Source Nutraceutical branches out to manage clinical trials

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This article was published 15/07/2021 (1547 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bernie Desgagnes’ decision to stay in Winnipeg 17 years ago when the pharmaceutical consulting company he worked for moved to Toronto has proven to be a good one.

Instead of moving, he started his own business, Source Nutraceutical Inc., in 2004 in Winnipeg as a regulatory service provider to help international nutraceutical companies navigate new Canadian regulations that were just coming into effect for that industry at the time.

Over time, the company developed enough of an expertise that its services became well known to the nutraceutical and natural product industry in the U.S., internationally and increasingly, among domestic companies as well.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” Desgagnes said.

But the success of the company — it now generates millions of dollars in revenue — was more than just chance. He hired graphic designers to handle the precise requirements for packaging and labelling and even operated warehousing and distribution for a few years with facilities in Vancouver and Winnipeg, although he shut that side of the business down a few years ago.

More recently he started managing clinical trials.

Even though there were new regulations for nutraceuticals, they were not as demanding as the regulatory regime for pharmaceuticals.

And that same differentiation applied for clinical trials which more nutraceutical companies needed to undertake in order to substantiate health claims.

Because of their deep knowledge of Canadian regulations, Desgagnes and his team were able to design trials that could be more cost effective to its nutraceutical clients than would be the case if they went to the legacy clinical trial operators, many of which are based out of universities whose cost structure is formed around the more sophisticated and expensive demands of the pharmaceutical regulatory regime.

Source Nutraceutical is now taking the next step of opening its own dedicated brick-and-mortar clinical trial clinic in Winnipeg on Aug. 1 with a key client in hand right out of the gate that happens to be a company in its own backyard — SciMar Ltd., a company based in Dauphin which is developing a whole new approach to treating diabetes.

And while Health Canada has imposed strict new pandemic protocols on clinical trials which has made it that much harder to get trials in the field, Desgagnes said Source’s clinical trial operation has been designed to include all of those protocols which he believes will likely remain in place for some time after the pandemic is deemed over.

“We are at ground zero as it were,” he said. “We have done pilot studies over the last few months and now we are beginning to structure some of the very large trials that will move forward.”

Mick Lautt, the CEO of SciMar, said the company has more than 20 clinical trials planned for the next five years and has gone out into the market throughout Canada and the U.S. looking for the right clinical trial partner.

He found that while some said they run turnkey operations he would later realize they really only had expertise in one thing.

“It turned out Source Nutraceutical has been a fantastic fit for us,” Lautt said.

Lautt was keen to find a Canadian partner and one based in Manitoba was even better.

“The other thing was that we wanted to find the right partner that understands the bigger picture,” he said. “Do they really care about what we are doing? That’s not necessarily a prerequisite but it was important for SciMar that they are committed and passionate.”

He said Source was willing to evolve to SciMar’s needs and its new clinical trial operation is almost custom designed for the diabetes company’s suite of diagnostics, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical offerings.

Desgagnes said it was a significant investment for the company of which he is the sole owner, to build the stand alone clinic. But SciMar has a lot of work in the pipeline – and $9 million of capital on hand.

Source Nutraceutical now has a staff of more than 20 people that includes medical doctors and scientists with PhDs and master’s degrees as well as a team of another 25 contractors, including nurses that may eventually come on staff.

In addition to SciMar’s clinical trial work, Desgagnes said they already have about 25 other projects in the pipeline and hopes to be able to have a couple more underway through 2022.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca