Olympics, H1N1 flu concerns keeping local company busy

Local businessman Terry Owen and his company ALDA Pharmaceuticals recognize opportunity when it comes knocking.

When multinational health product company Johnson & Johnson pulled out as an Olympic sponsor during the recent economic downturn, Owen made a phone call to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC).

Did the Winter Olympics have an official supplier for hand sanitizers and disinfectant products, he asked.

Not any more, they replied.

A few meetings later, and after signing an agreement, and handing over a multimillion-dollar cheque to VANOC in July, the small New Westminster company is an official supplier.

“They were quite happy that we were a local company, using local suppliers and a small company that could quickly come on board,” said Owen, whose office on Columbia Street employs just eight people.

“It gives us a high level of exposure and level of credibility that would have taken years to establish. Having their sanction has opened a lot of doors for us which now has us really busy.”

And the timing couldn’t be any better, business-wise, with the H1N1 pandemic spreading around the world. ALDA’s main product T36 disinfectant has proven effective in killing the virus, as well as other infectious bugs like the Norwalk virus.

“It’s not something we set out to take advantage of,” said Owen of the concern over the influenza strain.

Thanks to their Olympic deal and the attention around H1N1, their product is now available in London Drugs and T & T Supermarket.

More deals are likely in the works, said Owen.

ALDA is less than six years old. It got off the ground when it bought a private company that had begun to develop the T36 technology. It was first primarily used by first responders such as paramedics and the RCMP. Recently, a range of consumer products were rolled out.