Three months after it won Health Canada approval for its urine test to monitor muscle health, Halifax-based Myomar Molecular is going to market in Nova Scotia, with a national launch and capital raise to follow.
In an interview Thursday, CEO Rafaela Andrade said the company has so far signed on with 20 distribution partners in Nova Scotia. The raise will go towards funding the national expansion and follows a smaller, $1.1 million deal from earlier this year.
Myomar is also in the process of releasing its web app, which has portals for distribution partners and patients.
“We are already getting a lot of traction from other provinces to buy our test, so we need to raise the round to be able to complete the expansion plan,” said Andrade.
In Nova Scotia, the test will be available beginning October 7. Later, the national launch will include a version of the web software revised to include feedback from the Nova Scotia physiotherapy clinics, dieticians, naturopaths and other specialist treatment centres.
“After we go to market with those 20 clinics, then we want to improve our MVP and get feedback from them about what they would like to see better in the software,” Andrade said.
Myomar currently has seven employees, with some of the funding raise earmarked to hire another three staff on the sales and marketing team, as well as for logistical costs related to the coming scale-up. The national expansion will also benefit from Myomar’s new Toronto office on Dundas Street.
Myomar manufactures its tests in-house in Halifax, and at first, the company will collect urine samples from its Nova Scotia partners itself. Outside the province, Andrade said Myomar will work with logistics partners.
It takes “about a week, not more than two” for a patient to receive their test results, with an at-home test also on Myomar’s product roadmap.
Myomar’s earlier funding round, meanwhile, included a mix of equity and non-dilutive funding and was led by a Nova Scotia angel investor, with the Atlantic Canadian and Ontario divisions of the Women’s Equity Lab angel network also participating.
With the Health Canada approval now in-hand, Andrade also expects a nod from American regulators in fairly short order, since much of the required work has already been done.
“A lot of the regulatory approval is based on quality management systems, which we have established because of this first application to Health Canada,” she said. “We are working with consultants to speed up that (U.S.) process, and we think it’s going to be doable within six to eight months.”