Health innovators showcased at Edmonton Startup Week

Close to a third of the "top 10 companies to watch" pitched health innovation at the sold-out kickoff party for Edmonton Startup Week. Held on Oct. 5 at Edmonton Unlimited, the event showcased Pulmvita, Proholistic Discovery, and RNARevive alongside the other seven companies to be feted at Launch Party on Oct. 8. Pulmvita co-founder and CEO Cole Christianson's pitch for advancing respiratory aids was vivid. "Imagine this: Every morning when you wake up, you know you cannot leave your house without dragging around this oxygen source … Your life shrinks down to the length of this oxygen tube," he said. "Our goal is to restore freedom for these patients." The company plans to submit its more portable, reliable, and efficient oxygen-delivery devices to Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2027. Why invest? The company has already raised $2 million, estimates the global opportunity at $10 billion, and has completed clinical trials.

Proholistic Discovery president Richard Tseng took the stage to stress just how challenging drug development is and how his company plans to fix that. It makes an inference-powered engine meant to reduce failure rates. Tseng noted that only one in 10 drug candidates is successful because of disconnects in the process. "(Our tech) works like predicting rain," he said. "Dark clouds, strong wind, and low temperature mean little alone, but together they tell you to bring an umbrella." Proholistic Discovery has already worked with five paying clients, has MOUs signed in the United Kingdom and Taiwan, and counts Nobel Laureate Sir Michael Houghton among its advisors.

Nina Karpoff, co-founder and business development lead at RNARevive, talked about how the company's tech is similar to a recipe generator. She too stressed the time, expense, and difficulty of drug development, which RNARevive's platform to deliver self-amplifying RNA therapeutics could ease. Karpoff told Taproot earlier this summer about the company's many accomplishments and its path to commercialization. Attendees got a bonus pitch from emcee Catalina Vasquez, co-founder and COO of Nanostics, maker of non-invasive tests for prostate cancer. The pitch inspired Michele Evans of Prairies Economic Development Canada to offer a later conversation about funding.