The major concrete deliverable of this project will be new vaccines, and companion diagnostics, for two of the most costly and recalcitrant diseases affecting livestock producers in Canada and worldwide, Johne’s disease and bovine tuberculosis. The team leaders of this project, Potter and Hancock, have substantial experience in outlicencing and commercializing a variety of products for animal and human health. We are using this experience to market the products of our research for commercialization by large animal pharma and small biotech companies, including spin-offs.
The products of this project have strong Canadian and world market potential and their prospective values are indicated in Table 1.
Table 1: Benefits of the reverse vaccinology strategy
| Type of Benefit | Class | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Johne’s Disease vaccine | Economic | Total Canadian impact up to $86.5M/yr. Comprising savings on Canadian costs to diary industry of $31M/yr and to beef industry $52M/yr. Vaccine sales will likely increase over 3 years to $ 6.3M/yr in Canada & ~$200M internationally |
| Social/Ethical | Improves consumer confidence in safety of food and milk, securing livelihoods of rural communities where livestock farming is present | |
| Producer | Prevents herd culling of infected animals and losses in the supply industry; Prevents producer loss of milk production and weight losses during livestock auctions. | |
| Bovine Tuberculosis vaccine | Economic | The total impact will depend on the number of cases occurring in Canada, but will be provide a safety net estimated to be up to $10 million (with losses much larger in any year where even a single case occurred) and up to $3 billion/yr worldwide. Vaccine sales would increase to be $4M/yr Canada and $200-400M internationally; |
| Social/Ethical | Reduction in animal slaughter, securing livelihoods of rural communities where livestock farming is present | |
| Producer | Prevents financially catastrophic herd culling and related losses in the supply industry; Especially since any cases devastate the international market for months | |
| Companion diagnostic | Enabling | Differentiates infected from vaccinated animals thus not triggering slaughter |
| White paper | Enabling | Encourages producer, industry and government buy-in. Makes the case for the relative importance of economics, ethics, international and local politics, producer profitability and public perceptions |
For more information please contact: volker (dot) gerdts (at) usask (dot) ca or bob (at) hancocklab (dot) com