No horsing around for Benchmark as it signs £4m deal

BIOTECH business Benchmark Holdings has signed a £4m agreement with a Swiss equine company to develop a vaccine for skin disease in horses.

Evax AG and Benchmark are teaming up to treat ‘Sweet Itch’ an allergic immune response to midges.

Benchmark said it affects 7.5% of the global horse population and there is currently no preventative treatment of licensed vaccine available.

The company expects the first commercialised product to be made available for the European, US and Canadian markets by 2020-21, followed by other markets.

Benchmark will pay total consideration of £1.12m and is contributing up to a further £4m over the next 4 years towards development, which will be conducted part in-house and part externally.

Manufacturing will be performed at Benchmark’s Braintree site.

Malcolm Pye, chief executive of Benchmark commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with such a highly-regarded team to develop this much needed solution for an issue which currently has no licensed vaccine treatment available. We continue to invest in cutting-edge technologies and are seeing further benefits from our investment in vaccine manufacturing at Braintree, where much of the development and all of the manufacturing for this vaccine will take place.

“Our ability to collaborate with other teams in this technology space will enhance our own offering, both in the breadth of products we can provide and in improving the efficacy of our products currently in development.”