On September 20, 2012 US based private company Harrisvaccines Inc. announced the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted the first licence for a RNA technology vaccine to be used in livestock, this for swine influenza virus (SIV) H3N2. The USDA also approved Harrisvaccines manufacturing facility to make any future animal vaccine. [1]
With this new RNA technology platform “only a gene from an infected animal is required to prepare vaccines in as little as four weeks” allowing the company to “rapidly respond to pandemics” in livestock. In 2013 Harrisvaccines gained exclusive rights to Alphavax’s technology for use with companion animals.
The advanced process, called SirraVax RNA Particle (RP) technology, which “utilizes a genetic sequence of specific viruses, which can be submitted electronically, to create a vaccine.” This unique technology allows for the production of custom, herd-specific vaccines in a matter of weeks to “rapidly mutating viruses”…”allowing for rapid response to disease outbreaks” both viral or bacterial.
When the H1N1 virus presented itself we were able to develop a custom vaccine in weeks and were the first to get it to market. That proved that we were prepared to change the landscape in regards to livestock immunology.”
says Joel Harris, Head of Sales and Marketing
Harrisvaccines was founded in 2006 in conjuntion with Uni Iowa, in 2015 they were purchased by Merck Animal Health. In 2016 the USDA grants full license of the vaccine technology platform.
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