SURPRISINGLY, Perth is home to not one but three Australian
Stock Exchange-listed companies developing animal health products to replace
the use of antibiotics.
While each of the companies has different technologies, all
have identified opportunities flowing from consumer and regulatory resistance
to the use of antibiotics in animals.
All three companies agree the potential market is enormous
but their estimates of market size vary significantly.
Chemeq is the best known of these companies, having been
listed since 1999, and in the S&P/ASX 200 index since July last year.
Imugene, which has been listed since 2002, is developing a
range of animal health products and, following a licensing deal last week, is a
direct competitor to Chemeq.
The third company is Stirling Products, which completed a
backdoor listing earlier this year (see next page).
Chemeq executive chairman Graham Melrose says its polymeric
antimicrobial supersedes the use of antiobiotics for growth purposes in
animals, particularly pigs and chickens.
He estimates the global market is worth $9 billion annually,
split between the pig industry ($4 billion) and the poultry industry ($5
billion).
Chemeq’s manufacturing plant will produce about 20 tonnes of
polymeric antimicrobial per year, worth $20 million, so initially it will
attack a tiny portion of the global market.
Imugene provides a much more detailed breakdown of the
market opportunities.
It said its pig and poultry products aim to exploit market
segments worth $US3.5 billion ($A5.0 billion) of the existing $US8 billion
annual global spend on existing treatments.
One of its target segments is a product to prevent disease
caused by E.coli bacteria in piglets – exactly the same market initially
targeted by Chemeq.
Imugene said the market for E.coli disease prevention
treatments in pigs was estimated to be worth $US450 million ($A640 million).
Stirling Products said the global market for animal health
was estimated at more than $US10 billion, of which more than 30 per cent was
represented by the use of feed additives, its target market.
