Edinburgh-based science investor Frontier IP today said one its portfolio companies has started work on a Covid-19 vaccine for use in animals in a bid to prevent further outbreaks of the disease in humans.
The Vaccine Group, which Frontier owns a 17% stake in, said it is working in partnership with the Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute in China and Kansas State University on the vaccine.
The company’s chief scientific officer Professor Dr Michael Jarvis, said: “As Covid-19 has shown, the spillover of disease from animals to humans can have a very high social, economic and commercial cost globally.“
“Naturally there has been a swift move into funding the development of human vaccines and therapeutics, but to date we are not aware of any approaches to eliminate Covid-19 in the animal population to prevent future outbreaks or re-emergence of the disease.“
The Vaccine Group, a spin-out from the University of Plymouth, also said it has started animal trials for bovine tuberculosis and African Swine Fever, and reported good progress on US government-backed work on Ebola and Lassa fever vaccines.
It completed a £680,000 equity fund raise in January that valued the business at £9.5 million and Frontier’s shareholding at £1.6 million. The funds are being used by to accelerate technology development.
Frontier IP specialises in commercialising university intellectual property. Chief executive Officer Neil Crabb said : "The announcement shows The Vaccine Group has been making great progress to date in meeting the compelling need for vaccines to tackle diseases with profound human and economic costs. The range of vaccines now under development and the success of trials so far proves the technology could be potent in tackling a wide variety of diseases that jump from animals to humans or are damaging economically. We're working closely with the company to accelerate its vital work."
