Bioexx hits the end of the road, files for bankruptcy protection

The company this morning obtained an order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial Division) under the CCAA, which has granted CCAA protection for an initial period expiring on Oct. 31, 2013. Under CCAA protection, creditors are stayed from enforcing any rights against the company.

Today’s new ends a “death by a thousand paper cuts” saga for the once promising would-be supplier of oil-based protein isolates.

In April, faced with massive losses, the company shuttered its flagship Saskatchewan plant. The writing was on the wall there when, a year earlier, the company auctioned off all the equipment the plant housed.

Bioexx gained investors attention because it developed a patented system that used refrigerant-based solvents to extract protein from plants. Until recently, the technology for extracting the protein from a plant wasn’t practical because the process required temperatures in excess of 100°C. When proteins are exposed to temperatures above 65°C they begin to denature, which strips their nutritive value.

The company began commercial production of canola protein isolates in Saskatoon in 2011, claiming to be the world’s first commercial producer of canola oil-based protein isolates and hydrolysates. But it generated only modest revenue from canola oil and canola meal sales, and never operated the facility at full capacity.

Before today’s halt, shares of Bioexx were trading for just a penny.

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