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V O L . X X V I I N O. X V I 68 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine "S ometimes you have an idea that resonates so strongly it's worth taking the leap," says Amanda Howland, co-founder of ElleVet Sciences, a South Portland company that develops and produces CBD products for pets. It wasn't long after launching that she found validation in that initial idea. All of the veterinary schools she and co-found Christian Kjaer reached out to were interested in doing a study on their product. ey chose to partner with Cornell University who conducted trials on the product's effectiveness in treating dogs with osteoarthritis. ElleVet broke ground in the growing CBD market with the first clinical trial of a cannabis-based product for dogs and when the research paper was published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine, it was the most downloaded paper the site ever had. Trials with Cornell continue to be an integral part of new product development, which will soon include a line for cats. When Howland, who has a back- ground in public health and passion for animals, and Kjaer launched ElleVet in 2016, they started out measuring CBD oils and packing the dog chews in their living room, but after seeing rapid growth month after month, they soon moved into a building they then outgrew in four months. e company will have 50 employees by year's end in its 10,000-square-foot South Portland facility. It will have over 30 clinical trials of products in the works. Maine has more than 400 life sci- ence companies, many of which have a similar origin story — take a great idea, pair it with good science and run with it. e industry produces about $1.5 billion of GRP (gross regional product) for the state, according to Agnieszka Carpenter, executive director of the Bioscience Association of Maine. Great ideas beget great ideas Sometimes that initial great idea morphs into a new one that becomes even bet- ter. at was the case for Immucell, a company tucked into the industrial area of outer Portland, focused on preven- tative health for cattle. Founded in 1982, Immucell first worked on human diagnostics, then pivoted to pursue a technique that purifying antibodies from breastmilk to use in infant for- mula. But when a contract with a major pharmaceutical company fell through, they decided to pursue the technol- ogy for calves instead, creating the First Defense product line, which helps calves fight off common diseases while reducing the amount of antibiotics in the human food chain. After further enhancing their prod- uct to cover three major diseases facing newborn calves, they saw sales skyrocket and demand greatly outpace production in 2018. e company just doubled its capacity in a newly-built facility to deal with the backlog and is awaiting FDA approval of a new product related to dairy cow health. Bioscience roots run deep Both ElleVet and Immucell have lineage in veteran Maine life science companies, another common thread in the industry that employs an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 Mainers. ElleVet co-founder Kjaer is a former senior executive of IDEXX Laboratories, one of Maine's biggest biotech compa- nies. Immucell's founders hailed from Ventrex Laboratories Inc., one of the state's two original biotech institutions, and Atlantic Antibodies, which was a A life sciences boom Strong support system and deep roots help Maine's bioscience sector thrive B y C a t i e J o y C e - B u l a y I N N OVAT I O N / R & D P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F I M M U C E L L Lisa Freese is a manufacturing associate at Immucell.

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