SASKATOON – A biotechnology company that is developing animal health products that marry folk medicine and modern science was launched here recently.
Minerva Animal Health Corp. is a subsidiary of the University of Saskatchewan’s private investment company.
President Mark Redmond hopes his three-person venture will grow into one of the major animal health companies in Canada.
But before Minerva can challenge the big players, it needs to secure $2 million in core financing that will help it develop about 40 potential products.
The first of those products are what Redmond calls cosmetic: a coat wash and skin balm for dogs and horses made using oats that are refined by Canamino – another biotechnology firm at the university.
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The dermal products were targeted as a source of immediate revenue for the new company. “We can’t ignore the strong financial benefits of the companion animal field,” Redmond said.
But the core of Minerva’s products will concentrate on commercial livestock production.
By spring, Minerva hopes to be selling a treatment for calf scours. The orally-delivered product will have an electrolyte base and be high in energy. But its curative properties will be immunostimulators derived from oat beta-glucans.
A similar product, in paste form, is planned for neonatal piglets.
“We’re not talking about synthetic compounds,” Redmond said. “This is the proactive use of therapeutic medicine.”
He said Minerva eventually wants to market its immunostimulants as an injectable that can be used to boost an animal’s immune system whenever it is susceptible to stress. Two prime stress times would be birth and weaning.
The products that make therapeutic claims need to be licensed by the bureau of veterinary drugs, but Redmond said Minerva plans to back up its products with scientific research.
They’ve started with oat beta-glucans, he said, because unlike with some folk remedies, scientists can trace the mechanism that makes it work.
Redmond said the company is also investigating others plant, including chamomile, mustard, barley and borage oil, which contains fatty acids similar to those found in cod liver oil.
