New biotech company to deliver therapeutic protein production services

Toronto, ON – A new Canadian biopharmaceutical company, Therapure Biopharma, has launched and will specialize in developing, manufacturing, purifying, and packaging biological protein therapeutics.

Biological proteins can have higher efficacy and fewer side effects than other pharmaceutical products, but the process of manufacturing and regulating production of protein-based therapeutics is complex and Canadian biotech companies struggle with access to capital and the lack of in-house production capabilities. On average it takes 7-10 years, and over $1 billion dollars to bring a product to market. Canadian biotech companies often have to seek resources outside of Canada in order to launch commercially.

“The problem in Canada is that while exciting work on protein-based therapeutics takes place in the lab, there are significant regulatory and commercial hurdles to overcome to get the product approved for broad use in the general population,” said Thomas Wellner, the company’s president & CEO. “University scientists and emerging biotech companies need access to expertise to properly formulate, purify, manufacture and distribute the biological protein so that it can be used at the patient level – this is where Therapure Biopharma will have a huge impact globally.”

Located in Mississauga, the company’s flexible 130,000 sq ft cGMP manufacturing facility will be completed at the end of October.