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The Chemistry of Innovation
Mo Duffy Cobb and Lori Mayne
Island Studies Press

“By the time the company sold in 2007, Diagnostic Chemicals Limited had created more than 300 compounds and produced more than 200 diagnostic products and reagents. Combined with offshoot BioVectra, it boasted more than $37 million in sales. Founder Regis Duffy, known by those in the industry as ‘the godfather of biotech,’ ran his company with compassion and care. He also guided employees with the gentle direction of a teacher, not a CEO, encouraging them to become their own innovators, follow their own research interests, and build a case for the development of a product from research to manufacture. 

Regis always believed Prince Edward Island had the brainpower to do anything, and the province should not export its biggest asset—namely, Islanders—to Alberta, Quebec, or Ontario to work. In 1970, he never dreamed of the economic impact the biotech industry would have on PEI, but thanks in part to his companies, DCL and BioVectra, PEI has become an attractive place for biotech investors and entrepreneurs to launch start-ups and create innovative technologies. 

To Regis, his team was everything. They were the creators, the innovators, the people who put in the research hours and spent hot summers in the lab, the people who went out to markets and won the business. It was the environment and “the spirit of DCL,” as Joan Duffy calls it, that propelled the company forward. So when DCL sold, Regis and Joan did what they thought was right—they shared the proceeds.” 

–Excerpted from The Chemistry of Innovation: Regis Duffy and the Story of DCL by Mo Duffy Cobb and Lori Mayne. Published by Island Studies Press. projects.upei.ca/isp.