Challenge winner US Biologic fights Lyme disease

The CumberlandCenter, which seeks to invest in businesses and social enterprises making a difference in food and health, began its first investment last year with US Biologic, a company fighting Lyme disease.

Based in Memphis, US Biologic was awarded $1.5 million through the Global Action Challenge for startup companies last year and has since partnered with Purina Mills animal feed company to manufacture its vaccination product. The company focuses on the prevention of Lyme disease and creates food pellets that vaccinate mice, the carriers that spread the disease to ticks.

Through their partnership, Purina Mills makes the mice pellets and coats them in US Biologic's patented oral vaccine. The pellets can then be distributed in backyards and parks to ensure that the disease does not spread beyond mice and to reduce the number of people diagnosed with the disease, now an estimated 300,000 people each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The company is still in its early stages, but if it is effective in fighting Lyme disease, its oral vaccination technique could also help address other tickborne diseases spread through other animals, said CEO Mason Kauffman. It could eventually serve as another alternative to shot vaccinations for pets.

"We are focused on getting our Lyme product through regulation and then sales," Kauffman said. "Then we see this steady stream of opportunities. What we have is not just a solution for Lyme disease."

Kauffman said he foresees revenue coming from state parks and landscape and pest control companies seeking to control the spread of disease in a cost-efficient manner. There is also opportunity to eventually work with the pet industry or even livestock producers, as consumers increasingly push for fewer antibiotics in meat products.

Prior to the $1.5 million from the Global Action Platform, the CDC invested $6 million in US Biologic's technology to help produce the vaccination.

US Biologic is now pursuing USDA approval for its vaccine product, which it could gain as early as next year, and is working with universities on addressing other tickborne diseases and researching other vaccinations that could be used for pets or livestock.

At this year's Global Action Summit, six finalist companies in the health field will present their business models and one will receive $1 million from a pool of investment funds meant to support early-stage companies. The challenge was created last year through a partnership with Nashville-based XMI Holdings Inc. and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, which reviews and ranks the submissions for the summit.

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.

Companies participating in the Global Action Challenge include:

Clodico Inc.: Develops biodegradable, odor elimination and biocide products

Onramp Corp.: BioInformatics software solution company focused on enabling personalized medicine through streamlined genomics analysis

Thermofield: Offers portable, low-cost cancer therapy that improves outcomes and mitigates pain for patients with superficial tumors.

Talariant: Eradicates wasteful and inefficient prep protocols by altering the dosage form of clinically effective antiseptics

Treatspace: Powers patient, referral and clinical relationships with enterprise applications and social software

Vibronix: Provides an intravascular catheter to predict the heart attack by quantifying the lipid amount within the arterial wall