Imugene to fast-track pig vaccine

Sydney-based animal-health products developer Imugene (ASX:IMU) is on track to bring home the commercial bacon with its new virally-vectored vaccine against the 'mystery swine disease' that struck the US pig industry in the early 1980s.

Imugene's latest in-house trial of its vaccine for the disease, now known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), tested the immunogenicity of the individual antigens in the vaccine, to establish an optimal combination and dose.

The company said the final dose from for a vaccine had now been established, and it could now fast-track the optimised vaccine's commercialisation.

PRRS is a severe disease of pigs, which results in reproductive failure in females, and an increase in pre-weaning deaths and pneumonia in piglets.

A recent market survey resulted in the estimated market for an effective new PRRS vaccine being revised upwards from US$200 million to US$400 million.

Current, conventional vaccines have only limited efficacy, and animal health companies in major pig-producing nations in the northern hemisphere have been searching for an effective alternative.

Imugene used its patented adenoviral delivery vector system, developed by CSIRO Animal Health Researchers, to develop the new PRRS vaccine. The vaccine comprises a modified adenovirus that expresses gene sequences for immunogenic antigens from the PRRS virus.

Imugene MD Dr Warwick Lamb said the latest trial has validated the results of earlier trials, and the company now had the best possible commercial formulation ready for late-stage product development in commercial herds, followed by regulatory trials in the main target markets -- the US and Europe. The disease does not occur in Australia.

Imugene will negotiate with global animal health companies to advance the vaccine's progress through veterinary products regulatory systems in Europe and the US. Lamb said the costs of developing a commercial vaccine would be borne by the successful partner.