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LONDON (Alliance News) - Frontier IP Group PLC on Friday said investee Vaccine Group has won a GBP403,000 grant to combat an emerging antibiotic-resistant disease able to jump from pigs to humans.
The AIM-listed asset manager and consultancy services provider said the financing is part of a GBP1.5 million Anglo-Chinese project, funded by the UK Department of Health & Social Care and administered by Innovate UK.
The project will develop Vaccine Group's novel herpes virus-based platform technology to create a single-use vaccine for use in pigs.
The vaccine will target a bacterium called streptococcus suis, which can cause meningitis, blood poisoning, or septicaemia, as well as many other serious diseases in humans.
The disease is currently treated with antibiotics, but there is growing evidence the bacterium is becoming resistant to them, the company said.
Vaccine Group's technology is based on safe forms of herpes viruses, which occur in nearly all animals, including humans. The vaccines are created by modifying these viruses to stimulate immune responses against the disease.
"Vaccine Group's novel vaccine technology has the potential to play a material role in beating the threats of antimicrobial resistance and, more widely, from life-threatening diseases which infect animals and then jump to humans," said Frontier IP Chief Executive Neil Crabb.
Frontier IP shares were trading 2.8% higher on Friday at 83.75 pence each.