May 25, 2007

GangaGen to work with university on Campylobacter treatment in poultry
 

GangaGen Life Sciences Inc. and the University of Nottingham are conducting a joint project to develop a treatment that would target Campylobacter bacteria in poultry.

The treatment would be bacteriophage-based as these would target and destroy bacteria effectively and do so selectively without harming other useful bacteria or body cells.

Both GangaGen and the university have extensive experience in bacteriophage research.

GangaGen is a developer of therapeutics based on phage technology for the control of disease-causing bacteria. It previously worked on other food safety phage-based treatment against Salmonella and E. coli.

Dr Rainer Engelhardt, CEO of GangaGen Life Sciences Inc said the food industry and its regulators have stated that timely intervention is needed at the farm level to supplement the controls already in place in food processing.

GangaGen has demonstrated in trials that the phages can be used efficaciously, with full regard for safety, and that the phages are benign to animals, humans and the environment, Engelhardt said.

GangaGen was founded in India in 2000 and was incorporated as a Delaware corporation in 2001. GangaGen Life Sciences Inc(GLSI) was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary in Ottawa, Canada, in April 2002 to develop phage based products for eliminating human pathogens in food animals and the environment.