\u201cThe original mission of the company was to have something for Adam if he needed it. I\u2019ve done that. The new mission is to make that same blessing available to as many people fighting cancer as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brad Sorenson, Providence<\/p>\n
At the time, Sorenson was working with an earlier startup called Arcturus Therapeutics that was also focused on RNA-based therapies. He was participating in San Diego-based incubator JLabs and collaborating with Houston\u2019s MD Anderson Cancer Center to apply the company\u2019s lipid nanoparticle technology to glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) treatment, an aggressive form of cancer that begins in the brain. Just days after the group completed its first proof-of-concept experiment review, Adam was diagnosed with advanced, late-stage GBM.<\/p>\n
Sorenson felt the connection was too providential to ignore.<\/p>\n
As his son underwent treatment, including two surgeries and radiation therapy, Sorenson turned his professional attention toward options to treat GBM and other cancers, eventually leaving Arcturus to focus full-time on oncology-related therapies. With Adam now in remission, Sorenson\u2019s work became a kind of insurance policy against an illness that, as he points out, \u201calways comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI started the company because I wanted to have something in case my son\u2019s cancer came back,\u201d Sorenson told BetaKit. \u201cI know that sounds trite, but that\u2019s actually why I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also the reason the company has largely remained private and tightly controlled by Sorenson, despite making big waves during the COVID-19 pandemic and attracting millions in private investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp until COVID, we were a very tightly held, stealth company that nobody knew about, and I was totally comfortable with that,\u201d Sorenson said. \u201cWe had 12 people, we were doing phenomenal science, we were extraordinarily lean, then COVID hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pandemic Pivot<\/p>\n
During the pandemic, Providence pivoted from cancer to research and development on a potential COVID-19 vaccine. It was a decision Sorenson made more out of necessity than anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t trying to capitalize on a COVID rush. We were trying to keep the company intact,\u201d he said. At the time, due to health restrictions around COVID-19, Providence\u2019s staff would not have been able to carry out work or access their labs unless they were working on COVID-19-related research.<\/p>\n
The company went on to develop a vaccine, claiming it was \u201cone month behind Moderna.\u201d Eventually, it partnered<\/a> with Chinese biopharmaceutical company Everest Medicines, granting the company the license to develop and market its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in select territories in Asia. The partnership netted Providence $100 million USD ($137 million CAD) up front and up to $100 million USD in profit-sharing followed by royalties, according to statements released at the time.\u00a0 In 2024, amid waning demand for COVID-19 vaccines, Everest terminated its partnership<\/a> with Providence, paying the company $4 million USD in accordance with their agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, Providence remains privately held, with no institutional backers, according to Sorenson. It has, to date, raised $36.4 million CAD in dilutive capital, $30 million CAD in convertible debt, and $185 million CAD of non-dilutive capital mainly raised through licensing agreements, according to Sorenson.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have about 350 shareholders. They\u2019re all accredited, high-net-worth individuals and folks that I\u2019ve met through my sphere of influence,\u201d he claimed. \u201cIt\u2019s allowed us to be very mission-focused in what we\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeking that type of investment has been a conscious choice. One predicated on what Sorenson feels is a misalignment between his mission and the Canadian venture capital model.<\/p>\n \u201cThey consider it a success when somebody \u2026 gets acquired for $200 million by a US company. And you\u2019re right, for that individual, it was a success. But was it a success for Canada? No. Not at all,\u201d he said. \u201cI did talk to institutional investors back in the day, and they\u2019re not interested because I\u2019m not interested in [going public]. I\u2019m not interested in selling out. I\u2019m trying to develop something that just doesn\u2019t meet with their checkboxes.\u201d<\/p>\n It Always Comes Back<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s cancer did come back. Ten years after the initial diagnosis, his GBM returned, this time with leptomeningeal disease, a complication where cancer metastasizes to the brainstem and spinal fluid. In 2023, Sorenson says Adam was given two months to live.