As Edmonton biotech industry booms, Launa Aspeslet steps up to guide further success

Launa Aspeslet has switched from chairing the Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation board to acting as its first-ever chief translational officer, a position she took in May that she said could help companies in Edmonton's flourishing biotech industry find success.

"API is working with companies that are at that very early, exciting stage, and I've always loved working with companies in the early, scrappy stage," Aspeslet told Taproot. "You take risks, and you do what you can to make things work, and you pitch in where you need to pitch in. You do a little bit of everything. I've always loved that environment … At API, I get to do that with a whole bunch of companies, not just one."

Aspeslet is in demand, with three decades of work in biotech under her belt. She's been part of API, a non-profit that helps companies commercialize life sciences innovation, since its earliest days, first as an advisor and then as the board chair. Beyond API, she remains deeply busy within biotech and startups, too, as a member of the board for Edmonton Unlimited (for which she acted as interim CEO between when Catherine Warren was let go until Tom Viinikka was hired), and as the chief operating officer for Ontario-based Cell Technologies, Inc. Previously she was the chief operating officer of Isotechnika Pharma Inc., which merged into Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2013, as well as Hepion Pharmaceuticals.

Her new position is about helping companies translate an idea into something that not only works in the market but makes it there in the first place.

"'Translation' means taking a product from bench to bedside," Aspeslet said. "It's taking it from the very early stages, of when it's an idea, all the way through to the development of that product. (Translation is) going through the necessary hoops to get all the data collected and then to get it to market."

Part of that, Aspeslet said, is regulations from Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration. These can stand in the way of drugs, natural health products, and medical devices, she said, but translation can potentially help.

"The innovators that come up with the ideas know what is needed in the market, they know what they need to make, how it should work, and how the operators should use it," she said. "They don't necessarily have a good understanding of regulatory requirements."

Aspeslet said a translational role is needed in Edmonton now more than ever because biotech is gaining momentum. The numbers underline her point: Diplomat Consulting credited API with generating $500 million in spinoff company valuation as of 2023, five years after the organization launched in 2018. Edmonton Global has further calculated the value of the local life sciences industry, noting that the Edmonton Protocol for diabetes treatment, developed 25 years ago at the University of Alberta, constitutes "Canada's largest biotech licensing deal," at $1.1 billion.

"Life sciences is really starting to take off here, and we're starting to see a lot more companies and entrepreneurs start here," Aspeslet said. "It's not that we haven't always had the great talent and the brilliant ideas here, but I think now, we're growing that critical mass that we can really take grasp of."

Aspeslet said she's currently grasping with short-term commercialization projects for natural health products, which she said have more difficulty meeting Health Canada standards than those of the FDA, which has little ability to control things like vitamins and supplements thanks to lobbying.

Aspeslet is also working with a doctor, who she did not name, who is developing a new drug, and the work is part of a long road for that drug to market, she said.

"It can take 20 years to get a drug to market, so to be able to help someone at this very early stage, and someone that works with these patients, and is so passionate about his product, is really exciting," Aspeslet said. "(It will) be exciting to say that this product was discovered, developed, and commercialized in Edmonton."

Aspeslet's appointment comes as API is at the tail end of construction on its Critical Medicines Production Centre, which is part of a $200 million investment for the Canadian Critical Drug Initiative. The centre is expected to open in 2026, when it will offer an "integrated research, commercialization, and manufacturing cluster," its webpage says.

The Critical Medicines Production Centre will strengthen the Canadian supply of medicine, and make Canada a more competitive market for foreign export, Aspeslet said.

"To be able to manufacture drugs for clinical trials — or even commercially — in Canada, will really lessen the burden in terms of cost, in terms of time, and just in terms of all the things around imports and tariffs and moving products back and forth across the border," Aspeslet said. "I think having the ability to do it right here in Edmonton is great, and we'll support companies across Canada."

Correction: This story has been updated to correct several details.