Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Ltd (TSX-V:VM, OTC:VYYRF) is set to shake up the medical imaging market with its innovative barium, iodine, and carbon-active pharmaceutical ingredients and contrast agents which are being fast-tracked towards commercialization through a new partnership with Alberta non-profit Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API).
In conversation with Proactive, Voyageur CEO Brent Willis discusses the new partnership with API and the opportunities it brings to accelerate the company’s development programs.
Proactive: A big announcement from the company that we’ll talk about but first, remind our viewers about the company itself.
BW: We’re building a vertically integrated radiology drug company. We’re sourcing our own minerals, starting with our barium sulfate products for barium contrast for CT and X-ray. And we have our own source of barium sulfate, the only company in the world that has its own source. We’re applying that whole vision towards everything we’re doing with iodine contrast and carbon contrast.
You made a significant announcement today that you’re teaming up with Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation. Explain who this company is and the work you’ll be doing with them.
API is located in Alberta. They’re a nonprofit organization that’s industry-funded to help pharmaceutical companies advance their drug development programs. They have their labs in Edmonton and production facilities, with a wide reach across Canada with multiple academics that can help us with all aspects of creating new drugs. They’re also experts in regulatory processes. It’s a great partnership that’s really going to advance our timetables and make shareholders excited.
If you were to work on your own timeframe, that would expand and the cost would go up. So having this partnership, how does that benefit the company and really take it to the next level?
It fast-tracks everything. Instead of building out a team of scientific advisors for this project, they have everybody in place. It’s really about fast-tracking and lower costs because they run on a nonprofit model.
What’s your plan moving forward with this agreement?
We are starting with a vanadium carbon molecule, and we will be advancing that first for MRI. As we advance with success, that drug will also be used for drug delivery. Imagine, if you will, the vanadium carbon drug has a payload attached to it and you can see that payload go right toward a tumor and how it interacts all live on screen. It’s a very exciting program for us because it's got multiple uses.
The other aspect is we’re moving forward with our barium contrast products. We’re currently bench-testing our full suite and we’ll have five products ready for market shortly. And working with API, we can begin working to create better, new barium contrast products that we’ll be able to introduce into the market in the future that will potentially displace the current products that are already out there.
Is this something that is going to shake up this industry?
We’re definitely going to shake the industry up with the carbon molecules without question. On the barium side, we’re going up against products that have been out there for 20 years, so there’s been a lack of innovation in that space. We’re going to fill that void.
Working with API, we’re going to be able to advance our iodine contrasts as well which is the largest consumable in healthcare with GE Healthcare predicting major shortages and that the market is expected to double in the next 10 years. We have a clear strategy: being carbon neutral and sourcing our own minerals so that we’re not relying on foreign supply chains. That’s another major aspect of moving forward here in North America, there’s a lot of geopolitical risk out there right now. We believe we have the model that’s going to create a very secure and amazing company.
Quotes have been edited for clarity and style