News release

Bio Science Company to Buy Kentville Facility

Economic Development (Aug. 1999 - Jan. 2009)

?Economic Development--Bio Science Company to Buy Kentville Facility


Nova Scotia's bio-science industry is getting a boost with the purchase by Nova BioCapital Inc. of Quanta Nova's (formerly Efamol) research site in Kentville.

Nova BioCapital will pay $5 million for the 60,000-square-foot facility, which will primarily be used by sister company Actipharm Inc. to process paclitaxel, an important anti-cancer ingredient used by the pharmaceutical industry in the treatment of breast and ovarian cancer.

Company representative Lowell Weir says the facility will also provide a full-service private-sector incubator for biotechnology and genomic companies. Quanta Nova will continue to operate in the facility.

In making the purchase, Nova BioCapital will assume $5 million of a $7.7 million Nova Scotia Business Development Corp. loan to Quanta Nova. The remaining $2.7 million remains the responsibility of Quanta Nova.

Nova BioCapital Inc. is owned by InnoMed Capital Inc., a subsidiary of Taxus BioMed AS. of Oslo, Norway.