Chinese biotech company Pacific GeneTech is joining the global effort to develop a vaccine for African swine fever. The Hong Kong-based company is currently one of the only companies in the city-state, which is best known for its financial institutions, which is actively developing a cure for the disease that has ravaged China's pork industry.
To achieve its goal, Pacific GeneTech has formed a partnership with US-based biotech firm EpiVax to co-develop a vaccine candidate. The company's CEO, Tim Collard, had previously worked at Connaught Laboratories since the 1970s, supplying vaccines to Hong Kong.
Collard mentioned in a statement that the company hopes to use EpiVax's computational and genetic tools to aid in its efforts to develop vaccines for both humans and animals. He added that working on a vaccine for African swine fever is a bit challenging and no one has yet to develop an effective cure. The African swine fever virus has multiple strains, making it very difficult to develop a vaccine that treats all types.
The company forecast a big opportunity for growth in pursuing the development of a cure given how fast the disease is spreading. Collard pointed out that the disease is currently wreaking havoc in a large part of Asia and China and it will only be a matter of time before it spreads to the United States and other parts of the world.
Pacific GeneTech currently does have a vaccine candidate, which utilizes antibodies to neutralize the virus and immune cells to destroy it. The company stated that it plans to invest more than $500,000 to run "proof of concept" clinical trials in North America. The trials will involve the use of 120 hogs, which will be infected with the virus, that are stored in highly secure facilities to avoid contamination. If proven successful, the company plans to hold similar trails in China, Russia, Vietnam, and Europe.
If Pacific GeneTech does create a viable cure, it could become the first company to release a commercialized vaccine specifically for the African swine fever virus. This could prove to be highly profitable for the company, while also potentially saving the global hog industry from billions of dollars in losses.
In China alone, the virus has managed to cut the country's pork production by nearly half since the first cases were reported in 2018. In the absence of a cure, the disease has continued to wreak havoc on livestock, driving prices to record highs.
Apart from Pacific GeneTech, 15 other institutes from eight different countries are actively developing a vaccine for African swine fever. The other companies are exploring other treatment methods, namely six different vaccine technologies that offer varying degrees of efficacy and safety profiles.
