27 November 2013

PRESS RELEASE – Immune Biosolutions, a Sherbrooke-based biotechnology company that produces high-quality antibodies from eggs, has had an outstanding year in 2013: its innovative products are now being marketed. Moreover, the firm has doubled the size of its workforce and won several major provincial and national entrepreneurial competitions.

Immune Biosolutions has developed a unique method of producing antibodies at a competitive price that involves extracting them from chicken eggs and, in the near future, from ostrich eggs. The process allows the company to rapidly produce large quantities of more specific and robust antibodies than those produced conventionally from rabbits and mice, making its development platform more ethical than the standard method.

Immune Biosolutions is currently marketing around a dozen primary, coupled, and secondary antibodies for the biomedical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries and for research laboratories. The Sherbrooke company currently sells most of its products in Québec and Ontario, although its new online catalogue will help it penetrate markets in Western Canadian and the United States in the coming months.

The company also offers a turnkey service to meet specific client needs and a cooperative antibody-production service through its AbStarter platform. The antibodies developed through the AbStarter platform not only enable Immune Biosolutions to pursue R&D activities, but also to drive growth in its antibody catalogue.

Immune Biosolutions was founded in 2012 by three Université de Sherbrooke graduates. The firm is based in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, where it has a laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment. The executive team is composed of Frédéric Leduc, Simon Gaudreau, and Jean-François Larrivée, who have complementary expertise in science and business. In the last few months, four scientists have been added to the staff to support the company’s growth.

“We have developed an exclusive and flexible technique,” stated Frédéric Leduc, President of Immune Biosolutions, “that gives us an undeniable competitive edge over our competitors around the world. And our innovative products meet a glaring need in the industry, since one out of four researchers is dissatisfied with the antibodies currently available. The high quality of our antibodies has also opened doors to new markets, such as screening and diagnostics,” concluded  Leduc.

Immune Biosolutions required a start-up investment of nearly $720,000. The company was able to count on technical and financial support from Sherbrooke Innopole and Pro-Gestion Estrie through the New Entrepreneur Fund. It also receives support from the Université de Sherbrooke’s Accélérateur d’entreprises technologiques (accelerated start-up support for technology-based companies – ACET).

“Immune Biosolutions is a clear example of combining cutting-edge knowledge, unique technology, and a strong multidisciplinary team to create an innovative and viable company that participates in Sherbrooke’s economic vitality,” pointed out Josée Blanchard, Director – Business Development – Life Sciences at Sherbrooke Innopole. “We are proud to support the development of this company, which has such a bright and promising future.”

Thanks to its innovative process and the vision of its developers, Immune Biosolutions now stands out among Québec and Canadian entrepreneurs. Last week, the company was named the winner of the 3^rd Devtech 50 entrepreneurial competition (read news). A little earlier this year, Immune Biosolutions was selected as a recipient of the 2013 Spin Master Innovation Fund, a pan-Canadian competition (read news). It also swept the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge Grand Prize in June (read news) and was one of the five winners of the 2^nd Devtech BIO Competition (read news).