A life sciences boom

“Sometimes you have an idea that resonates so strongly it’s worth taking the leap,” says Amanda Howland, co-founder of ElleVet Sciences, a South Portland company that develops and produces CBD products for pets. It wasn’t long after launching that she found validation in that initial idea.

All of the veterinary schools she and co-founder Christian Kjaer reached out to were interested in doing a study on their product. They chose to partner with Cornell University, which conducted trials on the product’s effectiveness in treating dogs with osteoarthritis.

ElleVet broke ground in the growing CBD market with the first clinical trial of a cannabis-based product for dogs. When the research paper was published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine, it was the most downloaded paper the site ever had. Trials with Cornell continue to be an integral part of new product development, which will soon include a line for cats.

When Howland, who has a background in public health and passion for animals, and Kjaer launched ElleVet in 2016, they started out measuring CBD oils and packing the dog chews in their living room, but after seeing rapid growth month after month, they soon moved into a building they then outgrew in four months. The company will have 50 employees by year’s end in its 10,000-square-foot South Portland facility. It will have over 30 clinical trials of products in the works.

Maine has more than 400 life science companies, many of which have a similar origin story — take a great idea, pair it with good science and run with it. The industry produces about $1.5 billion of GRP (gross regional product) for the state, according to Agnieszka Carpenter, executive director of the Bioscience Association of Maine.

Great ideas beget great ideas

Sometimes that initial great idea morphs into a new one that becomes even better. That was the case for Immucell, a company tucked into the industrial area of outer Portland, focused on preventative health for cattle.

Founded in 1982, Immucell first worked on human diagnostics, then pivoted to pursue a technique that purifying antibodies from breast milk to use in infant formula. But when a contract with a major pharmaceutical company fell through, the company decided to pursue the technology for calves instead, creating the First Defense product line, which helps calves fight off common diseases while reducing the amount of antibiotics in the human food chain.

After further enhancing their product to cover three major diseases facing newborn calves, they saw sales skyrocket and demand greatly outpace production in 2018. The company just doubled its capacity in a newly-built facility to deal with the backlog and is awaiting FDA approval of a new product related to dairy cow health.

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Photo / Courtesy of Immucell

Lisa Freese is a manufacturing associate at Immucell.

Bioscience roots run deep

Both ElleVet and Immucell have lineage in veteran Maine life science companies, another common thread in the industry that employs an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 Mainers. ElleVet co-founder Kjaer is a former senior executive of IDEXX Laboratories, one of Maine’s biggest biotech companies. Immucell’s founders hailed from Ventrex Laboratories Inc., one of the state’s two original biotech institutions, and Atlantic Antibodies, which was a spin-off of the other, the Foundation for Blood Research.

Both Ventrex, a diagnostic testing company in Portland, which was acquired in the 1990s, and the Foundation for Blood Research, a diagnostics research lab that closed in 2016, began in the 1970s and are considered the beginning of Maine’s life sciences industry.

“These two companies led to the creation of more than 20 companies that served as the core of the industry in the state for some time,” says Carpenter. While they continue to carry influence, new companies are starting up, moving to Maine or merging with others to make the sector an even stronger economic driver.

Covetrus, which provides software, services and products to veterinarians, is one such example. When Portland-based Vets First Choice, founded by former IDEXX executive Benjamin Shaw, merged with New York’s Henry Schein Animal Health in 2019, the new company became Covetrus. While Covetrus is headquartered in Portland, the company employees 5,500 people with facilities in 19 different countries.

Along with Covetrus, IDEXX Laboratories, another Ventrex spin-off, leads the charge in the business of animal health, a major sub-sector of Maine’s biotech industry. IDEXX, which was founded in 1983 and employees almost 3,000 Mainer’s along with thousands of others across the globe, is Maine’s second largest public company based on revenue.

Human diagnostics, Maine’s other major sub-sector, has recently taken on even more importance by playing a significant global role during the pandemic through manufacturing and services related to COVID testing. Scarborough’s Abbott Human Diagnostics helped to develop antibody tests. Maine Molecular Quality Control Inc. in Saco developed and produces tests for the virus, LGC Maine Standards, BBI Solutions and Virostat also contributed to fighting the pandemic. IDEXX, which works in both human and animal health, made pet and human COVID tests, partnered with the State of Maine to operate a dedicated COVID-19 lab and launched a test to detect the virus in wastewater.

Tech turns blue

Not surprising for the coastal state, Maine biotech has also found a niche in aquaculture products and services, sometimes referred to as “blue tech.” Richmond’s Kennebec River Biosciences, one of the largest commercial aquatic animal health labs in the country, provides diagnostic testing, vaccines and veterinary consultation and research to aquatic farms and fisheries businesses.

