Mission: Build public and industry awareness of life sciences’ ubiquitous role across sectors
Assets: A 25-year mentorship under business and philanthropic legend Don Rix
Yield: The development and successful sale of Cantest Ltd., one of B.C.’s largest life sciences companies
By Curt Cherewayko
Don Enns doesn’t like to be asked about the state of the biotech or life sciences industry.
When asked, the new president of LifeSciences BC is likely to respond with another question: which sector within the industry are you referring to?
The industry organization is largely associated with biotechnologies that end up in the hands of big pharma as drugs, but Enns doesn’t want LifeSciences BC or the sectors that it advocates on behalf of to be pigeonholed.
“I think it’s a disservice to what’s happening in the community overall, because it’s larger than that,” said Enns.
For example, he noted that beer – given the biological processes required to create it – is arguably a biotechnology.
“In my view, if we look at ‘bio’ as a whole, it’s all about life,” said Enns.
Broadening the lens through which people view life sciences and biotechnologies is one of Enns’ key objectives as he begins his new role with the industry association.
The Chilliwack-born Enns, who holds degrees in business administration (master’s) and science chemistry (bachelor’s), has spent his entire career with the former Cantest Ltd. of Burnaby.
Nearing the end of grad school in the early 1980s, Enns was asked by the legendary businessman and philanthropist Don Rix, who Enns had developed a relationship with at school, to buy into Cantest. The company operated a network of testing labs that did contract work for companies in a broad swath of sectors from racehorse testing and food safety to industrial hygiene.
Cantest, which Rix founded and had a majority ownership stake in, was undergoing a major restructuring, whittling its number of minority partners down from more than dozen to only a handful.
Enns had until then thought that bigger was better – as in, the public markets were the inevitable direction to go to succeed in the industry.
Rix and Cantest, which remained private until Maxxam Analytics International acquired it last year, challenged Enns’ perspective.
“We controlled our own destiny because we were a private company,” said Enns. “We could do what we wanted.”
Enns and Rix were partners for years – opening new labs while witnessing others go insolvent.
“We did have a little problem with our model,” said Enns. ”You really can’t franchise science and technology – your capital costs are so expensive, so you can’t build little McDonald’s shops in every little locale. You have to optimize.”
The company went through a growth spurt in the 2000s, and by the time Maxxam acquired it for an undisclosed price, it had set up a network of subsidiary or stand-alone labs around the globe.
“I honestly lost track, but I’d guess there were 30 different companies that we bought, sold, integrated or did something with,” said Enns, who was president and CEO of Cantest in its final years.
Enns was one of many in the B.C business community to celebrate Rix’s achievements when he died last November. Aside from being known for his many community and philanthropic initiatives, Rix is also known as founder of MDS Metro Laboratories (now LifeLabs), which has grown into one of the province’s largest private health-care providers.
“Don Rix was unusual in the sense that he was a medical practitioner that was engaged in daily community activities that just didn’t stop,” said Enns.
He noted that other people in science and technology could and should learn from Rix.
“I would challenge you on this – go around to some of the community boards, some of the non-profit associations and look at profiles of the directors and tell me how many come from our technology, science and engineering sector.”
Enns can find very few.
“We have a greater responsibility to get involved in the community,” he said.
Enns continues to work with the United Way and holds or has held numerous mentor positions on school or faculty boards at B.C.’s largest universities. And he’s picking up where Karimah Es Sabar left off when she stepped down as president of LifeSciences BC last fall.
Simon Pimstone, LifeSciences BC’s chairman, said Enns’ role will be to address issues in public and industry policy.
“We want to see science and technology prioritized in this province. We want to ensure that the provincial government is better harmonized around issues to do with innovation.”
Life Sciences BC doesn’t publicly disclose its financials, but Pimstone said the organization continues to improve its annual bottom line and build its sponsor and membership. It has more than 200 member companies.
Pimstone said the board selected Enns because of his operational and managerial experience, his knowledge of the provincial life sciences sector and his connections and philanthropic involvement with local communities.
Regarding Es Sabar’s tenure, Enns said: “There’s no question she brought some stability and profile to the organization. But I think there are some things that can be changed, modified, or repositioned.”
He’s mum on details, as he’s still feeling out the new role, but Enns noted that Es Sabar had begun to bring sectors such as bioproducts and biofuels under the watch of LifeSciences BC.
“The problems and issues that we’re facing, they generally don’t align themselves with individual disciplines. They transcend disciplines.”
Some in B.C.’s business community have therefore suggested that the numerous industry associations that represent different clusters could work closer together, if not be rolled into a single entity.
Enns pointed to the symbiosis of genomics and software as an example of the convergence that’s taking place in the numerous fields of science, technology and engineering.
He stops short of saying that some industry organizations in B.C. should merge, but he suggests that having multiple organizations that largely have the same goal can create some redundancies.
“I think that LifeSciences BC can be a kind of unifying force that is multidimensional, has a number of solutions and can speak to the public as a whole.”