Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 21, 2026) - Virica Biotech ("Virica"), an Ottawa-based company focused on improving biomanufacturing through its Viral Sensitizers (VSE™) enhancer technology, today announced the launch of Viric.AI™, a proprietary active learning platform that accelerates the discovery of optimized biomanufacturing enhancers, as part of their service offering to clients.

Developed in collaboration with Dr. Francesco Gentile's lab at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Science, Viric.AI™ combines machine learning with iterative experimental feedback to accelerate the precise identification of biomanufacturing enhancers tailored to specific client processes. Expanding Virica's existing rapid screening HTV^TM platform capabilities, Viric.AI™ helps guide experimental design and predict the most productive conditions earlier in development. The synergy between HTV^TM and Viric.AI^TM platforms ultimately helps reduce process development timelines, improve biomanufacturing yield, and support novel biomanufacturing enhancer discovery and optimization across a range of systems, including but not limited to viral vector manufacturing leveraging its existing VSE^TM technology.

Viric.AI™ is already being utilized by the Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub (CP2H), a research Hub co-led by the University of Ottawa and McMaster University, in partnership with the Ottawa Hospital. Viric.AI™ is being leveraged by CP2H to support the discovery of novel enhancers for adenovirus production. This work highlights the platform's dual-use potential to support both commercial biomanufacturing programs and broader public health and biodefense preparedness efforts.

"Biomanufacturing processes are inherently complex, and optimization has traditionally been slow and resource-intensive," said Dr. Jean-Simon Diallo, CEO of Virica Biotech. "With Viric.AI™, we're enabling our partners to move faster and make better decisions earlier, whether they're working in viral vectors or other advanced biologics systems."

"Canada's ability to respond to future health threats depends on accelerating innovation in biomanufacturing," said Ottawa Hospital Research Institute scientist John Bell, who co-directs CP2H with McMaster Professor Matthew Miller. "Platforms like Viric.AI™ demonstrate how advanced technologies can bolster Canada's health security and sovereignty and strengthen our broader life sciences ecosystem."

Virica acknowledges the support of the Life Sciences Critical Technologies and Commercialization Centre of Excellence, established by Ontario Biosciences Innovation Organization (OBIO) and Mitacs, whose funding contributed to the development of Viric.AI™.

About Virica Biotech

Virica develops biomanufacturing enhancers with a major focus on improving the yield and quality of viral vectors used for cell & gene therapies and vaccines. Virica's commercially available Viral Sensitizer (VSE™) enhancers overcome production inefficiencies in cells used for biomanufacturing and allow therapeutic developers to upscale the manufacture of their products at much lower cost. Beyond supplying VSEs as commercial biomanufacturing reagents, Virica operates as rapid process development service partner. Virica's proprietary High-Throughput Virology (HTV™) platform, Design-of-Experiments (DoE) process optimization, and analytical testing workflows enable therapeutic developers to rapidly pinpoint the optimal biomanufacturing conditions allowing their programs to scale faster and at a lower cost than traditional methods.

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