It was a chance encounter in a Shopper’s Drug Mart in Bedford that led to a major breakthrough in the dental industry. That chance encounter, in 2017, brought Dr. Daniel Boyd, a professor and researcher at Dalhousie University, and Andrew Doyle, a business strategist and entrepreneur together for a first meeting.
Boyd was doing cutting edge research into technology for sensitive teeth—an ingredient that would not only help people with pain, but also promote remineralization and repair damaged tooth enamel—and Doyle had the skills and experience to bring it to market. The two discussed their business philosophies and how they might be able to work together. “In fact, we continued to talk for most of the next year, aligning our vision of where we wanted to take the company,” says Doyle.
In January 2018, they incorporated their new company—IR Scientific—and proceeded to build a community of investors. “It was important for us to get the right kind of investors, ones that would see the value in us paying ourselves a decent wage for doing the hard work of creating a start up,” says Doyle, who became the director of the company and head of business development.
To that end, Doyle reached out to Peter Hickey, a local investor with 20+ years experience leading both established and start-up companies with a global focus. He had already cofounded a few other companies in the life sciences sector and came on as the third co-founder and Executive Director, specifically taxed with securing investment funds.
ACOA’s Business Development Program was one of the first funders, providing a $500,000 repayable contribution. This enabled the company to quickly set up a research lab, a production facility, and hire staff over the course of weeks rather than months. Private investors kicked in another $1 million and the company immediately poured a portion of that money into market research.
“Three out of four people experience pain from sensitive teeth, which has a real impact on quality of life,” says Doyle. The company talked to 4000 consumers in the U.S. to find out which factors were most important for sensitivity relief. Unsurprisingly, the first thing consumers mentioned was speed—how fast would the product work? The second thing they cared about was how long that relief would last. And the third thing was taste. “At the end of our research phase, we had a really good understanding of what consumers with teeth sensitivity want in a product.”
The end result of this research and a recent successful clinical trial, is a product called Sensi-IP. “Our toothpaste encourages the body to unlock its own power of repair and regeneration.” And it does so simply, with two minutes of brushing in the morning and the evening. It’s been described by a retired professor at Harvard School of Dental Medicine as: “The first scientific innovation in toothpaste in decades. It’s not an evolution. It’s a revolution.”
All of this is music to the ears of IR Scientific’s founders, who are continuing to reap the benefits of being based in Nova Scotia. “Our region has such a great network of passionate folks and amazing support systems too.” Doyle adds that in the beginning, the company felt very well looked after by organizations such as Life Sciences Nova Scotia, who not only provided insights into funding opportunities, but also lots of connections and introductions.
Over the last few years, the company has grown to 12 employees at their lab in the Invest Nova Scotia facility in Halifax. Doyle says that the company loves to hire people who thrive in an early-stage infrastructure and who are naturally curious, solution-finding team-players.
“We build things to be used by people, not just studied,” says Doyle, who contends that positive energy and empathy are important in their line of work. “We are a company of excited problem-solvers, dedicated to finding solutions to human problems.”
