Imugene expands technology opps with new company

Imugene (ASX: IMU) and the University of Adelaide have set up a new company to develop and commercialise human gastrointestinal applications of the receptor mimic technology (RMT), including cholera, rotavirus, E coli diarrhoea (travellers' diarrhoea) and antibiotic associated diarrhoea in hospitalised patients caused by Clostridium difficile.

Each partner will hold about 25 per cent of the new company, named BioMimic, with the remainder being held by the initial financing participants. The company has been assigned exclusive worldwide rights by the university to all applications of the technology in return for its stake, while Imugene has provided some cash to get the company started and will hold two board seats.

In addition, BioMimic will replace the university as the licensor in Imugene's existing licence -- granted in May this year -- to develop applications for RMT to treat pigs. Royalties and milestone payments will be made by Imugene to BioMimic instead of the university. Imugene has also been granted expanded rights to apply the technology to all other animal species on an options basis.

"This is a deal we've been working on for an extended period of time," said Imugene's managing director Warwick Lamb.

Lamb said the new structure would allow for better transfer of information between different applications. "This mechanism allows for the free transfer of research information and technology, for example from the pig applications to human applications," he said.

Imugene chairman Graham Dowland and Lamb will both hold non-executive directorships on the board of BioMimic, which will be required to raise additional funds and appoint an executive management team and additional board members. Lamb said the company would remain private for the time being.

RMT is a biological platform based on non-pathogenic bacteria modified to express receptor mimics on their surface which bind to disease-causing toxins, preventing them from binding to the gut wall and being absorbed. The modified bacteria, which are killed before administration to the animal, are passed through and out of the gut along with the bound toxins by normal mechanisms. The receptor mimics can also be designed to bind to viruses.

Imugene has completed its first pilot trial testing RMT on post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets caused by E.coli infections, and is waiting for the statistical analysis to be completed. They have already produced a number of receptor mimics to other toxins and viruses, and Lamb said many of them are applicable in more than one species including humans, chickens and cattle.

Because killed bacteria are used to deliver the receptor mimics to the gastrointestinal tract, a relatively simple regulatory process is expected.

"We are looking to get an E. coli product to market starting in Australia sometime in 2006," Lamb said. Imugene has already identified potential contract manufacturers and distributors for the animal products, which it does not plan to license out to a larger company.