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New Zealand is well known for its clean green image and being a place where sheep out number humans at a ratio of 65 to 1. What is less well known is the amount of research that is going on and the important advances being made in this Antipodean country.

NZ has a wealth of untapped resources, as well as skills and ideas that allow us to make important contributions to the scientific community. "NZ has basically 6.5 million years of untapped biochemical potential," says Peter Wiggley of Biodiscovery NZ. "As a country we are only just starting into the biotechnology field and are making some very exciting advances."

Biodiscovery NZ is a company based in Auckland that screens a huge range of extracts for their potential activity. They are at present concentrating on uses in the agrochemical field, but they anticipate having extracts available for pharmaceutical screening as early as 2001. They already have several provisional patents for biological pesticides.

Philip Mowles of the Foundation of Research and Technology says "NZ has much to contribute to world research as we focus on our primary industry, which is farming. We are constantly exploring how to make the primary sector more profitable and much of the research done has a crossover application for humans."

One example of this is some research being conducted by AgResearch NZ into a gene that causes twins in sheep and may have application in the field of human fertility and infertility.

Mike Berridge of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research (MIMR) has another hypothesis. "NZ is largely removed from the scientific world and this leads to innovative ideas as we are less influenced by established scientific thinking. Unfortunately, as many good ideas are removed from the norm, funding becomes a big issue and many of the best ideas cannot get funding."

The MIMR has as its main focus cancer research, with about 50% of its energies in this area. At present, they are running a clinical trial on a blood serum test for cancer that is proving to be as accurate as the CEA test, and have a preliminary patent out on it and are looking for a backing in the commercial arena.

Another focus of the institute's cancer research is in cellular respiration. It appears from research conducted at the MIMR that some cancer cells burn oxygen at the cell surface and harvest energy from electron transfer. If this is proven true, it could have a huge influence on the way we treat cancer, and newer drugs could be targeted towards this system of energy transfer. At present, the MIMR is recruiting patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for a clinical trial using immunotherapy.

One of the main problems we face in NZ is that there is very limited financing available for research and little available for clinical trials, so in order to take a product through to release we need to rely on overseas interests.

There are three biotechnology companies newly listed in NZ:

Genesis Research and Development is New Zealand's largest biotechnology company and has made some important advances in this field. In January 2000, Genesis announced that the US Food and Drug Administration had approved an application to commence Phase II clinical trials for their psoriasis vaccine, PVAC™. This vaccine is a Genesis discovery, a derivative of the bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae, which is showing good responses in moderate to severe psoriasis patients. In partnership with Corixa, Genesis is conducting three random, placebo-controlled studies in the US, Brazil, and the Philippines to further assess the safety and efficacy of PVAC™. It is expected that successful completion of these will lead to Phase III trials.

Genesis is also working on immune therapy in other diseases of inflammation and autoimmune diseases. They have already completed a clinical study in asthma with the Wellington School of Medicine, which proved safety and that clinical studies should be furthered. Genesis has partnered with the London-based SR Pharma to initiate Phase I asthma trials.

Genesis is also developing therapeutics in the area of tuberculosis and cancer. Genesis is by far the most prolific of companies in the NZ biotechnology field, and they have a large number of US and international patents. In 1999, Genesis was awarded a total of nine patents, as well as protection of intellectual property rights. They also filed a further 66 applications for patents for development of further products.

Also under the Genesis umbrella is BioStore, a standalone company with unique preservation formulations using nontoxic components to manipulate the different forms of water within cells, prolonging the storage time of cells while still remaining viable well beyond their storage length under traditional methods. This technology is particularly applicable to the long-term storage of blood cells. BioStore has concentrated in the past year on development of platelet preservation. A clinical study is being planned for the evaluation of this process in the US.

BioStore has been granted several patents protecting their products and intellectual property. They will also be applying this technology with the development of new solutions for the storage of organs, tissues, and cells and patents have been granted at the US Patent and Trademark Office to this end.

BLIS Technologies Ltd.

Dunedin-based BLIS Technologies, featured recently in a NZ 60 Minutes program (airdate: Oct. 15, 2000), has become known for its announcement of the discovery of an antibacterial protein called Salivaricin B (also known as a bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances, or BLIS). This protein is produced by Streptococcus salivarius, which occurs naturally in the saliva of some people and gives them immunity against streptococcal throat infections.

The discovery is an important one in the prevention of serious complications of streptococcal infections such as rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, but also has wider implications in the battle against antibiotic resistance. International patents have been filed, and BLIS Technologies anticipates having commercial products available for consumer use within 18 months.

A2 Corporation

The announcement of A2 Corporation's listing followed many years of research into different types of beta casein (A1 and A2) and the effect on the human population of consuming the different types of milk.

The consumption of beta casein A1 milk has been shown to be a cause of Type 1 diabetes in children with a genetic predisposition to it. In NZ, some 20% of dairy cows produce A2 milk and there is a definite push by the New Zealand Dairy Board towards separating herds, to allow for the separation of the two types of milk leading to milk product that contains exclusively A2 beta casein, thus reducing the incidence of Type 1 Diabetes. A2 corporation owns the patent rights to the method of identifying by genotyping A2 cows from a mixed herd. The company anticipates having products available for use within 12 months.

New Zealand is a country with a vast amount of skills and resources, and we do have much to contribute to the scientific world. Keep an eye on what's happening here, it's bound to be worth your while.

Pauline Hamilton is a qualified pharmacist and freelance writer living in Oamaru in the South Island of New Zealand.

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