Introducing BioHarvest Sciences BHST

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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Bioharvest Sciences BHST is a Canadian microcap company which says they are the first company to synthesize plant exomes. They also call this “botanical synthesis technology” and the compound is made a physical device called a bioreactor. The number of bioreactors has been scaling up both on quantity, and size of the reactors.

On September 10th they announced the scale of their scientific breakthrough. They have a video of call with slides which I will link below, and the transcript was also available from my data provider. One of their underlying compounds is based off of grapes and consuming the compound increases blood flow and cardiovascular health as shown in multiple peer reviewed scientific studies. They are launching an electrolyte drink in October in addition to already having teas, chews, and capsules which can be purchased from Amazon. Consuming these products offers the equivalent health benefits of consuming 2,000 grapes or 2 bottles of wine - without all the sugar and alcohol or side effects.

Additionally, the company has a CDMO or contract manufacturing business that is working with pharma companies, cosmetics, and nutritional companies. Their CDMO business has advanced a therapeutic drug to stage 2 FDA approval, and they have a 100% “technical success rate” when compounds complete stage 1.

On the narrative side here’s a few of the more impressive statements gathered from the September 10 announcement and their prior earnings,

  • “Will change the world of health and wellness for hundreds of millions of people whilst preserving the planet for generations to come” (at first I saw this as over the top language, but it seems like they believe this)
  • “Life changing compounds on plants at the cell level”
  • “Very powerful new revenue stream for CDMO customers”
  • “Pharmaceutical-grade delivery systems, nutraceuticals, and importantly breakthrough cosmetic formulations”
  • “Plant exomes are one of the hottest subjects amongst cosmetic companies”
  • “No other company in the world that handles the quantum scale of bioreactors that we handle. This is number one”
  • On electrolyte markets, “So it’s a monster market for us to access with the right disruptive proposition”
  • “Limited with the announcements because those pharma companies or other biotech entities are very careful as they wanted to disrupt the existing supply chain and which is in some cases, we are the replacement of this supply chain”
  • “Botanical synthesis is no longer just a breakthrough technology. It’s a commercial platform with expanding utility across multiple high value verticals”
  • “Customers that are finding us are totally intrigued, overwhelmed by the technology and then start to understand what it could actually do for their respective businesses”

Here’s how the numbers look for BioHarvest,

Revenue: 6.0M → 6.5 → 7.3 → 7.9 → 8.5

Yoy revenue growth rate 119% → 102% → 61% → 47% → 41%

Gross margin 51% → 57% → 57% → 58% → 60%

EBITDA -1.4M → -1.8 → -1.6 → -1.3 → -1.4

Net income -0.7M → -2.7 → -3.0 → -2.3 → 4.1

Cash 3.7M, Debt 21.1M, Market cap 161M (they announced yesterday they paid back some debt as well)

From my point of view the stock shows up a bit stronger on the narrative side overall. While the revenue growth is 41% yoy on the latest quarter, their yoy growth rate has come down over the past year. However, gross margin has a perfect upwards trend. I’m also buying the company’s explanation about scaling up for now as profitability catches up. The company did mention they are targeting adj EBITDA profitability by the end of the year.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the product so far. When I was investing in Celsius and the health of their product came, it seemed that Celsius paid for some bogus scientific studies years back to claim health benefits. BioHarvest seems to be doing it the right way, creating an actual scientific company and proving the health benefits through science rather than purely marketing as Celsius did.

I have a video on my channel which goes more in depth on BioHarvest, along with a couple other microcaps that I have invested in recently. I’ll also link to the September 10th special call, and a couple promotional videos the company has shared from their Youtube channel. One of these is partnering with former NFL players on their product as they target the pro athlete market.

Any feedback is welcome. Also please keep in mind this is a low volume microcap. If you are uncomfortable with the risk profile of companies this low on market cap and volume make sure to take that into consideration.

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I don’t have a lot of time to dive into this, but I have experience in a closely related field,band the mention of ‘bioreactors’ (in quotes, too, if I recall) spurred me to do a bit of googling.

