February 5, 2004

 

 

PharmaGap Launches Assay Technology To Measure Immuno-Resistance Capacity of Poultry

 

PharmaGap Inc. has successfully developed an assay technology to measure the overall potential of swine to resist bacteria and viruses. This in turn will help to measure the immuno-resistance capacity of poultry.

 

The proprietary assay is based on measuring the proliferation of white blood cells isolated from a small blood sample after being exposed to a number of specific mitogenic substances.

 

The assay is of benefit to poultry breeders wanting to accurately identify highly disease resistant animals for the development of breeding lines with enhanced immunity and a capacity to resist disease without the administration of antibiotics and growth hormones. The assay also quantifies the effect of a poultry feed additive claiming to boost the immune system, allowing for the establishment of a verifiable dose-response profile for the additive.

 

The market importance of PharmaGap's assay derives from the fact that animal producers and breeders are actively seeking alternatives to the use of antibiotics and growth hormones either directly in animals or as additives in animal feed.

 

Currently antibiotics and growth hormones are extensively administered at low doses in order to control the bacteria that cause animal diseases and for growth promotion but at such low concentrations it has been shown that bacteria can, in some instances, develop immunity to the antibiotics. These resistant bacteria could potentially be passed to humans and therefore pose a significant human health risk.

 

In order to reduce this potential health hazard the European Union (EU) has mandated a total ban on the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes by January 2006. North American authorities are also actively studying this issue.

 

Breeders that can offer consumers an antibiotic and growth hormone-free (or significantly reduced) product at a competitive price will have a significant competitive advantage in the global food market.

 

Canadian chicken and turkey farms generate over $2.5 billion combined of farm gate receipts and chicken farmers alone spend over $1 billion per year on feed and feed additives. In 2002 Canada was ranked as the 6th largest net exporter of chicken at 76 million kilograms.

 

Robert Letellier, President of PharmaGap Inc. highlighted the significance of the Company's assay to poultry, swine and other livestock breeders and to animal feed additive manufacturers, 'The PharmaGap assay is straightforward to implement and provides a breeder with a quantifiable, empirical immunity profile for their animals.

 

The breeder can then select certain animals to cross-breed that possess higher innate or acquired immunity and these could be developed and marketed as a superior disease-resistant lineage requiring reduced or in some cases no antibiotics.

 

This assay takes on more significance in light of the devastating virus affecting poultry in Asia since we believe our assay can be an important tool for breeders to produce higher disease resistant animals in a natural-way, thereby possibly eliminating or at least significantly reducing the potential for similar outbreaks in the future.'

 

The project was undertaken in collaboration with Progressive BioActives Inc. (PBI), a privately held company developing a range of natural and effective animal feed immuno-modulating compounds as replacements for growth promotion antibiotics.

 

The current study assessed the immune system effect on a control group of turkeys fed with feed containing current-practice growth hormones and on a group of birds fed PBI's proprietary 'YBG-Complex'. The 'YBG-Complex' is a unique combination of co-factors, vitamins and a purified beta-glucan derivative. The immune system profile of the test group clearly indicated a capacity to resist diseases better than the growth hormone fed group.

 

About PharmaGap Inc.

 

PharmaGap Inc., based in Ottawa, Ontario is a spin-off of the National Research Council of Canada and is a biotechnology company primarily engaged in the discovery and development of novel therapeutic compounds for use in oncology and the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. PharmaGap's research platform targets cellular pathways involving protein kinases. Based upon its expertise in cell to cell communication the Company has also developed innovative stem cell technology which utilizes a unique animal by-product-free growth media for use in skin wound healing, cartilage reconstruction and for cosmetic (wrinkles) purposes, unique 3-D cell-based models addressing unmet drug development needs (ADMET profiling) of the pharmaceutical industry and livestock and companion animal (pets) immuno-resistance diagnostic assays.