REG - Eco Animal Health Gp - Partnership with Imperial College

ECO Animal HealthAnnouncement

15/06/2022 07:45

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RNS Number : 9411O  Eco Animal Health Group PLC  15 June 2022

 

13 June 2022

ECO Animal Health Group plc

(''ECO", the "Company" or the "ECO Group") (AIM: EAH)

Partnership with Imperial College London

saRNA technology to deliver swine vaccines and biologics

 

ECO Animal Health Group plc, a leader in the development, registration and
marketing of pharmaceutical products for global animal health markets, is
pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, ECO Animal Health Ltd,
has entered into a research partnership with Professor Robin Shattock at
Imperial College London, to assess the veterinary application of the novel
self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) technology.  The scope of the collaboration will
be the delivery of vaccine antigens and biologics to pigs against three
important infectious disease targets (two viral and one bacterial).

saRNA is a new platform for the development of medicines and vaccines which
uses similar technology to mRNA but with the added ability to self-amplify,
thereby expressing proteins for a longer time period, resulting in higher
protein levels per dose. This has the potential to allow saRNAs to be
delivered at lower concentrations than conventional mRNA therapeutics, leading
to less frequent or lower dosing, lower costs and a much broader range of
potential applications. The saRNA platform aims to underpin the next
generation of RNA-delivered medicines enabling not only vaccines but also a
broad range of therapeutic applications, for example conditions where immune
modulation is beneficial.

ECO will use its validated swine disease models to generate proof of concept
data within one year, with the view of selecting candidates for development,
registration and commercialisation under license from Imperial College London.

The diseases targeted with this technology are among the most economically
damaging to the swine industry which amounts to nearly 800 million pigs
worldwide and represents 36% of total meat consumption.

David Hallas, Chief Executive of ECO said: "This is a very exciting
collaboration for ECO and a great credit to our R&D team for having
successfully concluded the agreement with Imperial College.  The global
market potential for products developed from this partnership is very
significant and, if successful, would be a major step in ECO's longer term
strategy to develop new and innovative products alongside Aivlosin."

Professor Robin Shattock of Imperial College said: "I am pleased to be working
with the team at ECO on this exciting project. saRNA technology has very
significant potential in animal health as it can be delivered in much lower
doses than is currently possible and hence represents the next generation of
RNA delivered medicines."

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Group to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations
(EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR") as it forms part of United Kingdom domestic law by
virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of
this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside
information is now considered to be in the public domain.

For further information please contact:

 ECO Animal Health Group plc                                     020 8447 8899

 David Hallas (CEO)

 Christopher Wilks (CFO)

 IFC Advisory                                                    020 3934 6630

 Graham Herring

 Zach Cohen

 Singer Capital Markets (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker)       020 7496 3000

 Mark Taylor

 George Tzimas

 Investec (Joint Broker)                                         020 7597 5970

 Gary Clarence

 Alex Penney

 Carlo Spingardi

 Peel Hunt LLP (Joint Broker)                                    020 7418 8900

 Dr Christopher Golden

 James Steel

 

 Equity Developments  020 7065 2692

 Hannah Crowe

 Matt Evans

 

 About ECO Animal Health

ECO Animal Health Group plc researches, develops and commercialises products
for livestock. Our business strategy is to generate shareholder value by
achieving the maximum sales potential from the existing product portfolio
whilst investing in Research and Development ("R&D") for new products,
particularly vaccines, and seeking to in-license new products.

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