Best in class
P.E.I. researcher wins biotechnology sector national award

BIOTALENT CANADA’S first winner of the Catalyst Award is from tiny P.E.I.

Mathieu-Marc Poulin of Delivra Corp. in Charlottetown is the inaugural recipient. The Catalyst Award is intended to recognize a young employee who contributed most significantly to their Canadian biotechnology employer in the past year. BioTalent Canada is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the Canadian biotechnology sector has access to job-ready people.

Poulin was hired right out of school by Delivra (a Burlington, Ontario-based company that produces transdermal pain relief products), thanks to a BioTalent Canada wage subsidy program. Poulin won the award because in his role as a research and development technician, he helped Delivra secure funding from the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program and his research was instrumental in Delivra’s development of new transdermal products. “He definitely deserves it,” says Dr. David Baranowski, Delivra’s director of research. “He works like a dog in the lab. We’re not letting him go.”

Indeed. Poulin was so impressive that Delivra has hired him full-time at its Charlottetown research lab. “This definitely opened the door for me and allowed me to show my worth to them and gain experience,” Poulin says.

Rob Henderson, president and CEO of BioTalent Canada, says the organization created the Catalyst Award to share its success stories. Henderson thinks that it’s important the first winner is from P.E.I. because the biotechnology sector suffers from a talent shortage in Atlantic Canada. He’s hoping the win inspires more biotech businesses in the region to apply for the wage subsidy program, so they can find their own Mathieu-Marc Poulin. “Delivra was the only P.E.I. company that applied for the wage subsidy program,” Henderson says. “The province hasn’t taken advantage of the program as much as we think it should.”