Singapore, March 7, 2008:  CytoGenix, a Houston-based biopharmaceutical company announced it has completed an agreement with Taiwan Cobia Inc. (TCI), the first company to introduce the concept of Organic Aqua Farming in Taiwan, to develop DNA vaccines against fish viruses. Under this Agreement, CytoGenix will develop DNA vaccines against selected viruses and TCI will vaccinate the fish and test immunological responses.

 

Mr. Cory Huang, President and Chief Executive Officer of TCI, said, “Fish is Man’s most important single source of high-quality protein and provides ~16% of the animal protein consumed by the world’s population (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 1997). According to the FAO, aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food producing sectors of the world and it continues to grow more rapidly than all other animal food-producing sectors with Asia and the Pacific region contributing over 91.5% of the total global production and 82% of the value. However, aquaculture faces many challenges especially when it comes to health management of fish stocks. CytoGenix’ synDNA™ technology has the capability to provide the large quantities of affordable DNA vaccines necessary to address the need for simpler and more effective aquaculture vaccination regimens than currently available.”

 

Dr. Yin Chen, Chief Scientific Officer, CytoGenix said, “DNA vaccines have already been shown to provide protection against pathogenic challenges in several animal models, including fish. The vaccines carry only a small portion of the infective agent, and therefore carry almost no risk of inadvertent infection, particularly when manufactured using CytoGenix’ proprietary cell-free method (synDNA™). Additionally, the prophylactic potential of genetic vaccination in fish culture is being commercialized due to the advantages offered by genetic vaccines over conventional preparations i.e. ease of production, stability, cost and production of vaccines against organisms which are difficult or dangerous to culture in the laboratory.”

 

Mr Malcolm Skolnick, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cytogenix said, “The synDNA™ vaccine platform is highly adaptable. These vaccines are based on an expression cassette that may be used against a large number of pathogens by substituting appropriate sequences to express antigenic proteins for a given pathogen. This Agreement represents a beneficial joint effort where CytoGenix develops a vaccine and our strategic partner tests it and has the capability to commercialize the results. This Agreement with Taiwan Cobia further exemplifies the versatility of our technology and provides an avenue for expansion into the worldwide marketplace.”

 

TCI is currently adding production sites in China and Southeastern Asia. Additionally, TCI has collaborative agreements with research institutes and universities including Academia Sinica, University of California at San Diego, National PengHu University, and National Taiwan University as well as various government agencies in Asia and Africa.