The Irish agency which aims to commercialise biotechnology opportunities, BioResearch Ireland, has reported a successful year in 1998, particularly through the creation of spinoff companies.
The highlight was its targeting, with a leading veterinary manufacturing company, of a global poultry vaccine market worth in excess of $500 million (€468 million) a year.
After signing a research and development deal with Cross Vetpharm, the largest manufacturer of veterinary pharmaceuticals in Ireland, it is hoped to jointly develop a vaccine to eliminate coccidiosis, one of the most prevalent diseases affecting poultry globally.
BioResearch Ireland, which has five research centres based in university campuses, also concluded a deal with the Italian company Eurospital under which it will evaluate BRI's patented diagnostic test for coeliac disease.
It had an annual operating budget of £7.74 million, and earned £5.644 million in revenue, while it expanded its patent portfolio in food research and human/animal health with the addition of 10 patents. Some 74 per cent of industrial revenue was from Irish-based industry - BRI is 70 per cent self-sufficient, with the other 30 per cent of its funding coming from the State.
Two spin-off companies were created: Archport Ltd at DCU which will provide contract manufacturing facilities for production of human grade proteins to be used in medical and diagnostics industries, and City Analysts Ltd at UCD which will provide services in the detection of human viruses, parasites and other complex pathogens.
The quality of BRI's research and product development was reflected in its salivary fertility test kits, which are used by doctors to monitor fertility hormones in women experiencing infertility, winning a category prize in the 1998 PricewaterhouseCoopers/Irish Times Science and Innovation Awards.
BRI also signed an "evaluation agreement" with the US company Gem Pharmaceuticals, based around an inhibitor shown to protect normal healthy cells and tissue explants from the harmful effects of three different types of chemotherapeutic agents used in cancer treatment.
