Federal funding to help Charlottetown bioscience company meet 'significant need' for its products worldwide

Somru BioScience is poisedto expand its Charlottetown-based facility and workforce, to meet the growing demands the company has around the world.

As part of federal funding through theCanExportprogram, which helps small to medium-sized companies, a grant of $21,500 has helped theemerging biotechnology firm sign a joint venture with a Bangladeshicompany.

It's expected to create as many as 100 jobs over the next five years and $50 million in export sales for the company, which developsantibody technology for research, diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

The company's co-founder and vice-president of project management and regulatory affairs, said funding from CanExportmore than a decade agohelped the company establish itself toexport products from Canada all over the world.

"That gave us that bit of a push, established usand now we're hoping to expand thatalot more and expand our market reach globally,"Clarinda Islam said.

The company, which opened in 2012 with twoemployees, now employs over 20 peoplein Charlottetown and exports to over 20 countries.

"We are planning on having some planned facility expansion," Islam said.

"We have a couple of options open on the table and we might take a little bit of both. We are both planning on expanding the facility and perhaps looking for an established building."

'Thereis a big push'

Omar Alghabra, parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade diversification, was in Charlottetown Thursday to tour the facilityand meet with company officials. Hesaid the funding helpsdiversify P.E.I.'s economy.

"With diversifying our exports, it will increase our markets, increase our exports, it will also smoothen perhaps the seasonality of our businesses," Alghabrasaid.

"It's important for an economy like P.E.I., that thetraditional economy tended to be seasonal."

In all, CanExportfunding totalling $243,200 is helping to support nine small and medium-sized projects across the province. That includes funding forTop Dog, a company that produces protective clothing for a range of industries and Mussel King, a family-owned mussel-processing company.

"We have quite a bit of significant need for the products that we have worldwide especially in the developing countries where there is a big push and a big initiative for having these biologics more widely accessible," Islam said.

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