October 22, 2014

Eli Lilly and Canadian university to develop new enzyme supplement

Global pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company, through its division Elanco Animal Health, has partnered with Concordia University in Canada to develop and commercialise a next-generation enzyme supplement for pork and poultry producers, it was announced.

The CAD6 million (US$5.35 million) project is funded by Genome Canada under its Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP). The GAPP partners academic researchers with the industry to translate innovations that are expected to have a considerable economic and social impact in the near term.

Concordia's Dr. Adrian Tsang, who is the director of Concordia's Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics (CSFG), has been chosen as the lead academic researcher. Dr Tsang said he was excited to put his research in motion.

"My work has always been focused on environmental sustainability. To feed the growing population at a time of rapid climate change and dwindling fertile land, agricultural practices need to be more efficient and sustainable. This is exactly what I hope we can achieve through this project", he said.

Graham Carr, vice-president of Concordia's Research and Graduate Studies, described Elanco as "globally respected for its innovative work on animal health."

"Our partnership with them underlines the outstanding contributions that Concordia research is making in addressing the major food and environmental challenges of our time", he said.

The three-year project's ultimate goal is to "create commercial products especially suited for the diverse Canadian feed market" and which "are expected to bring about significant improvements in feed conversion, and thus improve producer profit margins."

"Globally, 600 million tonnes of grain are used for swine and poultry feed each year, which take up more than 60 million hectares of valuable farmland," Dr. Tsang said. "Our goal with this project is to reduce strain on the environment due to decreased animal waste, and to improve overall animal growth and health."