liverpool, England?

“In Liverpool, growing up near the sea, it was always fun walking on the beach with my parents. I wanted to be an architect. One of my grandfathers was an architect and one of my uncles is a marine architect, so I think there was something in the genes about wanting to design things. I spent a lot of time playing with Lego and building models. Even today, I’m designing products to fulfil medical roles or other needs.”

2. What initially triggered your passion in biochemistry?

“Going through pre-medical studies, one of the biochemistry courses I took sparked an interest, although that career aspiration nearly came off the track. As I was nearing completion of my bachelor of science, I started thinking about getting into business and doing an MBA. That came out of left field, but one of my mentors in biochemistry impressed upon me that I would probably be better off using my talents in the areas of research. I did stick to research for about 10 years, but then got called over to the dark side, as people sometimes think business is.”

3. Why did you choose to move to Edmonton in 1981?

“I was fortunate enough to win a Heritage Foundation medical research scholarship and had the ability to take that in either Calgary or Edmonton. Sitting a few thousand miles away, I thought there wasn’t much difference between the two cities and the mountains are close to each, so I did the academic thing and looked into the backgrounds of the profs at both universities. I was particularly impressed with Lorne Tyrrell (currently dean of medicine at the University of Alberta). I thought that looked like a good place to extend my studies in infectious diseases, so over here I came, and the day I arrived the temperature dropped to – 37, so I was really wondering where I’d come to.”

4. While pursuing medical research, did you also have aspirations to work on the business side of medicine?

“I was exposed to a couple of profs who were getting into the business side of things but, at that time, very few professors strayed beyond the bounds of the ivory towers and academia. Those that were interested in the business side impressed upon me to work on projects and technologies that had an end application. That really suited my interests.”



5. Which of the patented technologies that you’ve invented means the most to you?

“Probably, the patents that were able to turn Ceapro around were the beta glucan series, which is four patents, and we have an anti-itch factor out of oatmeal that is used in an animal health formulation. In terms of our 2003 business, you’re looking at 90 to 95 per cent of what we do being based on those two series of patents. I think the patent that will be very important to Ceapro over the next two to three years will be the final form of our diabetes test, the AccuScreen technology.”

6. What is the potential of that diabetes-testing technology?

“There is strong potential in terms of having global outreach and being a useful tool in fighting diabetes. What’s interesting about that is that it’s not just the human side it goes after. Cats and dogs also get diabetes and that technology will cross the boundaries into veterinary medicine as well. It’s second to none in terms of other tests which are available. From a Canadian perspective, the technology is really neat insofar as you can take these tests up to the Arctic and deliver testing in remote communities where, today, the level of sophisticated testing of diabetes is not available. Given the growth and numbers of people around the world with potential to develop diabetes or pre-diabetes, this product actually has some unique attributes that can actually go about changing the outcomes of people’s health favorably. With that product, we’re working with three market sectors – the healthy workplace side of business where we’re working directly with Syncrude Canada; the public health environment; and the aboriginal communities that have quite a severe genetic predisposition to diabetes.”

7. What’s the key to achieving commercial success with your products?

“It has been essential to our business model to find partners who are able to promote our products and our technologies. Ceapro’s strength is in the development and operation of the technology producing the materials, which can then be used by other industries. In order to capture market and command the premium prices that our products do, you have to be able to explain the benefits of the products to the customer. It’s quite a sophisticated and technical sell. That’s really what we require from our partners today.”

8. What aspects of your business are drawing the most interest from your partners and prospective partners?

“The big commercial partners are watching what we’re doing with pilot market studies in Alberta with the AccuScreen technology, and there is significant interest in our animal-health products both on a global basis and from potential regional partners. Ceapro is something of a complex business and we’ve been trying to communicate what we are by saying that if it’s topical, think Ceapro, in terms of anything you apply to the skin. That’s usually turned back at me with people saying: ‘Well, if it’s topical, what are you doing with AccuScreen?’ My reply is that diabetes is topical, too. Everybody’s talking about it. We’re a complicated company, but we’re in very important market niches that do have global appeal.”

9. Will you need to raise more capital to get your products to market?

“If the right opportunity presents itself, we’d be interested in acquiring capital. We’re not going out and actively campaigning for capital today. What we’ve been able to do over the last three or four years is to really grow the business with fairly minor infusions of cash. Ceapro is an anomaly on the biotech stage in that we are profitable today just on the basis of our current sales, and we’re able to reinvest our earnings in growing the business. We’re able to sustain ourselves to get a bigger share of the market and advance some of our other technologies rapidly.

14. How do you dream up product ideas?

“I get a lot of my ideas in the shower. I read a fair bit and listen to what’s needed. Usually, when I get together with a customer where there are half a dozen scientists at a boardroom table, instead of just launching into the standard presentation of what we’ve got, I like to spend the time going around the table and learning a little bit about what those people at the table are working on. Often, we can usually find a way to help them solve their problems. I (liken) our approach to technology to an artist with a palette full of paint.”

