Charlottetown-based contract research organization Pegasus Biotech is the latest bioscience company to join Emergence, the P.E.I.-based national bioscience business incubator.

Founded last year, Pegasus offers services that help to develop vaccines and biotherapeutics for the human and animal health sectors. The company’s current work includes consulting on a COVID-19 vaccine development project for a Canadian client.

Daniel Wilson, Director of Operations, said that Pegasus employs several of the most experienced people in the world when it comes to developing and manufacturing DNA vaccines and this has allowed the company to thrive during the ongoing health crisis. 

“Due to the pandemic, these skills have been in high demand and have fuelled much of Pegasus’s 2020 growth,” Wilson said in an email.

“We continue to provide consulting and lab services to those companies that are at the cutting edge of innovation in the COVID-19 vaccine space, and we expect this to continue through the end of 2020.”

Wilson said Pegasus fills unmet needs for expertise in the DNA vaccine development space, and in the process and analytical spaces for a reasonable price.

The company spent late 2019 and the first half of 2020 in a soft-launch stage while it brought systems online and equipped its Charlottetown lab space.

“During this period, we have been gradually increasing digital marketing efforts to fuel our growth,” he said.

As a result, Pegasus has boosted its client base and customer contract revenue has increased. The company is now expanding its laboratory capabilities to meet demand and offer additional services.

To date, Pegasus has been funded entirely through private capital and has been cash-flow positive since inception. 

But in the next 24 to 36 months, Pegasus plans to purchase and develop its R&D laboratory facility and that may require non-dilutive financing.

Wilson said there is “substantial noise” in the company’s revenue growth data. 

He said that based on current, secured future, and predicted revenues, the company is growing at a compound annual growth rate of about 67 percent.

Growth is being fuelled by the team’s considerable experience. Elaborating on that, he said Pegasus employs three senior scientists with a combined 50-plus years of experience in the biotech sector and more than 30 years of management experience.

The team plans to increase staffing to approximately 10 scientists by the end of 2023.

“Our vision is to become a premier biotechnology contract research organization and DNA vaccine consultancy in North America,” said Wilson, adding the company is also eyeing international markets.

“There is a robust market for high quality CRO/CDO services in the biotech sector and our plans are global in scope,” he said. 

“We are cognizant of the need to build a strong foundation that can support our long-term vision.” 

The goal, Wilson said, is, “to create an organization that can scale easily to achieve our goal of becoming a significant global player in this space.”