BioAlberta Recognizes Alberta Innovators and Entrepreneurs at 2020 Achievement Awards Ceremony

BioAlberta announced the recipients of its 2020 Achievement Awards in recognition of the outstanding contributions of the individuals and companies whose innovation and achievements have contributed to the growing success of Alberta's life sciences sector, at a virtual ceremony today.

"Our life sciences sector is growing by leaps and bounds, and both these award winners exemplify Alberta's capacity to generate real-world solutions with global impact," said Robb Stoddard, President and CEO of BioAlberta.

2020 Company of the Year - Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc
This award acknowledges a company that has shown significant achievement within the marketplace and Alberta's business community through strong performance or a leadership role.

"Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a true leader in Alberta's life sciences ecosystem," said Robb Stoddard, President and CEO of BioAlberta. "It's an honour for us to recognize Dr. John Lewis, Colin Coros and their team for their exceptional achievements toward development of a made-in-Alberta COVID19 solution."

Accepting the award on behalf of his team, Dr. John Lewis, CEO of Entos, said: "It is a pleasure to accept this award as recognition for all the hard work the Entos team has put in this last year. Over the last year and a half, we have transformed our small 12-person research and development company into a growing 50 person clinical-stage genetic medicine company. Our next steps are to leverage the lessons learned with the development of our COVID-19 vaccine to develop the next generation genetic medicines to cure disease".

Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Entos) has demonstrated remarkable success in the race to fight COVID-19. Entos is an Edmonton-based biotechnology company focused on next generation nucleic acid-based therapies. Entos is dedicated to developing genetic medicines using the Fusogenix drug delivery system for cancer, aging, infectious diseases, and rare diseases and producing a DNA vaccine as a potent and stable countermeasure for COVID-19.

2020 Scientific Achievement and Innovation - Enterra
This award recognizes an individual or a team responsible for a breakthrough innovation with commercial application.

"Enterra's methods of utilizing pre-consumer food waste as an energy source upcycles up to 130 tonnes per day of food waste that was otherwise headed for landfills. The intellectual property created by Enterra at their facility in Rocky View County proves that innovation in Alberta directly supports job creation while modernizing our economy," Stoddard said.

Accepting the award on behalf of his team, Dave Lemmon, CEO of Enterra, said: "We are humbled to receive this award from BioAlberta. This type of recognition provides us with the fuel to continue on our journey as one of the world's leading producers within the Insect Protein space. At Enterra, we are a purpose led organization, and as such, we are committed to harnessing the power of insects to feed & care for the world and in doing so we create products which provide our customers with truly sustainable alternatives. I would also like to thank all of our dedicated employees for their hard work & unwavering commitment - I am humbled by each of you."

Enterra is a privately held company that specializes in the development and manufacture of sustainable insect-based feed ingredients for the pet food and animal feed industries. In addition to Enterra Whole Dried Larvae and Enterra Protein Meal, the company also produces Enterra Oil, an excellent source of critical fatty acids for inclusion in animal feed. A byproduct of the insect rearing process is an organic fertilizer that can be used for gardens, plants, farms and greenhouse applications. Since opening its first commercial facility in 2014, Enterra has converted tens of thousands of metric tonnes of pre-consumer food waste into sustainable feed ingredients for its growing customer base.

About BioAlberta

BioAlberta is the voice and champion for life sciences in Alberta, committed to creating a thriving and competitive industry by facilitating and accelerating economic diversification, investment attraction and job growth.

As a private, not-for-profit industry association, BioAlberta represents more than 230 members of Alberta's growing life sciences community of researchers, producers and suppliers operating in specialized sectors such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, natural health products, as well as environmental, agricultural and industrial biotechnology. BioAlberta's activities are focused on advocacy, promotion and proactively facilitating growth of the industry. Please visit: https://www.bioalberta.com/