Leading Health and Life Sciences in Nova Scotia

TruLeaf: Leading the Way in Sustainable Agriculture

Nov 8, 2016 | News, TruLeaf

LINK  Gregg Curwin has worked in healthcare innovation industries for over two decades. The first part of his career he focused on reactive measures to health when he decided it was time to take a proactive approach to healthcare. While flipping through a magazine, Curwin stumbled upon a photo from Japan of a plant under a light, and the wheels began to turn. With a long-standing passion for agriculture and having successfully owned and operated several businesses in the medical device and biologics industry in the Atlantic Canadian region, Curwin developed the idea for TruLeaf with a vision of enabling communities to grow the world’s healthiest food locally and sustainably. In 2011, with the help of various partners including Innovacorp, ACOA, NRC, and the Perennia Innovation Centre, Curwin opened the first R&D facility for TruLeaf in Truro, Nova Scotia. The company then spent the next few years further refining its farming system, and fully understanding the economics of the indoor farming model. The TruLeaf Smart Plant System® integrates proprietary innovations in equipment design, farm layout, and plant production formulas to produce clean, pesticide-free nutrient-rich leafy plants year-round in any climate. In 2013, the company signed its first deal with a major national retailer to grow and sell packaged leafy greens in the marketplace. With that agreement, TruLeaf created a wholly owned subsidiary, GoodLeaf Farms, and began building its first commercial farm. The commercial farm was completed earlier this year, and sales of the leafy green products began in March. Goodleaf Farms’ commercial farm uses a vertical farming model, which allows for more food to be produced in smaller spaces and closer in proximity to the consumer. The company’s 10,000 square foot facility produces about 200,000 pounds of greens annually – which would take almost a million square feet of outdoor land in Nova Scotia. This is only the first step for the company, which hopes to expand its indoor farming technology to communities across Atlantic Canada, Ontario, and around the globe. Ultimately TruLeaf will develop farms in rural communities that have limited access to fresh produce. Food security is becoming a major problem across Canada and not just in rural and remote communities. According to Mount Saint Vincent University’s Canada Research Chair in food security, Nova Scotia is among the worst in the country when it comes to food security, with only Nunavut at a higher rate. The paradox being that there is tremendous access to food; however, low-cost, fast food does not provide sustenance for a healthy life. TruLeaf is one of the first companies revolutionizing the way in which people around the world can ensure they are eating the most nutritious food available, grown locally, and priced economically. Take for example that the average pound of California lettuce requires a whopping 160 liters of water. By combining that same water with collected rainwater and rigorous filtration, TruLeaf’s indoor farms can grow 80 pounds of leafy greens, demonstrating that indoor multi-level farming has moved from concept to reality. “Our farm is extremely efficient in its use of resources, but more importantly, it creates access to clean healthy food for Atlantic Canadians. It is stimulating the local economy, challenging the status quo, and is working to improve food security in our region,” said Curwin. Most recently, Curwin received the Clean50 award presented by the Delta Management Group for developing and scaling TruLeaf’s Smart Plant System®. The award recognizes individuals across Canada who have developed new technologies or instituted company-wide changes that create a positive net environmental impact from business operations. “I was truly honoured to be nominated to receive this prestigious award from Delta Management Group,” said Curwin. “Our company has come a long way in taking an idea and building a strong business that is sustainable in every sense of the word.” With future growth plans that include expanding to Toronto, conducting feasibility studies for remote locations and biomedical plant trials, TruLeaf is leading the way in indoor farming and agriculture. To learn more about TruLeaf visit truleaf.ca]]>

AGADA Biosciences: Facilitating Orphan Drug Development in Nova Scotia

Nov 8, 2016 | AGADA Biosciences, News

LINK Drs. Eric Hoffman and Kanneboyina Nagaraju could have chosen a number of cities to relocate their growing business when they began to outgrow their lab space in Washington, D.C. With its established lab spaces, educated young talent, and business acceleration programs, Halifax was the clear winner. ReveraGen BioPharma was operating out of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, where Dr. Hoffman and his team were developing a new drug, Vamorolone, for Muscular Dystrophy. However, with traditional approaches to drug development taking upwards of 15 years and a billion dollars to produce they faced many barriers. The industry was also experiencing changes at the time, that caused Dr. Hoffman to re-evaluate the research models. “Common diseases are becoming stratified into smaller and smaller groups and each group requires its own treatment regimen. There has been a lot of emphasis on rare diseases and orphan drug development over the last number of years,” says Dr. Hoffman. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of incentive programs available for rare diseases research and with the Internet’s ability to consolidate those stakeholder communities internationally, it has created new opportunities for researchers. But, this also creates a fundamental problem; because these drugs are very targeted and if each drug costs a billion dollars and 15 years to make, the costs to patients will be astronomical. Realizing the shift in the industry and the need for better services, Drs. Hoffman and Nagaraju opened AGADA Biosciences in the Life Sciences Research Institute in 2013. The company’s primary goal is to meet the rapidly growing need for services that accelerate drug development for orphan diseases, with specific expertise in preclinical efficacy studies with biomarkers support. ReveraGen BioPharma recently developed a drug for Muscular Dystrophy that AGADA was able to bring to phase II clinical trials with Muscular Dystrophy patients. “At this point in time, it looks like we will receive approval in about eight years and for 30 million as opposed to 15 years and a billion dollars,” says Dr. Hoffman. AGADA’s success can be attributed to their first step of de-risking drugs and avoiding late stage failures. To do this, AGADA uses Dalhousie University’s state of the art mouse lab facility, also located in the Life Sciences Research Institute. Mice who develop muscular dystrophy have the same genetic mutation as human patients do, so if you develop a drug that makes the mice better, then you have de-risked that drug considerably. Dr. Hoffman states that proof of principle in an animal model is becoming increasingly requested by regulators, particularly in orphan diseases. “Traditionally, animal testing was used for toxicity, making sure you weren’t making an animal terribly sick before making a human terribly ill,” says Dr. Hoffman. “But, the whole paradigm is shifting – at AGADA we are working to make the mice better which anticipates making the human better.” AGADA has become the top tester of drugs in muscular dystrophy models and has grown quickly over the past three years. The company has seen a 60 percent growth rate each year and currently employs 13 people, with more than half coming from Nova Scotia universities. “One of the reasons we chose Halifax was because of the quality of a young, educated workforce,” says Dr. Hoffman. “We participate in the co-op programs at Dalhousie and Acadia because we see the value in keeping talent in the province.” Most recently, AGADA invested one million dollars along with three million from ACOA and half of a million from Dalhousie to develop “A Scientific and Clinical Hub for Orphan Drug Development” in Halifax that will help to accelerate orphan drug development beginning with developing treatments for three indications. The diseases in question are labeled “orphan diseases” but they occur in one in 5,000 to one in 10,000 babies. Preclinical research with the new therapies in zebrafish and mice have shown promising results that are expected to propel these programs through the clinical research stage. The project is expected to put Halifax and Nova Scotia on the map as the best place in Canada and one of the best sites in the world for such research and clinical work. Learn more about AGADA Biosciences at agadabio.com]]>