Wellington
Considering that a cow's udder is a potential site of invasion for pathogens, it makes sense thatnature's provided some defence mechanisms in the milk itself to fight the microorganisms.
Somewhat surprisingly, the full power of this suite of natural Immune Defence Protein, as they'vebeen trademarked, has only recently been discovered.
The novel milk fraction with proven (and being further proved) anti-inflammatory, antioxidant andantimicrobial properties are the basis of Hamilton-based company
Quantec has recently obtained a $250,000 venture capital injection from Waikato-based
The company's managing director, Rod Claycomb, had been working on a dairy industry roboticmilking project in the early 2000's (the Greenfield Project), and one spin-off of that projectlooked at fractionating (breaking down milk to its basic components) at that time. “The roboticmilking project was a terrific platform for which to discover new ways to add value to NZ dairyfarmers.”
The discovery of a new bioactive fraction led to the creation of Quantec, and the development ofpatents on what has become called IDP.
"The ah ha moment for us was the discovery of the synergistic effect of a suite of the proteins,"Claycomb says. Breaking down these 20 or so proteins to their individual components loses theirantimicrobial activity; though the company doesn't yet fully understand why.
"There's a synergist molecular interaction, which shouldn't really be a surprise given ourknowledge of how enzymes and other products work," he says.
Since establishing Quantec in 2007, Claycomb and his co-founder, Dr Judy Bragger have worked onthe science, and though its first IDP-based products are aimed at human health, the formulation'santi-mastitis attributes is seen as having the greatest potential.
"Ironically, for human health formulations we don't need as many approvals because it isn't apharmaceutical and is a milk protein," he says.
"We've proven IDP's efficacy in its ability to kill organisms responsible for acne, caries,dental health and bad breath."
Based on this science, the first products containing IDP are to be released by licensed companiesin China and America as gums, lozenges and 'chewables'.
"Our business model is as an ingredient supplier," Claycomb says. "While there are good marginsin retail products, that would take a lot of investment to do. We're going to focus on what we'regood at; that's intellectual property and discovery."
He says the majority of the recently acquired angel investment will be to provide a proof ofprinciple mastitis efficacy trial in animal health, and setting up a global business developmentmanager to be based in Auckland.
IDP are subcontract manufactured in New Zealand, with thiscountry as a source of origin being one of the product's best selling points.
The concentration of IDP in raw milk is less than 0.1%, and the remaining milk fraction isdestined for casein powders,anhydrous milk fat and other high value products, so nothing iswasted.
"We have a disease free herd, and our milk's considered one of the best in the world," hesays.
In three years time, Claycomb envisages being on target to produce the world's firstnaturally derived and approved treatment for mastitis.
"That's the goal, our passion lies in that animal health market, although IDP in human healthwill be significant too," he says.
The mastitis market is huge around the world. Cracking a naturally derived cure, based on a cow'sown in-built defence mechanism would be a neat way of treating the disease and more than likely notrequire the withholding period needed with the use of synthetic antibiotics.
Not bad for an 'ah ha' moment a few years ago!