Drugs From Waste: Getting Added Value from the New Zealand Meat Industry

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Want to talk about the latest industry issues? Join the discussion forum. July 2012 NPT | The Community of Big Thinkers MULTI-INDUSTRY N ew Zealand has approximately 40 million sheep living on its 268,021 sq km territory in the South Pacific. With a population of only 4 million, sheep outnumber people 10 to 1. The quantity of sheep and other livestock in New Zealand account for the country’s strong agriculturally-based economy. “New Zealand has the climate and environment for sheep – the high country on the South Island is semi-arid, and is too cold and too high for cattle, but the sheep can cope with the low temperatures,” says Peter Bradley, Chair of Auckland Lifesciences and Chief Business Development Officer of Innate Therapeutics. “New Zealand also has a ‘clean status’ – none of the major diseases affecting sheep are present in New Zealand.” This statement refers to New Zealand’s lack of prion diseases like transmissible spongiform encephalopathies ( TSE). The meat industry is therefore able to generate an abundance of animal product-based waste. With this, a number of companies have arisen to exploit these by-products to create animal derivatives of added value. Building an Industry on Sheep By-Products Founded in 1971, New Zealand Pharmaceuticals is one of the first companies to exploit the waste material available in New Zealand’s meat processing industry. The pharmaceutical industry uses animal waste in diagnostics - mixing sheep and cow bile to make acid steroids. Selwyn Yorke, Business Development Manager at New Zealand Pharmaceuticals says, “As a remote agricultural country, New Zealand has always focused on adding value – for example, producing clothes rather than just exporting raw wool, or producing high quality fine cuts of meat rather than just exporting carcasses. By focusing on biochemicals from meat processing, we are adding value to what would otherwise just be a waste by-product from meat.” Companies like ANZCO Foods and Southern Lights Biomaterials are also developing ingredients from meat industry wastes. ANZCO Foods takes raw materials from New Zealand food producers and processes them to add value in USDA- and EU-approved processing plants. These products are then used in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and dietary and food solution markets. The products target bone health, joint health, medical devices, immune and digestive support, and skin and hair care. The sources for ANZCO Foods’ animal- derived products include adrenal and thyroid glands, prostate, ovaries, pancreas, placenta, brain tissue, pericardium, trachea, tendons and connective tissues, and blood and blood-related products. Southern Lights Biomaterials takes waste materials straight from abattoirs to the clinic. Its product list includes ovine (sheep) tissue materials and intermediate formulations. The animal derivatives market, however, is changing. According to Yorke, some uses for sheep products are being eroded by non- animal-based sources. by Suzanne Elvidge Getting Added Value from the New Zealand Meat Industry Drugs from Waste “Porcine products have become better accepted than ovine and bovine products, and many companies are using pig- derived tissues or even moving towards synthetics or plant-derived products, which has limited the market for sheep products,” says Yorke. “It is a shame that fewer animal derivatives are exploited than there used to be 50 years ago – for example collagen and thymus gland products all have had a role in cosmetics in the past, and this all just goes to waste now.” Bucking the Trend Mesynthes, based near Wellington, North Island, is one company that is bucking this trend by taking animal derivatives a step further and creating a fully-formulated end product rather than an ingredient. “The Mesynthes team is using a biological matrix from sheep to provide a template for tissue and promote wound healing. This has now reached the market,” says Bradley. Mesynthes has developed a scaffold derived from sheep forestomach, known as Endoform, which will help with wound healing. It combines remnants of the basement membrane and submucosa, and the extracellular matrix retains the structure of the tissue throughout processing. Endoform still includes the biological molecules from the sheep’s stomach, such as collagens and elastin, which provide structure, adhesive proteins such as fibronectin and laminin, glycosaminoglycans (heparin sulfate and hyaluronic acid) and growth factors (FGF2 & TGFß). The material is also strong and elastic, and can be applied to surface wounds or implanted. The biological molecules encourage cells to migrate into the matrix and are eventually replaced by new, healthy tissue, thereby healing the wound. In February 2010, Endoform received marketing approval in the U.S. “In tissue regeneration, it is now well recognized that a diverse mix of extracellular matrix components is important for orchestrating a regenerative response. These components provide important structure, signals, and substrates to cells within the healing tissue,” says Brian Ward, CEO of Mesynthes. “Once applied to the wound bed, the Endoform Dermal Template™ provides a uniquely supportive environment to guide the growth of cells and new tissue. Over time, Endoform is completely replaced by the patient’s own tissue. Clinically, the impact of applying extracellular matrix within a chronic wound is to restart the stalled healing process and stimulate new tissue growth in the wound bed. In acute wounds, extracellular matrix replaces lost dermis, advancing the wound healing process and reducing contracture.” Hormones and blood factors from animals are also a thriving market, explains Yorke. South Pacific Sera fits into this niche, but with a different model than other companies - it is the only New Zealand company to produce animal blood products exclusively from donor animals, rather than from abattoir waste. South Pacific Sera’s products include donor sheep serum for use in cell culture for pharmaceutical production and animal virus testing, and donor sheep whole blood for use in microbiology. “Around the time of BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy], Dr William Rolleston saw the gap in the market for materials from animals from disease-free countries,” says Bradley. New Zealand’s large ovine population and clean record of prion diseases has provided the basis for the country’s meat-processing industry and boosted its economy with wool, meat sales, and now as a leading contributor to pharmaceutical products. New Zealand, as one of the international players in scientific research on sheep and the sheep genome, is certainly no stranger to this growing market of animal by-products. The Mesynthes team is using a biological matrix from sheep to provide a template for tissue and promote wound healing. Suzanne Elvidge is a UK-based medical writer with many years of experience of writing on the biopharma industry from North Norway to the South Island in New Zealand. DRUGS FROM WASTE - MULTI-INDUSTRY

