| STI Receives $2 Million to work on Growth from two GrowthWorks' Funds |
| Posted at : 30 Jun 2006 |
Setting a good example
Sampling Technologies gets $2 million to work on growth
By CLARE MELLOR Business Reporter
A Lower Sackville company plans to expand and pump more money into research and development with a $2-million injection from GrowthWorks managed funds.
Sampling Technologies Inc. has received $500,000 from GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund Ltd., based in Atlantic Canada, and $1.5 million from GrowthWorks Canadian Fund in Toronto , it was announced Thursday.
GrowthWorks provides venture capital for businesses to open or expand.
"Part of the rationale for the GrowthWorks investment is to really take the company to the next level. We are already national but we are growing very quickly," company president Bill Adams said Thursday.
Sampling Technologies created SmartSample, an alternative method of pharmaceutical sampling that involves patients taking cards, signed by their physician, to any pharmacy to get a drug sample.
Doctors have traditionally handed out samples of drugs, from birth control pills to heart medication, to patients in their offices. But many pharmaceutical companies are using the newer method, which cuts down on drug wastage and prevents doctors from facing liability issues around the storage and dispensing of drugs.
"Two hundred to three hundred million samples a year go into the marketplace. A lot of those are thrown away . . . and there is a tremendous amount of waste," Mr. Adams said.
Sampling Technologies started four years ago and has grown from a handful of employees to 17. It recently moved from Bedford to a larger facility in Lower Sackville.
The company has plans for new products and recently created a similar system for drugs being tested through clinical trials.
As part of the investment arrangement, a member of the GrowthWorks fund will sit on the company’s board of directors and help to expand the company.
Tom Hayes, president and CEO of the GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund, said Sampling Technologies has tremendous potential for growth.
"They are not constrained by geography. The world is their market, in a sense. If this works in they can expand it . . . to the and then beyond to other jurisdictions around the world."
The GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture fund, which started in January 2005, has capital of $28 million. It raises all its money from investors in Atlantic Canada and invests in companies in the region. It hopes to raise $100 million from investors in the region over the next four to six years, Mr. Hayes said Thursday.
"We are pretty bullish on the region. We think that STI is just an example of the exciting companies that are out there, and our only constraint is the money that we have available to invest. Since we invest all of our money from retail individuals our job is to convince Atlantic Canadians to invest in their own region."
People who invest in the funds receive tax breaks.
Each year, Atlantic Canadians invest more than $1.3 billion during RRSP season and for the most part all of that money leaves the region, he said.
"If we could just get a small piece of that back here on the home territory."
Article taken from the June 30th business section of the Chronicle Herald courtesy of cmellor@herald.ca.
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