Commercial Advantages
Key commercial advantages of Imugene’s vaccines
Imugene’s technology is addressing the challenges facing the swine and poultry industries
The poultry and pig meat production industries are some of the largest agricultural industries in the world. But with new diseases and consumer demand for higher quality drug and chemical free products this extremely cost conscious industry will face significant challenges in coming years.
Imugene’s products will help to address some of these challenges, as they:
- Are cost effective to administer via water, feed, aerosol, or injection
- Can also be administed in ovo (via egg), which can be undertaken by most US poultry broiler hatcheries
- Have high efficacy at an early age, which is particularly important for broilers
- Have multiple administration methods, which allows reduced handling
- Are cost effective to manufacture in very large quantities
- Deliver only key genetic information (not the whole infectious organism)
- Can deliver multiple genes
- Do not cause disease
- Do not create meat residues and are safe for human consumption
- Do not genetically modify the host animal, but work by stimulating the animals own immune system.
An inexpensive, biological alternative
Adenoviral Vector Vaccines are among the most advanced methods of vaccinations for livestock. They represent an effective and relatively inexpensive way to produce vaccines for animals, when compared with older methods such as inactivating or killing infectious organisms or synthesising sub-unit protein vaccines for injection.
Imugene’s Adenoviral Vector Vaccines work by replicating the protein in the virus and using a harmless same species virus (Fowl or Porcine Adenovirus – FAV/PAV) as a delivery system for genes that activate the bird or the pig’s immune system. They are safe to use and cannot mutate or recombine with live viruses. Importantly, these adenoviruses also only infect one species. For example, a pig adenovirus will infect pigs, but not other animals or humans.
As Imugene’s vaccines are biologically based – not chemically based – they are safe to use and leave no chemical residues, which is important given the growing consumer demand for drug and chemical free food products.
Our Adenoviral Vector Vaccines are easy to administer and target cells in a variety of tissues, including the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. It is this range of tissue targeting that gives the adenoviral vector the advantage of oral or aerosol administration. The products are also effective when administered by injection as the virus spreads to the target organs.
These vaccines are cost effective to manufacture, store and distribute, which is important in the cost conscious swine and poultry farming industries.
Imugene technology provides protection against Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, an economically important disease for which there is no other viable vaccine. Imugene is well positioned to respond to such needs in the future, with an advanced technology platform that makes new vaccines possible.