Wisconsin-based Pan Genome Systems is looking for up to $2 million in funding to conduct trials for its live attenuated vaccine to combat Johne's disease.
Ultimately, the company may need as much as $6 million to bring its technology to market, Pan Genome's president, Jon Sandbrook, told AnimalPharm. Johne's disease is estimated by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology to cost the U.S. dairy industry as much as $500 million a year.
"The current technology for Johne's is an inactivated vaccine, which is outdated technology, and unfortunately it is just not effective," Sandbrook said. "We want to develop a better and safer vaccine, with stronger and longer immunity."
Johne's disease is a chronic, contagious bacterial disease that embeds itself in the wall of the lower part of the small intestine in animals like cattle, sheep and goats.
Pan Genome has developed a vaccine based on its proprietary biomarkers and techniques that it says alters the specific characteristics of the attacking bacteria.
- read the AnimalPharm story (sub. req.)