A Tucson startup spun off from University of Arizona technology is seeking approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make and sell a vaccine to combat a common bacterial infection in chickens that can harm humans.
Anivax Inc.’s vaccine for Campylobacter — aimed at reducing contamination in chicken sold in stores and restaurants — was developed in labs at the UA and through a collaboration with Arizona State University and other researchers.
Campylobacter is the second most-common cause of food-borne illness in humans and also can cause Guillain–Barré syndrome, a debilitating autoimmune disease, costing an estimated $1.3 billion in annual health care costs, the company says.
Anivax CEO John Buttery, a UA alumnus and executive-in-residence with the UA’s Tech Launch Arizona, said the company plans to file for regulatory approval in several other countries by the end of the year.
Anivax’s vaccine for poultry was developed through collaborative research at the UA, ASU and Washington University, with support from the USDA, the National Insititutes of Health and international research consortia and institutions. The company announced in April that it had licensed vaccine technologies from both the UA and ASU.
Anivax’s management and scientific staff includes Ph.D.s from both institutions. The company's chief science officer is Bibiana Law, associate research professor in the UA School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; vice president of research is Alexandra Armstrong, an assistant research scientist in the UA School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences and chair of the UA Food Safety Consortium; UA alumnus Michael Anderson, Anivax’s vice president of products; and vaccine co-developer Roy Curtiss III, director of the Centers for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and Microbial Genetic Engineering at ASU’s Biodesign Institute.
