‘Turbo button has been hit’: Cowpland-backed NuvoBio among growing crop of local biotech ventures

For more than a decade, Carleton University biochemist Kyle Biggar has been toiling away at treatments that could one day improve the lives of millions of people with cancer and other diseases. The award-winning researcher is the co-founder of NuvoBio, a company based at Carleton that uses an artificial intelligence-powered platform to develop peptides for […]

For more than a decade, Carleton University biochemist Kyle Biggar has been toiling away at treatments that could one day improve the lives of millions of people with cancer and other diseases. The award-winning researcher is the co-founder of NuvoBio, a company based at Carleton that uses an artificial intelligence-powered platform to develop peptides for medical purposes. Peptides, short chains of amino acids that build proteins, have a wide range of uses in the body. Examples of peptides include insulin and semaglutide, which is used to treat diabetes and obesity under brand names such as Ozempic. Biggar and his team of researchers are focused on developing peptides that treat cancer and various infectious diseases, with the aim of creating medications that are safer and more effective than current treatments.  NuvoBio’s main product, NeoPeptix, targets fungal meningitis, a rare infection that causes swelling around the brain and spinal cord and is responsible for up to 15 per cent of HIV-related deaths. The company's biggest financial backer is a well-known name in Ottawa business circles: Michael Cowpland, best-known for co-founding telecom giant Mitel in the early 1970s and launching graphics design software firm Corel in the mid-1980s. “Mike really, truly is a visionary,” says Biggar, who met Cowpland in 2016 after the legendary entrepreneur read a news story about Biggar and contacted him.  Biggar, Cowpland and tech executive Jim Stechyson, a longtime colleague of Cowpland, launched NuvoBio later that year with the goal of turning the Carleton professor’s research into viable products. NuvoBio was a wholly owned subsidiary of Zim, a database software firm led by Cowpland, until it was spun off into a separate company last year. It now has four full-time employees as well as a heavy-hitting group of advisers that includes Cowpland, Stechyson and finance guru John Chapman, who previously served as CFO of Zim and Ottawa tech startups Giatec Scientific and Equispheres.     “A lot more would be keeping me up at night if I didn’t have that team really helping to push NuvoBio forward, because I’m a scientist at heart,” Biggar says. Still, the cost of developing treatments such as NeoPeptix is staggering – around $2.5 million for a single clinical trial, Biggar explains. He’s aiming to submit a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start clinical trials in that country by 2027, but a lot of work remains to get to that point – including more laboratory experiments and testing on live animals such as mice.

Access to cutting-edge lab space

Thankfully for Biggar, a new organization is here to give him a leg up. Launched last fall by former executives of Ottawa-born biotech trailblazer Turnstone Biologics and researchers from local universities, Capital BioVentures is a not-for-profit group that provides funding, lab space and mentorship to promising local biotech ventures. NuvoBio is one of seven startups in Capital BioVentures’ first cohort of companies announced earlier this week. The firm will receive $100,000 in non-dilutive funding as well as access to laboratory space at Carleton University that features more than $2 million worth of cutting-edge research equipment. In addition, Capital BioVentures has a roster of experts who meet regularly with founders, offering valuable guidance in key areas such as dealing with the FDA – the subject of Biggar’s recent discussion with a regulatory affairs specialist provided by CBV. “That’s been monumental for us,” Biggar says. “Just that one-hour meeting with that person was huge for us and really kind of streamlined how we’re approaching these (clinical trial) applications.”  NuvoBio previously graduated from the Creative Destruction Lab, a global accelerator program for early-stage, science-based companies. But Biggar says the new organization’s mentors are “head and shoulders” above any advisers he’s worked with in the past.  “We’ve been engaged with CBV for two months, and it feels like the turbo button has been hit,” he explains. “Where CBV really comes in is to create that link (to) biotech. It’s great that you have excellent leadership on the company side, but how does that translate to biotech, talking to the FDA, drug development? That’s where CBV kind of helps to fill those voids.”    Capital BioVentures executive director Jeff Smirle says the fact that a battle-hardened business leader like Cowpland is willing to cast his lot with a venture such as NuvoBio says a lot about the evolution of Ottawa’s biotech ecosystem. “The state of biotech in Ottawa is really strong and getting stronger,” says Smirle. “People see the challenges in our health-care system, and they want to make an impact. Looping in very seasoned executives on the business side with some really innovative researchers in health care and biotech, it’s a recipe for success.” Over the past six months, the seven companies in CBV’s first cohort have created 11 new jobs and raised nearly $4 million in seed funding, along with an additional $1 million in non-dilutive grant funding, Smirle says. In addition, they’ve filed 10 patents and developed four product prototypes. “They’re all developing very elegant solutions for complex health-care challenges,” he says. “They’re all just really, really innovative (companies).”

Turnstone's lasting legacy

Biggar, whose firm is poised to launch a campaign to raise $1.5 million in seed funding early next year, credits the founders of Turnstone Biologics for being catalysts for Ottawa’s biotech bonanza. Co-founded by renowned Ottawa Hospital researcher John Bell, Turnstone develops groundbreaking treatments using the body’s own immune system to battle cancer. The company, which received more than $170 million in venture capital, is now headquartered in southern California and trades on the Nasdaq exchange. However, the firm left a lasting legacy in the nation’s capital.  Its former lab space at Carleton University is now occupied by fast-growing startup Virica Biotech. Other researchers have also been inspired by Turnstone’s success, Biggar adds. “What it did was to create a talent pool that is extremely diverse and rich,” he says. “Now Ottawa is ripe to take advantage of these opportunities and these resources that were left behind from Turnstone.  “CBV is doing just that – accessing the talent pool that now exists in Ottawa and putting (resources) where they’re needed the most. It’s really sparking the growth of life science in Ottawa.” In a recent interview with Techopia, Smirle pointed to the new biotherapeutics manufacturing hub that’s expected to be part of The Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic campus when it opens in 2028, as well as the state-of-the-art $280-million medical research facility now under construction on the University of Ottawa, as examples of infrastructure that will strengthen the local biotech ecosystem.

Not that long ago, founders such as Virica’s Jean-Simon Diallo were lamenting the city’s scarcity of suitable lab space, warning it would stunt the local sector’s growth and force entrepreneurs to relocate to more vibrant biotech hubs such as Toronto and Montreal.  Now, Smirle says, the opposite is starting to happen. “Ottawa is getting a bit of a reputation that there’s really good things happening here,” he says. “And if you’re going to spin out a company … maybe the place to do that is in Ottawa. Instead of companies looking elsewhere to grow and scale their startups, they’re looking to come here.” Smirle wants to keep that momentum going.  The Ontario government recently launched the second phase of its strategy to expand the province’s life sciences sector, which includes $15 million earmarked for new wet labs. He says CBV, which received $5.5 million from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario earlier this year, will be vying for a chunk of that cash. Meanwhile, his group will also be helping Biggar and several other local founders drum up interest from potential investors at the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization’s investment summit in Toronto in February. “We’re going to be working as hard as we can to make sure our companies can raise some money and grow here in the region,” Smirle says. The seven companies selected for Capital BioVentures’ first cohort are:

• NuvoBio Corporation
• Rhythm Biotherapeutics
• Yellowbird Diagnostics
• Esphera SynBio
• HyliDx
• Virano Therapeutics
• JN Nova Pharma