Modern animal husbandry needs vaccines to tackle a wide range of viruses, such as Asian bird flu and foot and mouth disease (FMD), that can spread rapidly through livestock, risking food supply chains and the livelihoods of farmers. However, the high costs of commercial-scale manufacturing and the technical difficulty of creating their active components are limitations on the number being developed.
Manufacturing costs reduce access to new vaccines
There is no regulatory regime to create a ‘biosimilar’ vaccine. However, when a new vaccine is being developed to replicate the activities of an existing vaccine, the commercial considerations resemble that of developing a biosimilar against a regulated biologic therapeutic. Such a vaccine needs to be as effective as the original, and ought to reduce prices by bringing competition to the market. This lowers the cost for farmers, helps consumers by reducing the price of food and safeguards the health of livestock. More robust food supply chains benefit everyone.
The same arguments are also relevant to the development of completely new vaccines.
The challenges of virus-like particles
Currently, a principal source of animal vaccines is virus-like particles (VLPs). These offer a potent basis for provoking the immune system in a targeted way to instigate better protection against pathogenic viral infections. However, they can be technically complicated and expensive to manufacture, limiting the scope for vaccines that can be developed profitably in this way.
Given that a blockbuster animal health product needs to generate annual revenue that is over $20 million, the costs of attempting a difficult VLP can quickly escalate to the point that they undermine the project’s viability.
QTL technology enables new vaccines to be provided at a lower cost
Fortunately, new technology has the potential to create a broader range of VLP vaccines that were previously challenging to make. Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) technology develops manufacturing strains that can be customised to secrete technically challenging VLPs. They can also be optimised for increased product titre while minimising and streamlining downstream processing, thereby driving down the overall costs of manufacturing.
This provides a disruptive opportunity to bring new and more affordable vaccine products to the market for the benefit of farmers, consumers and livestock that match or exceed the efficacy of existing products.
