REACH - a non-regulatory announcement

AIM: FIPP

16 April 2025

Frontier IP Group plc

("Frontier IP" or the "Group")

Portfolio news - Global animal health group Syva signs option to license agreement with The Vaccine Group

Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising intellectual property, today notes the following announcement from portfolio company The Vaccine Group ("TVG" or the "Company") that it has entered a collaboration with leading Spanish animal health group Syva to develop a vaccine against Streptococcus suis ("S.suis").

Syva is a global producer and supplier of animal health products, operating in nearly 70 countries. It will have an option to negotiate an exclusive worldwide licence  for any vaccine developed through the collaboration.

The work will build on work already undertaken by TVG, a University of Plymouth spin out. This has been supported by two Innovate UK grants, including a £1 million award financed by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for a project led by TVG and including the University of Cambridge and the University of Plymouth. Frontier IP holds a 16.7 per cent equity stake in the Company.

S. suis is a widespread, harmful and zoonotic pig disease that causes severe economic harm to pig producers worldwide. The disease is endemic in the global pig population, estimated at 780 million strong, and affects up to 60 per cent of pig farms in European countries. It can jump from pigs to humans causing meningitis, septicaemia and other symptoms.

Control of S.suis is largely through antibiotics, raising the risk of resistant strains of the disease developing. However, there is no current vaccine which is fully effective against the disease because it comes in many different strains, a problem which TVG's vaccines are being designed to address.

Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer Neil Crabb said: "Streptococcus suis can be a highly damaging disease, not just to pig farmers' livelihoods, but also to human health. The Syva collaboration is yet more good news from TVG. It is a  further testament to the strength of the Company's flexible and novel vaccine technology. This is now underpinning the development of vaccines targeting 12 different livestock and companion animal diseases. I am also excited by the potential for use in companion animal therapeutics."

The Vaccine Group statement begins:

             TVG and Syva sign option to license agreement for important pig vaccine 

TVG is delighted to announce that it has started a collaboration with the Spanish animal health company Syva for the development of a vaccine against Streptococcus suis (S.suis).

The programme builds upon work previously conducted by TVG with the support of Innovate UK under two separate grants. S.suis  is a global pathogen with a significant impact on health and productivity in commercial swine units and is a potential source of a serious zoonotic disease.

Control of the disease is one of the major drivers of antibiotic use in commercial swine production. There is a global initiative to reduce the volume of antibiotic use as a means of addressing the development and onward transmission of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR).

Currently available commercial S.suis vaccines are not fully effective due to frequent strain variation and the presence of multiple serotypes around the world. This has driven an upsurge in the use of un-licensed autogenous vaccines, which are expensive and, as killed whole bacterin vaccines, have limited efficacy.

TVG's vaccine candidate is designed to offer protection against a wide range of strains and serotypes of S.suis through the targeted selection of multi-serotype antigens that are preserved across multiple strains. Through participation in this collaboration Syva will obtain the right to acquire an exclusive licence to the vaccine globally. 

Since its founding in 1941, Syva has been committed to researching opportunities and pursuing scientific development to innovate and deliver efficient solutions for the animal health sector. SYVA is present in nearly 70 countries around the world, through its four subsidiaries located in Portugal, Mexico, and Turkey, and most recently, in 2023, in the Philippines, as well as through an extensive network of local distributors.

Syva is headquartered in León, Spain's third largest pharmaceutical hub after Madrid and Barcelona. It has three production plants, one dedicated specifically to vaccine production and another to beta-lactam production.

Thanks to regular investments over the years, Syva boasts state-of-the-art facilities and ensures that all stages of the development and production of its veterinary medicines follow best practices. Syva seeks to embrace its commitment to society, and all its efforts are always driven by the desire to protect the human-animal-environment ecosystem, in accordance with the essential principles of One Health.

To this end, among other things, it supports the principles of responsible antibiotic use and continuously ensures that its activities are in line with sustainable development and compliance with environmental protection standards, making appropriate strategic decisions and investments.

Find out more about TVG and our core platform technology at www.thevaccinegroup.com

Find out more about Syva at https://Syva.es/

.    

The Vaccine Group Statement ends

ENQUIRIES

ABOUT FRONTIER IP

Frontier IP unites science, finance and industry by identifying strong intellectual property and accelerating its development through a range of commercialisation services. A critical part of the Group's work is involving relevant industry partners at an early stage of development to ensure technology meets real world demands and needs.

The Group looks to build and grow a portfolio of equity stakes and licence income by taking an active involvement in spin-out companies, including support for fund raising and collaboration with relevant industry partners at an early stage of development.

About Reach announcements

This is a RNS Reach announcement. Reach is an investor communication service aimed at assisting listed and unlisted (including AIM quoted) companies to distribute media only / non-regulatory news releases into the public domain. Information required to be notified under the AIM Rules for Companies, Market Abuse Regulation or other regulation would be disseminated as an RNS regulatory announcement and not on Reach.