First off, a bioreactor is no special device – it is an industry term for a sanitary vessel where some sort of biological process is carried out under controlled conditions. Fermenting beer is a good example. Their claim about nobody matching their quantum scale is pr hyperbole.

Second, as far as I can tell, there are no such biological reactions taking place. Instead it is a careful extraction and concentration of materials from fruit and vegetables. This is all preliminary, but it is certainly sounding that way to me.

Here is an italian company that seems to be doing the same thing: About us – Exolab Italia

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Thanks @coldmountain. Here’s some additional context I’ve gathered from perplexity on this topic. I’d be interested to hear more from someone that knows this industry better.

BioHarvest Sciences uses bioreactors as core technology to produce plant-based compounds such as polyphenols and cannabinoids at industrial scale, without growing whole plants or relying on traditional agriculture. Their proprietary system cultivates selected plant cells—using their patented Botanical Synthesis platform—in liquid media, where the cells are exposed to controlled stimuli to elicit production of high-value metabolites and compounds.

BioHarvest’s Bioreactor Technology

  • Bioreactors are specially engineered vessels that grow plant cells under optimized conditions, enabling the mass synthesis of botanical compounds.

  • BioHarvest’s approach mimics natural stressors, causing cells to create desired phytonutrients, which are then harvested from the bioreactor, giving consistency and purity unattainable via farming.

  • Recent advances include the large-scale production of plant-based exosomes for use in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics—demonstrating scalable innovation beyond basic supplements.

Competitive Moat Assessment

  • BioHarvest’s moat centers on its patented Botanical Synthesis platform, which both accelerates production and reduces environmental impact—by eliminating whole plant cultivation, overcoming risks and variabilities inherent to farming.

  • Their ability to consistently produce high-purity compounds and design new product applications (like exosomes and full-spectrum non-GMO cannabis) gives the company an edge over competitors relying on chemical synthesis or traditional agriculture.

  • Strategic partnerships with major industry players (like Tate & Lyle) and validated scalability (via Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization services) reinforce their technology’s defensibility and commercial relevance.

  • Patents, process know-how, and their ability to generate diverse compounds in scalable, cost-efficient fashion provide a meaningful moat, though, as with most young biotechs, this must be maintained through ongoing innovation and partnership growth.

Key Takeaways

  • BioHarvest’s bioreactors are central to their innovation and commercial momentum, facilitating the eco-efficient manufacture of unique botanical compounds.

  • Their competitive moat arises from proprietary tech, patents, supply chain efficiencies, and ability to offer novel products and services in pharma, nutraceutical, and cosmetics markets.

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Thanks dawsdaws, that’s much more context, and it’s a fundamentally different process than extracting from plants.

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This is the part that sounds a bit perpetual motion machine to me. Creating something out of thin air even. What I am reading on exome sequencing shows that you have to start with the plant, then break it down the dna to get what you want. Then you mix it with binders and then wash out extra stuff you don’t want. (HUGELY simplified wording by me.)

Now the part I am missing, is how can they get the exomes without a plant? There is no mention of them making extras somehow or making copies of whatever they harvested from the plant…

…sooooo… I am missing how they are making product that equals 2000 grapes without starting with 2000 grapes.

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More reading that most people probably want to do, but you can try getting cucurmin and peperine at home…

In addition to proteins, microRNAs, and lipids, plant-derived exosome-like nanovesicles (ENVs) are also enriched with host plant bioactives. Both curcumin and piperine are water insoluble, lack bioavailability, and are extracted by non-ecofriendly solvents. Herein, we present an eco-friendly protocol for co-isolating both curcumin and piperine in the form of hybrid ENVs.

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Their home page on Amazon cites only one single study from 2013: “Red grape berry-cultured cells reduce blood pressure in rats with metabolic-like syndrome”

If there is so much science behind their claims of some kind of scientific breakthrough:

  • Why only one single study
  • Why has their study been cited a whopping couple-of-dozen times since its publication in 2013
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There’s been tons of studies the company has done which can be found just asking an AI tool.

Does it make sense to you that a publicly traded Biopharma company would put BioHarvest compounds into their phase 2 FDA trial if it was junk science?

