Moredun receives cash injection to commercialise caseous lymphadentis vaccine
30th September 2009
“Prevention is better than cure” also applies to the animal health industry, where vaccination approaches to disease prevention are much preferable to alternative methods, such as test and cull. Adopting this approach, Moredun Research Institute (MRI) Scientists have developed a new technology for producing vaccines for a range of livestock diseases. The first disease they are focusing their efforts on is, caseous lymphadenitis (CLA), a bacterial infection of small ruminants, including sheep and goats. CLA is a global problem for farmers, leading to production losses through low weight yield and contamination of meat and wool.
The new approach developed by MRI scientists is expected to result in a more effective vaccine than those currently available globally. In addition, Moredun’s new vaccine will be a ‘marker’ vaccine which means that it will not interfere with the diagnosis of the disease in animals when using the diagnostic test previously developed by MRI. Another advantage of this new marker vaccine is that it will allow farmers and vets to differentiate between animals naturally infected with CLA and those previously vaccinated with the new CLA vaccine.
Moredun hopes that this approach to vaccine development may also be applied to a wide variety of other bacterial pathogens, both in the veterinary and medical fields, including the closely related causes of diphtheria and tuberculosis in humans.
MRI have now secured funding from Scottish Enterprise, through their Proof of Concept Programme for a 2 year programme with a view to develop a commercial CLA vaccine for both the UK and global market.
Dr Michael Fontaine, Inventor and Principal Investigator for the project remarked “CLA is a growing problem for farmers and meat producers across the globe, leading to reduced yields and problems with wool and meat quality in both sheep and goats. It is thought that CLA costs the Australian sheep industry alone over £12 million per annum. CLA is an emerging problem in the UK and Europe and is likely to lead to equally significant losses to farmers.”
Dr Richard Mole, Chief Operating Officer of Inocul8 Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of MRI, charged with the commercialisation of the output from this project commented “In addition to the market for a CLA vaccine, which we estimate to be £25 million per year, we anticipate this technology will be applied to a range of other diseases, some of which will have a market potential of £0.5-1.0 billion per annum in the human medicines market”.
Professor Willie Donachie, Deputy Director of MRI and Chief Scientific Officer of Inocul8 is enthusiastic about the project. “Moredun has a very strong tradition of applied research and in translating this expertise into practical outputs such as vaccines, and we see this award as an endorsement of Moredun’s commitment to producing practical solutions to problems facing the farming community, both in Scotland and also globally”.
New Company Supports Livestock Vaccine Development
17th August 2009
A new company has been launched to drive the translation of world leading animal health research into new and improved vaccines for livestock, with a global market currently valued at $3.5 billion (USD).
Inocul8 seeks to maximise opportunities for the development of vaccines from research advances made by scientists at Moredun Research Institute in Edinburgh. The new company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the research institute, will support a variety of commercialisation strategies to aid new vaccine development for economically important diseases, including pneumonia in cattle and nematode infections in sheep.
Professor Willie Donachie, Deputy Director of Moredun Research Institute and Chief Scientific Officer of the new company is enthusiastic about the enhanced commercial direction Inocul8 will offer Moredun. He commented, “Moredun has a very strong tradition of applied research and in translating this expertise into practical outputs such as vaccines for pasteurellosis and clostridial diseases. In recent years our researchers have had particular success in moving vaccine research findings into commercial success”. It has not been a straightforward progress though. Professor Donachie explains, “There has been increasing realisation that researchers face obstacles, which are specifically related to the product development phase that hinders commercial exploitation. We are confident that the commercial expertise Inocul8 can provide will support our researchers in overcoming these barriers”.
Dr Richard Mole, Chief Operating Officer of Inocul8, is certain that this new venture will support the commercialisation of Moredun’s research in the future. “In a report conducted last year a significant number of Moredun research projects with vaccine related opportunities were identified. The early targets for further development include new or improved vaccines for pneumonia and haemorrhagic septicaemia (Pasteurella multocida), Caseous Lymphadenitis and Haemonchus.” He added, “The development of these and other animal health vaccines will help satisfy the needs of the farming and veterinary communities both in Scotland and globally.”
Working with Moredun’s scientists, Inocul8 will look to form synergistic relationships between the research institute and commercial companies, as well as providing a bridge to the market to maximise the potential of these and other vaccine opportunities generated by Moredun scientists. Inocul8 will support the company’s business development and downstream development processes, including continued vaccine evaluation leading to manufacturing, product evaluation and registration of new products.
Anyone with an interest in finding out more about Inocul8 and potential opportunities for collaboration, please contact Dr Richard Mole on 0131 445 6202.