<\/p>\n Providence\u2019s GBM vaccine was still experimental and working its way through the complex Health Canada drug approval process when Adam\u2019s second diagnosis occurred. That prevented Adam from accessing his father\u2019s vaccine in Canada, so the family planned to treat Adam in Mexico, where approval for the experimental treatment would be quicker. Just days prior to departing, a bureaucratic mix-up resulted in the vaccine\u2019s import permit being denied.<\/p>\n \u201cWe looked at what it would take us to correct that mistake, and it was a couple of months, \u201d Sorenson said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t feel my son had a couple of months to live.\u201d<\/p>\n So Sorenson did something that perhaps any parent would in his position: he went to his office, took Providence\u2019s vaccine from the freezer, and treated Adam at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe looked at what it would take us to correct that mistake, and it was a couple of months. We didn\u2019t feel my son had a couple of months to live.\u201d<\/p>\n The shot Sorenson administered to his son used lipid nanoparticle technology\u2014fat-based vesicles that can deliver mRNA to cells\u2014to deliver an immunotherapy that would train Adam\u2019s immune system to target cancer cells and attack the tumour.<\/p>\n The shot wasn\u2019t approved by Health Canada. It hadn\u2019t been peer reviewed. There was no official evidence proving its efficacy at the time beyond Providence\u2019s own internal studies. Sorenson went ahead, anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sorenson and Adam, by then in his early 20s, sat down and filmed a 30-minute video, outlining the procedure, Adam\u2019s motivation for taking it, and establishing consent, Adam said. Then, he took the injection.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was more than willing to try this, but with all the rules and legal issues, it would have taken too long, and I wouldn\u2019t have been able to have this shot at surviving,\u201d Adam told BetaKit. \u201cEven the doctors were saying I was only expected to live two to four months. I wasn\u2019t supposed to live very long at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he and I were the ones who thought it was going to work, but it did,\u201d Sorenson recalled<\/p>\n BetaKit wasn\u2019t able to verify the efficacy of Sorenson\u2019s vaccine at the time, so it remains unclear to what degree the treatment played a role in Adam\u2019s improvement. Terminal cancer prognoses can often vary significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sorenson is clear that he made the decision to administer the vaccine himself, without informing the broader Providence leadership or Health Canada. After the fact, he said he authored a 13-page disclosure report to Health Canada about the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n BetaKit reached out to Health Canada to confirm whether they had received Sorenson\u2019s report and what the potential consequences are of such an unconventional action. Due to privacy regulations, Health Canada could neither confirm nor deny whether it had received such a report. A spokesperson did comment on potential outcomes, however, saying that Health Canada\u2019s compliance and enforcement approach is risk-based.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf non-compliance is identified, Health Canada determines the most appropriate response based on the risk they may pose to the public. Actions are \u2026 guided by the specific facts and circumstances of each case.\u201d<\/p>\n Streamlining a future<\/p>\n Fast forward three years, and Adam is alive and well. He still has cancer, and until recently he was still receiving regular vaccinations like the one his father smuggled out for him in 2023, though they have since been administered under compassionate care use by Health Canada\u2019s Open Label Individual Patient (OLIP) program, which allows patients with life-threatening or serious conditions to access to drugs currently not authorized by Health Canada. He\u2019s stable enough that he\u2019s finished his first semester at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), where he\u2019s studying cabinetry.<\/p>\n \u201cThings are looking a lot better now,\u201d Adam said. \u201cWhen you look at the MRI results, a lot of the cancer had shrunk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Following Sorenson\u2019s unconventional treatment of his son, Providence has secured single patient treatment approval, and is currently working with the University of Toronto affiliated University Health Network (UHN) to engage in formal trials for the precision vaccine.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Brad-Rebecca-Adam-Mountains-1024x574.png\" "\\"Brad")
<\/a>Rebecca, Adam, and Brad Sorenson. Image courtesy Brad Sorenson.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240912231045_IMG_9127-1-1024x682.jpg\" "\\"Sorenson")
<\/a>As his son underwent treatment, including two surgeries and radiation therapy, Sorenson turned his attention toward options to treat GBM. Image courtesy Brad Sorenson.<\/p>\n