US Biologic preps new Lyme Disease vaccine for commercialization, new jobs

US Biologic expects LymeShield, its groundbreaking vaccine to prevent the transmission of Lyme Disease, to have the necessary regulatory approvals and be ready for the commercial market sometime next year. To ramp up operations, the company is using $1 million in initial funding that it won last November at the 2013 Global Food and Health Innovation Challenge at the Global South Summit in Nashville.
 
“Our mission is to prevent the disease, which is most prevalent in children and pets,” Mason Kauffman, US Biologic president and CEO.
 
Lyme Disease is the most commonly reported vector-borne infectious disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 300,000 cases per year. According to Kauffman, the total annual U.S. cost burden is more than $3 billion.
 
“An important point is that 75 percent all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic (transferred from animals to humans), but no one had found a way to prevent those diseases until now,” Kauffman says. “So we find ourselves in a perfect market at the perfect time.”
 
The oral LymeShield vaccine was developed by Maria Gomes-Solecki, doctor of veterinary medicine and assistant professor in microbiology, immunology and biochemistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. The pellets are eaten by mice, the main carriers of the Lyme bacteria, preventing further spreading of the disease.
 
“We are starting with Lyme Disease, but there are a host of other diseases mice and other rodents carry. So in the future we could add more and more protections to the pellets,” Kauffman explains.
 
“We’re not running the company like a major biotech firm, but more like a real entrepreneurial venture,” says Kauffman, who mentions US Biologic’s partnership with Memphis Bioworks Foundation, UTHSC and Trimetis. “We have all of the laboratory and animal testing facilities we need right here without having to buy or build our own.”
 
The company will target markets such as health departments and other government agencies.
 
“We expect steady growth in Memphis in leadership and technology roles,” says Chris Przybyszewski, US Biologic executive vice president. “We'll also expand operations in the Northeast U.S. where we will be distributing the first product.”
 
By Michael Waddell