Here’s some more details I got from AI about the extensive nature of their studies,

BioHarvest studies
BioHarvest studies1414×1358 174 KB

BioHarvest studies 2
BioHarvest studies 21490×1238 206 KB

The company’s YouTube page has a ton of information for investors there, and the presentations seem high quality. I believe this company has the potential to be what Celsius should have been which is a real health drink. Celsius went about it backwards though and invested in marketing and distribution over science. BioHarvest says they have created a technological breakthrough which is why the management team is so excited.

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WPR,

Really interesting find of a company. I have gone down the rabbit hole of reading the studies you posted. I couldn’t find all of the studies, but I think they might have been press releases or conferences and not published studies. But the studies I could read, I found some things that are concerning to me on the scientific conclusions being perpetuated. I only read 4 and might have missed some of the better studies but I will discuss my concerns with the studies below.

  • Low sample size: Smallest 15 people, largest 45 people (completed)

  • Multiple outcomes measured: With a small sample size this greatly increases the likelihood of beneficial measurement being statistically relevant. To explain this if I have 40 people and I give 20 people chocolate and 20 people not chocolate and then measure them for 100 things. The chocolate people might have improved in one of those 100 areas by random chance and I can claim chocolate helped people _______. But then the study is never reproduceable. I am referencing the study that found chocolate that could help you lose weight.

  • Several of the studies were directly funded by BHST.

Overall, lots of statistically manipulations were ongoing in these studies. Doesn’t mean the exomes are not healthy. I would like more concrete studies to be done before I add them to my diet long term.

I do like the growth vector for the company and I believe 99% of people don’t understand how to read scientific studies, so I don’t think that will directly effect their sales. Thinking of taking a 1% position on growth aspect, not sold on the science just yet.

Drew

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Drew,

This is a perfect summation of my view on this company. This is the educated, experienced dilemma. Experts and specialists who know better often miss opportunities to invest because IT MAY NOT EVEN MATTER.

Here, this company could have quite good results on popular opinion alone. No position… but, I’m watching… for continued results.

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They did not advance a therapeutic drug to phase 2 FDA approval. They completed the first stage of a multi-stage manufacturing contract with a pharma company. They are not involved in any therapeutic clinical trials, as far as I can tell.

“BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: BHST) (FSE: 8MV0) (“BioHarvest” or the “Company”), a company pioneering its patented Botanical Synthesis technology platform, today announced that the Company’s previously announced CDMO contract with a Nasdaq-listed pharmaceutical company has progressed from Stage 1 to Stage 2 – providing further validation of the versatility of the Company’s Botanical Synthesis platform to develop active pharmaceutical compounds while concurrently paving the road for potential future volume manufacturing.

Stage 1 of the contract, launched in early 2024, focused on sourcing the required plants to develop a compound used to produce an approved drug product. Completion of Stage 1 indicates that the BioHarvest research team successfully isolated the cells of the target plant and mirrored, magnified and multiplied those cells in petri dishes using the Company’s proprietary Botanical Synthesis .

Stage 2 involves the delivery of a sufficient amount of biomass to be tested for suitability and involves the development of optimal growing conditions in liquid media. Upon successful completion, the company would transfer to small and medium-scale production and ultimately enter production of commercial volumes of the target compound.”

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I’d like to ask that people at least do some research before posting takes such as there are no scientific studies, or they are junk science.

I found a directly linked PDF to their 2014 study in a scientific journal the very first attempt searching for it.

Here’s some highlights,

In this study, we present a novel product consisted of red grape cells (RGC) grown in culture and evaluated its effect on human LDL oxidation (in vitro) and inflammatory stress (in an in vivo rat model). We analyzed RGC for its polyphenols content and characterized RGC-derived resveratrol (RES) and its properties; and finally, we characterized the pharmacokinetic profile of RGC-RES in human plasma. RGC has demonstrated a strong inhibitory effect on LDL oxidation with IC50 as low as 8.0 mg/ml. RGC significantly reduced rats inflamed paw size induced by carrageenan injection. LC/MS analysis has shown that the main polyphenol in RGC was RES with one hexose moiety. The human pharmacokinetic analysis (clinicaltrials.gov NCT01747252) revealed relatively high bioavailability and two distinctly separated plasma concentration peaks at 1 and 5 h. The present study demonstrates antioxidant and anti-inflammatory traits of RGC that warrants further research in both pre-clinical and clinical settings.