15. What do you mean by that?

“You always need some sort of inspiration, and the view that I take is more communication – listening, reading and looking to see what needs to be met. Then, our level of sophistication of understanding of what we do is such that we know what we need to blend. In order to get green, we mix blue and yellow. My education has very much been understanding principles and then applying the principles. There’s also a great sense of feeling that you can make a difference with some fairly simple technology. It can make such a huge difference in quality of life if you can bring somebody back from developing diabetes, help someone with an ugly wound that won’t heal or do something as simple as helping a dog that is scratching its ears.”

16. What’s your long-term vision for Ceapro?

“Over the next five years, I think there’s a significant opportunity to grow not only in terms of revenues, but in terms of focus. We’ll continue to focus on the areas of technology that we do, in terms of materials from renewable resources. Because we’re fostering an environment of innovation, I think our product lines will expand. The focus will remain very much in having health and biotechnology as their root. In summary, a bigger company but practising very much the same business plan that we have today. We hope that everybody is going to have it in mind that when they think topical, regardless of where in the world they are, they’re going to be thinking Ceapro.”

17. When do you expect a resolution in Ceapro’s $61-million lawsuit against the Saskatchewan government over the demise of an oat-processing plant?

“That’s a long process, but we’re nearing the end of the phase of discovery. The next step is filing a certificate of readiness to go to trial, which I expect will happen in 2004. At this time, I’ve been a little disappointed that there has not been an opportunity for any kind of discussions or dialogue with the government of Saskatchewan. They seem to be prepared to let things move forward to trial, so we’re faced with no further alternative.”

18. Who’s the entrepreneur you most admire?

“A figure that kind of crosses a lot of different borders is (Louis) Pasteur. A lot of the work that he did fighting bacteria came out of studying wine, so it certainly does show an element of lateral thinking. There has to be a lot of appreciation of that. I think a lot of the creativity in terms of where I come from is in understanding a principle and coming up with different strategies.”

19. What’s your favourite escape from work?

“I like reading, in terms of mysteries and political intrigues. Recently, I’ve taken up golf and I’ve found it hard to find people to play with, because I drive people nuts in terms of taking the game to pieces. I could drive somebody mad in terms of the mechanics of the golf swing and the number of dimples on the golf ball. That’s just the way my mind thinks. Do I just go out and swing the thing and hit it? Well, if I close my eyes and hit it, that’s when it goes straight. When I think about things, well, I’ve got a fabulous slice. I guess one thing I have to learn, probably to make me a better person, is to sometimes just let go and go with my feelings as opposed to thinking about it.”

20. What’s your most important life goal?

“I generally summarize my mission statement in terms of ‘I do’. So my goal is to go out and do things that make a difference. Will there be other models like Ceapro? Probably, as Ceapro grows beyond the next three to five years, this is going to be a fairly routine business and my challenge is in the creation. Yeah, creating things from scratch does have its appeal and I think I have a few more startups in me before I get tired of it. And I wouldn’t mind taking a holiday sometime. I haven’t done that for a few years. My doctor tells me I should.”

“Additional cash would be useful although what we’ve always had in mind is protecting our current shareholders’ interests and avoiding dilution (of shares). The terms and arrangements would have to be fairly special to say that we’re going to go out and dilute the stock.”

IN PROFILE: Mark Redmond
* Title: President/CEO, Ceapro Inc.
* Born/raised/age: Liverpool, England.
* Education: University of Liverpool, bachelor of science with honours (specializing in biochemistry and life sciences); University of Alberta, PhD, biochemistry.
* Family: Wife Debbie.
* Career: In 1987, Redmond began his post-doctoral studies at the Veterinary Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and joined Biostar Inc., a spinoff of VIDO, in 1988. He was senior scientist with the U of S’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine from 1988 to 1993. He co-founded Minerva Animal Health Corporation in 1993 and was CEO when that company was acquired by Ceapro in 1996. Prior to becoming Ceapro’s CEO in June, Redmond was chief operating officer. He owns 60 patents to his name.
* Accolades: Redmond was recently named BioAlberta’s entrepreneur of the year for 2003.
* Claim To Fame: Born in same Liverpool hospital as John Lennon.
* Passions: Reading, golf.

THE COMPANY: Ceapro Inc.
* Brass: Mark Redmond, president/CEO; Edward Taylor, chairman; Mike Andrews, chief financial officer.
* Profile: Ceapro is a biotechnology company that develops and utilizes core technologies to supply active ingredients and therapeutic products to the health sciences and personal care and cosmetics industries. The company is the product of a 1996 merger with Minerva Animal Health Corporation.
* Numbers: Ceapro posted revenue of $1,834,000 for the first nine months of 2003, a 42-per-cent increase over the year-before period. Net income for the nine months was $580,000, an 891-per-cent increase over the previous year.
* Stock Price (CZO-TSXV): 52 cents (52-week range, .12 - .72).
* Website/E-mail: www.ceapro.com / info@ceapro.com.
* Address: Room 4046, University of Alberta RTF, 8308 114th St., Edmonton, T6G 2E1.
* Phone/Fax: 780-421-4555, 780-421-1320.