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Using renewable resources to tap lucrative markets
Prince Edward Island is a vast storehouse of renewable, naturally occurring land- and marine-based resources that have the potential to radically transform the makeup of the province’s economy. A nutrisciences and health technology cluster in Charlottetown is transforming those resources, ranging from potatoes and rosehips to sea plants and mussels, into highly marketable pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and nutritional and dietary supplements for humans and animals.
At present, the global market in nutrition-related products alone is worth $300 billion a year. For nearly a decade, government, industry and universities in PEI have been building a critical mass of R&D in Charlottetown to capitalize on a substantial portion of that and other health-related markets.
Since 2003, highly skilled workers and world-class researchers in the cluster have worked closely with the NRC Institute for Nutrisciences and Health (NRC-INH). In this way, researchers and their companies have gained access to on-the-job training, experts with whom to collaborate, and unique, state-of-the-art technology.
Commercialization and technology transfer
Community-led from the start, the Charlottetown nutrisciences and health cluster works on building ideas and innovations into saleable products. It uses NRC-INH’s expertise in bioassays and models to target specific disease indications, which has added significant value to local companies’ R&D efforts.
For example, Chemaphor Inc. has worked at the institute's Charlottetown Industry Partnership Facility (IPF) and recently co-filed with NRC for provisional patents based on their collaborative research. The research involves proprietary oxidized beta carotene compounds to replace antibiotics and growth hormones in feed animals as well as to effectively inhibit the growth and spread of a range of cancer cells (e.g. colon, breast, lung, brain, ovary, skin and some leukemias). Chemaphor is now actively seeking development partnerships with animal health companies to bring the technology to market.
Partnerships and collaborations
Local and international industry associations, companies, post-secondary institutions and other science-based departments and agencies have entered into fruitful partnerships with NRC-INH. In just six years, the institute’s small, energetic team has worked on $5.7M in collaborative agreements. And in the past two years alone, 14 of 18 local nutrisciences and health SMEs and multinationals most recently affiliated with the cluster have entered into partnership agreements with the institute.
Aside from industry collaborations, NRC-INH has a tripartite collaborative research agreement with the University of PEI and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. A federal government Blue Ribbon Panel recognized this partnership as a model best practice.
International networks and linkages
The Charlottetown cluster’s stakeholders host events to actively pursue international biopartnering opportunities. Participants take part in meetings and presentations to learn about the cluster’s value, expertise, capacity and vibrancy. Staff take part in incoming and outgoing international missions as well and deliver technical presentations at global nutrisciences and health conferences.
In collaboration with cluster companies and government organizations the institute also works to attract highly skilled workers to Charlottetown. The partners host international workshops, foster twinning relationships with similar technology clusters abroad and forge links with international research counterparts.
Learn more about Charlottetown's vibrant nutrisciences and health technology cluster
Fact sheet available in HTML or PDF version.
Related Information
NRC Institute for Nutrisciences and Health (NRC-INH)