It is believed to be responsible for the ‘‘French paradox’’, a phenomenon associated with low incidence of cardiovascular diseases despite high-fat diet as a result of moderate red wine consumption

The study was a randomized three-way crossover pharmacokinetic study. Fifteen adult healthy fasting male subjects received, in randomized order, the investigational product RGC (oral doses equivalent to 50 mg or 150 mg of trans-RES), or plant-RES (150 mg) on three occasions separated by 7 d washout periods. The sample size was determined based on previous studies using similar population of subjects and/or investigational product (Burkon & Somoza, 2008; Nunes et al., 2009; Ortuno et al., 2010). A standard meal was served at 4 h post-dosing. This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures involving human subjects/patients were approved by the Soroka University Medical Center IRB and registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01747252). All the subjects signed an informed consent form prior to the beginning of the study.

A growing body of evidence has accumulated on the biological activities of RES including inhibition of lipid peroxidation, free-radical scavenging, inhibition of platelet aggregation, anti-inflammatory activity, and blood pressure lowering effect

Compare and contrast this with Celsius as well. When the board investigated their “scientific studies” it turned out they had a single study. That study compared a can of coke to Celsius and declared that Celsius causes you to lose more weight. The study tried to hide that Celsius contains three times the caffeine as a regular coke and was responsible for the majority of weight lost.

BioHarvest is commissioning real scientific studies here, and of course they are the ones to sponsor the research as it is their patented products. The company is working with Johns Hopkins University and references which people they are working with over there. Additionally, there’s that very long list of other studies I referenced above. It is clear from an high level investigation of this company that it is backed by real scientific studies.

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WPR,

Those are some of the studies I read and I stand by my analysis of the studies. To me a good study should have a large sample size, and should be testing only 1 parameter. I wouldn’t classify it as junk science, just not great science.

The 40 rat test, did show reduction in Triglycerides and Insulin but it also showed that it was no where near as effective as a good diet. It just reduced the damage of a bad diet. This study was funded for by BHST. (Problems with this study was low sample size 40 rats divided into 4 groups, testing 3 parameters is ok, not good).

The 45 person study for example measured 4 blood parameters, 20 Hematology tests, and 29 blood chemistry tests. That’s a total of 53 parameters for a study of 45 people broken into 3 groups (200mg, 400mg, placebo). Study was funded by Fruitura, a subsidiary of BHST. (Problems with this study was low sample size divided into 3 groups, 53 parameters is very bad)

The 15 person study was just on the bioavailability in the participants. Which shows total and free trans-RES in the bloodstream. Probably the best study of the entire batch I read. Study was funded by Fruitura, a subsidiary of BHST. But it doesn’t prove health benefits just that its able to be asorbed by the human body. My main problem with this study is how they prepared the drink for the participants makes it different than how a normal person would consume it. (Edit, I reread it and that was just for analysis, my mistake)

I’m not saying funding by BHST doesn’t directly mean the studies are inherently bad, but when they do statistical manipulations it makes me question it. I’m not saying the science is not promising. I just think they need to have better scientific testing before I commit to adding this to my diet, a higher bar for me than simply investing in a company. I’m treating the science as a yellow flag for now, instead of a green flag.

Drew

Edit, bought 1%

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I meant to reply to this earlier… It is likely that the are using some of the newer technologies of bioengineering. I don’t know if this is precisely what they are doing, but the following is pretty common in newer drug development: 1) determine the chemical structure of the target compound; 2) map a synthesis pathway; 3) using crispr and DNA sequencing, reprogram the organelles of a yeast cell to produce each successive intermediary; 4) determine what the optimum environmental factors are for the yeast .

Essentially they are hijacking the machinery of a yeast cell, and using it as a chemical factory. It has been used to achieve quite remarkable things. I visited a startup maybe 10 years ago that had the yeast cells producing gasoline.

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