Probiotics and nutritional supplements are billion-dollar industries in Canada. A Windsor, N.S. company aims to combine them.

TheraPBios PHARMA, doing business as Bioteem40, sells a range of nutritional supplements that include both probiotics and substances like collagen and biotin that can offer other benefits, like improved skin health. The company’s distribution network now includes 40 stores throughout Atlantic Canada, along with national distribution from the business’s online storefront, COO Glyn Davies said in an interview Wednesday.

At the end of this month, TheraPBios plans to close a $500,000 funding round, followed by a $1.5 million close at the end of the year. That capital will build on about $1.3 million of non-dilutive financing the business raised previously and facilitate a cross-Canada retail expansion on the back of Health Canada approval. A U.S. launch will follow once the team wins Food and Drug Administration sign-off.

“In the supplement industry, people are taking their vitamins, their minerals, and they’re taking their supplements separately,” said Davies.

“By combining them and utilizing this synergy, when you have these probiotics and these bioactives, we have found that the result is a much greater therapeutic benefit.”

Davies began working with TheraPBios CEO Abdullah Kirumira on the technology behind the Bioteem40 product line in 2019, launching the company in 2021. Kirumira is a medtech entrepreneur who previously founded diagnostic test-maker MedMira and Windsor, NS-based BioMedica Diagnostics, where Davies was a senior research scientist.

So far, the company sells supplements for general immune health, as well as skin health, with additional offerings in the works for eye, bone and brain health. The supplements come in liquid form in 500ml bottles costing $12 each or $43.20 for a monthly subscription and are consumed as a shot.

The prebiotic and probiotics in Bioteem40 supplements improve consumers’ ability to absorb the other beneficial substances by improving the person’s digestive health, Davies explained, which is the main benefit of combining them.

“There is no sense in taking supplements if your gut health isn’t in check,” he said. “Your body is not really going to be able to utilize them. It doesn’t make sense to take skin health supplements, for example, if you don’t have a really strong foundation in place.”

TheraPBios launched the first Bioteem40 products in a handful of Halifax stores in April as a test market, and a broader expansion push followed in November, with the supplements now sold in health food chains and related businesses like nutritional coaching company Simply For Life, where it has been well-received by dieticians.

Davies said TheraPBios manufactures in-house at a facility in Windsor, using local ingredients whenever the company’s standards allow. In an email, a TheraPBios spokesperson added that the plant has a capacity of 144,000 units annually, and can also produce up to 30,000 powdered sachets if needed.

So far, the business has seven employees, split about evenly between sales, production and research and development, with plans to hire more people soon.

“Women are typically buying our skin health product and men are typically buying the general health and immune support," Davies said. “It’s not necessarily fifty-fifty, that’s what our sales are telling us right now. But (Bioteem40) could benefit everyone. Our goal is to really change the way conventional supplements are ingested.

“We are the only ones that are bringing this novel approach by combining the conventional supplement in a liquid, bio-available format with probiotics.”