Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE: ELAN), announced today a new global R&D collaboration with AgBiome, Inc. to develop nutritional health products for swine. The collaboration further demonstrates Elanco’s commitment to antibiotic stewardship and bringing alternatives to producers’ most difficult challenges.
The research and development collaboration with AgBiome is intended to deliver innovative probiotic solutions to some of swine producers’ greatest gut health challenges. The collaboration will leverage AgBiome’s proprietary strain identification system and provide Elanco access to AgBiome’s extensive and growing collection of bacteria, viral and fungal strains. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Elanco will combine AgBiome’s success in crop science with its expertise in animal health to bring innovative new solutions. This agreement furthers Elanco’s targeted, value-generating IPP strategy (Innovation, Portfolio and Productivity), bringing a consistent, sustainable flow of innovation in the fast growing nutritional health market.
“AgBiome’s vast strain library and unique knowledge and methods for strain identification and development are particularly interesting to Elanco,”
said Aaron Schacht, executive vice president of Innovation, Regulatory and Business Development at Elanco.
“Identifying and developing new products and tools to help manage the animal’s microbiome, control infections, and reduce gut inflammation, while decreasing the need for medically important antibiotics is a top priority for Elanco.”
“We are excited to be creating novel products for animal nutrition using the microbial technology and data science tools in our Genesis™ platform,”
said Eric Ward, co-CEO of AgBiome.
“Elanco’s entrepreneurial spirit and deep commitment to developing novel solutions for animal health make them an ideal partner for AgBiome.”
Elanco is committed to bringing greater clarity and collaboration to issues around antibiotic stewardship. The company released an aggressive, multi-faceted 8-point Antibiotic Stewardship Plan in 2015 that includes 1) increasing responsible antibiotic use; 2) reducing the need for shared-class antibiotics; and 3) replacing antibiotics with alternatives to help livestock producers treat and prevent animal disease. The plan includes a commitment to deliver antibiotic alternatives, such as vaccines, enzymes and probiotics. The collaboration with AgBiome will drive additional progress toward that commitment with solutions for conditions in swine.