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Viral infections pose a significant risk of long-term disease and death to cats. In Europe alone, over 30 million domestic cats are vaccinated each year against three core pathogenic viruses. Research performed at the University of Glasgow has systematically supported the development of key technologies against major feline viral diseases. This work has delivered incremental but wide-reaching benefits to veterinary healthcare and animal welfare by providing: (i) reagents used in the diagnostic industry; (ii) viral screening services for big cat conservation programmes; (iii) developmental input into the creation of one of the most efficacious and widely used vaccines against feline leukaemia virus; (iv) testing of feline vaccines for efficacy and safety; and (v) development of best practice guidelines and training for veterinary practitioners on feline viruses.
Professor Rima's research on measles and mumps viruses over 4 decades at Queen's University allowed him to play an important role in re-establishing public confidence in the safety of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Claims that MMR vaccine could cause autism in 1998 undermined the vaccine uptake but Rima's expert testimony and that of others established in court that these claims were unfounded. This re-assurance and subsequent promotion of MMR vaccination reduced measles cases in the UK. In the USA, it also reduced the real risk that the Vaccine Court Fund, which compensates vaccinees for genuine vaccine related adverse events, would be bankrupted by over 50,000 claims amounting to between $30-50 Billion.
Research from the University of Oxford has played a major role in the development of effective vaccines to combat the urgent worldwide problem of influenza. This methodology, licensed to AstraZeneca, has been used to prepare the currently licensed live attenuated influenza vaccine FluMist. Since its introduction in 2006 it is estimated that FluMist or other vaccines produced using reverse genetics have saved the lives of thousands of people worldwide who would otherwise have died from flu and its complications. FluMist has generated close to $1 billion income for the manufacturers (MedImmune, owned by AstraZeneca).
Oxford Expression Technologies (OET) is a spin out company launched jointly by Oxford Brookes University (Brookes) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to exploit Intellectual Property (IP) in the field of protein expression using novel insect virus vectors. OET generates revenue through sale of kits, services & licences to a range of global customers including academia, research institutes, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. OET provides employment, invests in in-house Research and Development including funding collaborative PhD students, and generates royalty income streams for Brookes and NERC. Customers are able to produce multiple recombinant proteins to higher yields and quality than was otherwise possible and a number of companies are using the developments for the commercial production of vaccines and other uses.
Postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) had a huge global impact on the swine industry with estimated losses of €5-6 billion/year globally. Allan's team discovered and characterised the agent responsible for clinical development of PMWS (porcine circovirus 2 [PCV2]) and used these discoveries to drive vaccine development. The resultant PCV2 vaccines are the most successful ever produced for veterinary medicine and have: dramatically reduced global losses associated with PCV2 and other infections; improved pig health and welfare; and, reduced antibiotic usage. These vaccines are sold globally under licence and generate ~$600 million/year with 1.5% royalty income to QUB (2004-2018, ~$90 million).
Oxford BioMedica is an established company in the rapidly growing field of gene therapy. Founded by Professors Alan and Sue Kingsman from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, it develops, commercialises and manufactures safe and effective vectors for use in gene therapy. Its vector system, known as LentiVector®, is based on the Kingsman's research into the biology of a family of retroviruses known as lentiviruses. The company has a portfolio of over 60 patent families, employs over 80 people and has raised almost £150 million since its foundation. Oxford Biomedica's partners include the major pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Sanofi and its vectors are being used in clinical trials to deliver treatments for leukaemia, Parkinson's disease and disorders of the eye.
Impact: Animal Health and Welfare, Economics: The BVD vaccine associated with emergence of BNP was withdrawn from sale.
Significance: BNP cases have been reported worldwide. On affected farms, the case fatality rate is very high, with losses of up to 5% of calves in a herd being reported. Despite the vaccine being withdrawn, cases continue to be found in some calves born to dams that have been historically vaccinated. In addition, reporting has increased due to increased awareness and Zoetis subsidising post-mortem examinations. However, as an indirect measure, the number of cases being diagnosed at post-mortem at SRUC fell by 42% between 2012 and 2013.
Beneficiaries: Livestock Industry, Animal Health Company, Farmers.
Attribution: Work performed by University of Edinburgh (Penny, Morrison, Sargison, Bell) and SRUC (Hosie, Howie, Kerr, Caldow) identified BNP as a new disease entity, elucidated the cause, and developed strategies to reduce the incidence. This also involved a collaboration with the Moredun Research Institute (Willoughby)
Reach: BNP is recognised world-wide (a peak of 4500 cases in 2011) including France, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, and Spain. The disease is unknown in countries which do not vaccinate against BVD (Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland)
Since its discovery in the 1980s, avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) has spread in poultry populations worldwide with major adverse health and food security implications for commercial chickens and turkeys. Research at the University of Liverpool (UoL) led to the registration of a live vaccine in 1994 which has played a global role in AMPV control, thereby safeguarding the supply of poultry meat and eggs. Recent research and development at the UoL has identified key control measures, relating to vaccine application, vaccine selection, efficacy and safety, which have had a significant impact on poultry health and consequently, poultry producers and consumers. In particular, demonstration that live AMPV vaccines can revert to virulence, that vaccine type applied influences field protection and that continuous use of a single vaccine can influence circulating field strains, has resulted in UoL leading policy making with regard to current AMPV vaccine protocols.
UCL spin-out company BioVex was launched in 1999 to exploit research undertaken by David Latchman at the UCL Medical Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Biochemistry. (This department is now part of the Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, UCL/Birkbeck and Latchman is now Master of Birkbeck.) Biovex worked to develop inactivated herpes simplex viruses as therapies, and a promising dual-action oncolytic vaccine for solid tumours, OncoVEXGM-CSF, was taken into successful Phase II trials. In 2011 the company was bought out by Amgen for $1 billion — still the largest ever cash sale of a UK biotech — and Amgen has now taken this virus into a Phase III trial with promising initial results.
Research performed by the University of Oxford has led to increased protection against meningococcal meningitis, through childhood immunisation in the UK and internationally. Around 600,000 infants each year receive meningococcal vaccines, which prevent up to 1,000 cases of meningitis per annum. Research into the immune responses to polysaccharide conjugate vaccines has changed policy by leading to the introduction of new meningococcal C vaccines in early childhood and booster vaccination in adolescents. Oxford University research has also led to the planned use of vaccines against serogroup B meningococcal disease, which have been licensed and recommended for the prevention of disease in high-risk individuals, and broader use is under consideration.