Mazen Animal Health Advances Oral Vaccine Development

ST. JOSEPH, Mo., Oct. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazen Animal Health, a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing novel maize-based vaccines and therapeutics that address unsolved challenges in animal health, announces positive results from a Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) challenge study in pigs.   

Young pigs were dosed and given one boost with either a PEDV injectable vaccine or Mazen's oral maize-based vaccine candidate. The pigs were challenged two weeks after the boost and neutralizing antibody titers were measured in serum two weeks following challenge. Both the commercial injected vaccine and the oral dosed candidate showed high titers of neutralizing antibodies while pigs without the treatments showed no or extremely low titers of antibodies.

One of Mazen's strategic initiatives is to develop oral PEDV vaccines for both sows and pigs. PEDV causes 100 percent mortality in newborn pigs and can slow weight gain in older pigs; current production systems are faced with the inability to cost-effectively vaccinate high-risk animals easily and effectively to mitigate production losses and improve animal welfare.

The maize-produced vaccine candidate enables chewable formats for vaccination and sub-unit vaccines are considered one of the safest approaches to vaccines. Building on previous work with other vaccine candidates, the demonstration of PEDV neutralizing antibodies combined with the practical attributes of the maize oral delivery platform paves the way for a robust pipeline of additional  products.

"We have demonstrated that oral vaccination in production animals can be a commercial reality – a true disruptive technology in the prevention of animal disease," said Dr. Jenny Filbey, CEO, Mazen Animal Health. "Combined with our previously announced Valley Fever vaccine, Mazen now has two viable candidates in development using this platform technology. We are set to launch our Series A round of financing which will enable us to develop and commercialize these first two products and build a robust pipeline."

About Mazen Animal Health, Inc.
Mazen Animal Health, Inc. is a biotechnology company developing and commercializing novel biological vaccines and therapeutics that disrupt the status quo. We believe all animals should be protected from preventable disease, but today that isn't the case. We intend to change that. Building on over 20 years of R&D, our vaccine production platform enables edible vaccines that can be delivered with feed. We will disrupt the animal vaccine market in four distinct ways, by providing: (1) cost effective vaccines - removing the economic thresholds that control the vaccination decision today; (2) a safer method of vaccine administration; (3) improved vaccine efficacy; and (4) vaccines with a global reach because of ambient temperature stability and ease of delivery.

SOURCE Mazen Animal Health