Arafura Resources Ltd has been awarded a $3.3 million federal government grant for its NT rare earths-uranium project while biotechnology company Imugene Ltd has secured an $880,000 grant to produce and test bird flu vaccines on chickens.
Arafura Resources Ltd has been awarded a $3.3 million federal government Commercial Ready grant for its rare earths - uranium project in the Northern Territory while biotechnology company Imugene Ltd has secured an $880,000 grant to produce and test bird flu vaccines on chickens.
Arafura's grant will be used to assist the continued development of what the company called a unique rare earths, uranium and phosphates recovery process.
The grant covers metallurgical and pilot plant test work to the value of $1.2 million and the potential for an extended pilot plant phase to the value of $2.1 million.
The project is located in the Northern Territory.
The full text of Imugene's announcement is pasted below
Imugene has been offered an Australian government Commercial Ready Grant to produce and test vaccines to protect chickens from the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
Imugene has already announced the construction of vaccine candidates and that these will undergo live testing in a high security facility operated by Benchmark Biolabs in Nebraska, US. These trials begin later this month and are scheduled for completion in January 2007.
Imugene has designed vaccines to be inexpensive, safe, and easy to mass administer in poultry sheds. This will enable rapid and widespread protection of commercial poultry without the need to individually inject each bird.
The vaccines for egg-laying and meat producing chickens could make a substantial contribution to protecting poultry from avian influenza.
The Imugene vaccines use technology that enables identification of naturally infected and vaccinated birds. This is very important for the international poultry trade and for eradication programs.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane congratulated Imugene Limited on being offered the grant. "Bird flu is deadly and unpredictable and a project to test vaccines to protect chickens from the virus will be an enormous breakthrough," Mr Macfarlane said.
"The Australian Government is committed to helping companies such as Imugene develop vaccines which can be used globally and rid the world of a deadly threat. What is very encouraging is that the company is already primed to commence trials soon, with a completion date in early in 2007."
"This funding is important for Imugene and its shareholders as it strengthens our financial resources for product development," said Dr Warwick Lamb, managing director of Imugene. "We are very grateful to the Commonwealth for this support and consider it an investment in the overall defence against bird flu outbreaks."
Imugene is matching the Commercial Ready Grant offer dollar-for-dollar. Milestone payments will be drawn over two years with the project period having begun on 1 October 2006.
The trial vaccines utilise Imugene's proven Fowl Adenoviral Delivery Vector. This technology delivers genetic material throughout a bird's bloodstream to stimulate the immune system against the bird flu virus. The vaccines deliver only a portion of the virus genetic material instead of the whole virus. This makes the Imugene vaccines safe by preventing any chance of mutations or recombination with human flu viruses.
