May 3, 2011
 

Bioniche Life Sciences launches Canadian vaccine manufacturing centre

The most recent Animal Health and Food Safety Vaccine Manufacturing Centre was formally established by Canadian biopharmaceutical company Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. at its corporate headquarters in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.

This facility represents the largest livestock vaccine manufacturing facility in Canada, with capacity to supply Canadian animal vaccine requirements and to meet international regulatory standards (Good Manufacturing Practice - GMP).

This expansion provides Bioniche with the capability to produce a wide spectrum of vaccines, with fermentation capabilities of up to 5,000 litres and all downstream processing and supporting utilities. The project was made possible through financial support from several government agencies that contributed a total of CAD25 million (US$26.4 million) in repayable loans.

"This government funding was critical to achieve our vision for a state-of-the-art Canadian vaccine manufacturing facility to produce a range of vaccines to prevent illnesses in animals and to reduce the likelihood of human illness from animal diseases," said Graeme McRae, chairman, president & CEO of Bioniche Life Sciences Inc.

Once fully commissioned, the first product to be manufactured in the centre will be the company's E. coli O157 cattle vaccine, Econiche, directed to reduce the level of this deadly pathogen in water, food and the environment which in turn helps to minimise the potential for infection of humans.

The E. coli O157 organism causes no disease in cattle, but cattle are the primary reservoir for it. E. coli O157 can cause severe illness and be fatal when ingested by humans from contaminated meat, vegetables, other food products, or water.

An estimated 100,000 cases of human infection with the E. coli O157 organism are reported each year in North America. Two to seven percent of those people develop Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a disease characterised by kidney failure. Five percent of HUS patients die, many of them children and senior citizens, whose kidneys are more sensitive to damage.