No one is happy about the collapse of Canamino, but it isn’t the end of the world, say people in Saskatoon’s biotech research community.
“This is not the start of any domino effect,” said University of Saskatchewan commerce professor Brooke Dobni. “Biotech is just now coming into its own.”
In fact, many in the industry contend Canamino is not biotech at all, since it does not involve genetic engineering or any other type of plant development.
Still, Canamino was the largest and best known commercial manufacturing plant at Innovation Place, the high tech research park at the University of Saskatchewan campus. It separated oats into specialized elements, then supplied them to another company for processing into novel human and animal health products, such as non-allergenic latex gloves and pet shampoos.
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Lost major buyer
The company was placed in receivership recently after refinancing efforts failed. Canamino had been a subsidiary controlled by Ceapro, an Edmonton high tech firm, which has since found another supplier for the materials it needs to make its oat-based products.
But a Saskatchewan government-run immigrant investor fund seized control in May when Ceapro failed to buy out its shares and meet other financial obligations.
Peter McCann, head of AgWest Biotech, a Saskatchewan industry promoter, said he hopes another investor will take over the mothballed Canamino plant.
But he said Canamino’s plight should not be interpreted as a sign of troubled times ahead for the plant research industry.
“This failed because of typical business reasons,” said McCann. “It was financial.”
Dobni, who has been involved with Saskatoon’s high tech research park since its early development, said Canamino did not fail because of poor science or bad technology. The company appears to have always been stressed for money and because of this has always been shaky.
Dobni said he suspects Canamino found getting products to market cost more than it had expected.
“I don’t think this should be a surprise to anybody that this went down,” said Dobni. “This was funded by venture capitalists.”
Biotechnology companies often take 10 years to get a product from laboratory to marketplace, and in that time problems can arise in processing, or other products can move into the market, he said.
The attention given to Canamino’s collapse may be obscuring a more positive situation, Dobni said.
Few companies at Innovation Place have failed, and many are now close to hitting the commercial marketplace with their products.
McCann agreed.
“The future is incredibly bright. The future is with biotechnology.”