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“New Zealand also has a ‘clean status’ – none of the major diseases affecting sheep are present in New Zealand.” This statement refers to New Zealand’s lack of prion diseases like transmissible spongiform encephalopathies ( TSE). The meat industry is therefore able to generate an abundance of animal product-based waste. With this, a number of companies have arisen to exploit these by-products to create animal derivatives of added value.

Transcript of Drugs From Waste: Getting Added Value from the New Zealand Meat Industry

Page 1: Drugs From Waste: Getting Added Value from the New Zealand Meat Industry

Want to talk about the latest industry issues? Join the discussion forum. July 2012 NPT | The Community of Big Thinkers

MULTI-INDUSTRY

New Zealand has approximately 40 million sheep living on its 268,021 sq km territory in the South Pacific. With a population of only 4 million, sheep outnumber people 10 to 1. The quantity of sheep

and other livestock in New Zealand account for the country’s strong agriculturally-based economy.

“New Zealand has the climate and environment for sheep – the high country on the South Island is semi-arid, and is too cold and too high for cattle, but the sheep can cope with the low temperatures,” says Peter Bradley, Chair of Auckland Lifesciences and Chief Business Development Officer of Innate Therapeutics. “New Zealand also has a ‘clean status’ – none of the major diseases affecting sheep are present in New Zealand.” This statement refers to New Zealand’s lack of prion diseases like transmissible spongiform encephalopathies ( TSE). The meat industry is therefore able to generate an abundance of animal product-based waste. With this, a number of companies have arisen to exploit these by-products to create animal derivatives of added value.

Building an Industry on Sheep By-ProductsFounded in 1971, New Zealand Pharmaceuticals is one of the first companies to exploit the waste material available in New Zealand’s meat processing industry. The pharmaceutical industry uses animal waste in diagnostics - mixing sheep and cow bile to make acid steroids.

Selwyn Yorke, Business Development Manager at New Zealand Pharmaceuticals says, “As a remote agricultural country, New Zealand has always focused on adding value – for example, producing clothes rather than just exporting raw wool, or producing high quality fine cuts of meat rather than

just exporting carcasses. By focusing on biochemicals from meat processing, we are adding value to what would otherwise just be a waste by-product from meat.”

