720438Development of a safe and cost effective vaccine for Foot and Mouth DiseaseClosedGRD Development of PrototypeInnovate UKThis application is for a Development of Prototype (DoP) grant to undertake technology optimisation, scale up, and begin clinical testing of prototype vaccines produced utillising our expression technology which highly efficiently produces improved foot and mouth (FMD) vaccines without the use of live virus. The application builds on a Proof of Concept (PoC) project that has shown our novel approach can synthetically produce the immunogenic structural antigen component of the FMD virus with orders of magnitude greater yields than is possible with currently marketed vaccines. Unlike these vaccines which grow and inactivate live FMD virus, our synthetic antigen, lacking genetic material, carries no risk of causing outbreaks such as the 2007 one in Pirbright in Surrey. There is little or no cross-protection across the seven FMD serotypes (A, O, C, Asia 1, Sat 1, Sat 2 and Sat 3) and a large number of subtypes. This and governmental control has resulted in dominant regional producers manufacturing vaccines matched to localised circulating field strains. Our technology opens up out licensing opportunities in countries where vaccination is routinely used as a method of controlling FMD in addition to markets such as UK, Europe and North America where culling is preferred and vaccine stocks are only held for emergencies. The cost reduction possible with our technology is attractive to vaccine manufacturers operating in an increasingly cost competitive environment. The technology would also open up the opportunity for export to international markets from UK manufacturers, an opportunity not possible with current technology due to high containment requirement and use of live exotic strains of FMD. FMD is one of the most economically and socially devastating animal diseases globally and our technology, combined with other integrated strategies, would have major economic and social benefit to the UK, EU and many other regions of the world.