Market and Commercial strategy
Poised to meet future demand
Imugene estimates the global market for biological disease control and productivity enhancement products in poultry and pigs is valued at over US$3 billion per year. This market is poised for significant expansion and growth as in–feed antibiotics are withdrawn and consumers demand residue free food products.
Imugene’s commercialisation strategy is to sublicense products at an appropriate stage in development. This strategy will ultimately deliver superior returns to shareholders through minimising capital outlays and maximizing profit from royalty income. In executing this strategy, Imugene signed a global licensing agreement with Novartis Animal Health in October 2010. The agreement gives the company global exclusive rights to commercialise all of Imugene’s vaccines and productivity enhancers.
Imugene’s biological products include productivity enhancers, which can replace the current use of antibiotics, drugs or chemicals, and vaccines to protect against specific infectious diseases. Imugene’s products focus on providing relief to intensive producers from factors causing major economic concern. Imugene aims to fulfil demand for such products in the pig and poultry health product markets.
More information about the specific markets for each of Imugene’s products can be found in the Our Products section.
Product development in the animal health market
One of the advantages of animal health products and vaccines is the accelerated and simplified pathway to market compared to those developed for humans. Depending on the country, complexity of the technology and duration of necessary trials, products typically take two to five years to commercialise. The typical product development process is:
Antibiotics in Feed - The need for a viable alternative
Vast quantities of antibiotics are used around the world every year. As an indication:
- UK uses 1,225 tonnes of antibiotics annually - 38% for treating humans, 62% for animals
- US uses 9,434 tonnes of antibiotics annually – 14.4% for treating humans and 85.6% for animals, though some argue this is actually much higher
- Australia uses 700 tonnes of antibiotics annually, of which 1/3 are for human use and 2/3 are for animal use.
In some countries antibiotics are used as feed additives in intensively reared animals, especially pigs and poultry. They promote growth and treat or prevent specific diseases.
The use of antibiotics in animal feeds has received increasing international attention as a contributing factor to antibiotic resistance in bacteria. These antibiotic resistant bacteria or ‘superbugs’ are a major human and animal health problem worldwide.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and several international government reports have identified the need to phase out the use of antibiotics as growth promotants in food producing animals. Sweden stopped using growth promotants in 1986 and claims that reduced antibiotic use in animals has resulted in a reduction in the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in animal bacteria. The European Union has now banned in-feed antibiotics and in the US only four are approved for use. Several antibiotics have been suspended from use in countries around the world, or withdrawn by manufacturers in response to these concerns.
An Australian report on the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals released by the Joint Expert Committee on Antibiotic Residues (JETACAR) in 1999, recommended that “where the intensive animal industries (such as meat chicken, pig, feedlot cattle and aquaculture) currently depend on the use of antibiotics to improve feed conversion and prevent and treat disease, cost effective non-antibiotic methods to increase productivity and prevent disease should be developed.” As a result of these recommendations, many animal antibiotics are being phased out, particularly those that are ineffective in Australian conditions, considered critical for human use, and are likely to lessen the effectiveness of other antibiotics through the development of resistant strains of bacteria.
Restrictions on the use of antibiotics in feed in intensive pig and poultry production increases the market potential of Imugene’s Poultry Productivity Enhancer.