Maine’s blue tech companies are focused on more than just dinner by providing innovative solutions to human health problems. Salmonics, founded in October, 2020, and Lobster Unlimited, which began in 2013, have developed ways to use byproducts from the salmon farming and lobstering industries. Salmonics developed uses for blood from farmed salmon and Lobster Unlimited does the same for lobster and other crustaceans. These products can be applied to research and human health solutions, like regenerative medicine and pain treatment. They also reducing waste in their respective industries.

Support structure

The aqua-science industry receives a boost from public research institutions like the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, which focuses on the health of the Gulf of Maine and its bioregion. Its Gulf of Maine Ventures branch supports the creation and growth of mission-driven seafood companies through incubation and acceleration programs and funding.

The nonprofit Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, founded in 1974 in East Boothbay, focuses on ocean health, climate change and how ocean resources can be used to solve all kinds of worldwide problems. One recent research project partners with Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment to study if feeding cows seaweed can reduce their methane output — a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Maine’s human health sector also has its public research counterparts to lean on.

“Jackson Lab and MDI Biological Lab, both in the Bar Harbor area, have been doing cutting edge biomedical research for over 100 years,” says Carpenter.

Founded in 1898, MDI Biological Laboratory is Maine’s oldest research institute devoted to life science and has made significant contributions to human health issues, including discoveries in kidney function and the health impacts of environmental toxins like DDT and oil and more recent studies in regenerative and aging biology and medicine.

The Jackson Laboratory, founded in 1929 and now with facilities in Bar Harbor, Augusta, Ellsworth, Connecticut, California and China, has made significant contributions to science in the areas of genetics, obesity, diabetes, fertility, Alzheimer’s disease, addiction and many other areas and can claims several Nobel Prize winners and early female scientists among its faculty.

Carpenter notes that Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough is another equally important research institution for the state. Home to over 200 world class scientists, the Institute was officially organized in 1991 as a division of Maine Medical Center, which has a long research history, including one of the first community hospitals in the country to perform open-heart surgery in 1959.

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Photo / Courtesy of Immucell

Immucell, a publicly traded company, focuses on the health of cattle and is based in Portland.

Investing in the sector’s future

Along with nonprofit research institutions, Maine’s higher education system plays a strong supporting role to the industry. With 18 of Maine’s colleges offering degrees in life science, companies need not look out-of-state for new talent. The University of Maine is the largest feeder of bioscience graduates and is the degree-granting institution of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, a partnership of five Maine research institutions. The University of New England and Maine Community College System offer educational and collaborative opportunities as well. The new Roux Institute, which has biotechnology as one of its four main focuses, has a residency for startups and various programs to mentor, support and invest in tech companies.

Many of Maine’s biotech companies have strong internships, employee continuing education programs and community partnerships that make significant contributions to the growth of the industry and ensure a strong future. For example, IDEXX invests in access to STEM education by partnering with Junior Achievement, the Maine Science Festival and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance.

City and state government programs and private investors play an important part in the industry’s expansion as well. Maine has several state tax credit programs geared toward encouraging the growth of its tech companies, including the Research Expense Tax Credit, the R&D Super Credit and the High-Technology Investment Tax Credit.

The Maine Technology Institute, which oversees the Maine Technology Asset Fund, created by a 2007 bond, provides important capital to startups. Biotechnology is one of its seven target sectors and received its second highest funding amount in Fiscal Year 2020 at more than $1.7 million.

A growing number of Maine and New England venture capital funders are investing in biotech. The biosciences are the largest investment sector of Maine Angels at 23% of their portfolio, according to Barbara Lamont, membership chair. The Angels not only invest in promising startups but also provide them with critical mentorship.

Room to grow

“Though biotechnology constitutes roughly 1% of Maine’s economy, it is an industry that’s been growing,” says Carpenter, who cited 14% growth in the field between 2013 and 2018, “which represents a much higher job growth than most industries in Maine,” she says.

Carpenter says this growth trend will continue, based on increasing major global trends, like recent research by Global Market Insights, Inc., which projects the size of the global biotechnology market to surpass $775 billion by 2025. Biotech’s ability to solve real-world problems has a significant impact on market growth. Carpenter points to the field of genetics and its potential to revolutionize how we treat patients, the increased demand for biofuel, and a raising prevalence of chronic diseases as examples of important global issues biotech companies address. The recent Coronavirus pandemic is the perfect example of the new and innovative solutions and treatments companies can create in record time.

“Personally, I think Maine has the potential to be a regional continuation of the Cambridge ‘Silicon Valley of Biotech,’” says Lamont. “Remote work, Downeaster train and quality of life support the trend.”

As historically large sectors, like forestry or pulp and paper show slow growth or decline, Maine’s purpose-driven biotech companies, which create high-paying jobs, are poised to be an anchor for the future of Maine’s economy.