Companies like ANZCO Foods and Southern Lights Biomaterials are also developing ingredients from meat industry wastes. ANZCO Foods takes raw materials from New Zealand food producers and processes them to add value in USDA- and EU-approved processing plants. These products are then used in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and dietary and food solution markets. The products target bone health, joint health, medical devices, immune and digestive support, and skin and hair care. The sources for ANZCO Foods’ animal-derived products include adrenal and thyroid glands, prostate, ovaries, pancreas, placenta, brain tissue, pericardium, trachea, tendons and connective tissues, and blood and blood-related products.

Southern Lights Biomaterials takes waste materials straight from abattoirs to the clinic. Its product list includes ovine (sheep) tissue materials and intermediate formulations. The animal derivatives market, however, is changing. According to Yorke, some uses for sheep products are being eroded by non-animal-based sources.

by Suzanne Elvidge

Getting Added Value from the New Zealand Meat Industry

Drugs from

Waste“Porcine products have become better accepted than ovine and bovine products, and many companies are using pig-derived tissues or even moving towards synthetics or plant-derived products, which has limited the market for sheep products,” says Yorke. “It is a shame that fewer animal derivatives are exploited than there used to be 50 years ago – for example collagen and thymus gland products all have had a role in cosmetics in the past, and this all just goes to waste now.”

Bucking the TrendMesynthes, based near Wellington, North Island, is one company that is bucking this trend by taking animal derivatives a step further and creating a fully-formulated end product rather than an ingredient.

“The Mesynthes team is using a biological matrix from sheep to provide a template for tissue and promote wound healing. This has now reached the market,” says Bradley.

Mesynthes has developed a scaffold derived from sheep forestomach, known as Endoform, which will help with wound healing. It combines remnants of the basement membrane and submucosa, and the extracellular matrix retains the structure of the tissue throughout processing. Endoform still includes the

biological molecules from the sheep’s stomach, such as collagens and elastin, which provide structure, adhesive proteins such as fibronectin and laminin, glycosaminoglycans (heparin sulfate and hyaluronic acid) and growth factors (FGF2 & TGFß). The material is also strong and elastic, and can be applied to surface wounds or implanted. The biological molecules encourage cells to migrate into the matrix and are eventually replaced by new, healthy tissue, thereby healing the wound. In February 2010, Endoform received marketing approval in the U.S.

“In tissue regeneration, it is now well recognized that a diverse mix of extracellular matrix components is important for orchestrating a regenerative response. These components provide important structure, signals, and substrates to cells within the healing tissue,” says Brian Ward, CEO of Mesynthes. “Once applied to the wound bed, the Endoform Dermal Template™ provides a uniquely supportive environment to guide the growth of cells and new tissue. Over time, Endoform is completely replaced by the patient’s own

tissue. Clinically, the impact of applying extracellular matrix within a chronic wound is to restart the stalled healing process and stimulate new tissue growth in the wound bed. In acute wounds, extracellular matrix replaces lost dermis, advancing the wound healing process and reducing contracture.”

Hormones and blood factors from animals are also a thriving market, explains Yorke. South Pacific Sera fits into this niche, but with a different model than other companies - it is the only New Zealand company to produce animal blood products exclusively from donor animals, rather than from abattoir waste. South Pacific Sera’s products include donor sheep serum for use in cell culture for pharmaceutical production and animal virus testing, and donor sheep whole blood for use in microbiology.

“Around the time of BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy], Dr William Rolleston saw the gap in the market for materials from animals from disease-free countries,” says Bradley.

New Zealand’s large ovine population and clean record of prion diseases has provided the basis for the country’s meat-processing industry and boosted its economy with wool, meat sales, and now as a leading contributor to pharmaceutical products. New Zealand, as one of the international players in scientific research on sheep and the sheep genome, is certainly no stranger to this growing market of animal by-products.

The Mesynthes team is using a biological matrix from sheep to provide a template for

tissue and promote wound healing.

Suzanne Elvidge is a UK-based medical writer with many years of experience of writing on the biopharma industry from North Norway to the

South Island in New Zealand.

DRUGS FROM WASTE - MULTI-INDUSTRY