The Vaccine Group says it is working to prevent Covid-19 in animals

Frontier IP, a UK-based specialist in commercialising university intellectual property, has revealed one its businesses has started working on a Covid-19 vaccine for animals.

The Vaccine Group, which was spun out from the University of Plymouth, said it is working in partnership with the Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute and Kansas State University.

Scientists said they are developing a vaccine designed to prevent Covid-19 in animals in an effort to stop future outbreaks and the re-emergence of the disease.

TVG founder and chief scientific officer, Associate Professor Dr Michael Jarvis, said: “As Covid-19 has shown, the spillover of disease from animals to humans can have a very high social, economic and commercial cost globally.”

He added: “Naturally there has been a swift move into funding the development of human vaccines and therapeutics, but to date we are not aware of any approaches to eliminate Covid-19 in the animal population to prevent future outbreaks or re-emergence of the disease.

“The animal species involved in emergence of Covid-19 remain unclear. We believe that such a vaccine tool may be vital for control of Covid-19 as well as other emerging coronaviruses.”

The business and its international partners are backed by more than £9 million in grants from Chinese, UK and US governments.