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Graeme
McRae
Chairman, President
and CEO, Bioniche
Life Sciences Inc.
Economic Impact of
Emerging Food Borne
Diseases
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
4:00 - 4:30 pm
Abstract:
Zoonotic
diseases - those
spread from animals
to humans - are
becoming
increasingly
prevalent. Healthy
food animals are
often the source of
such diseases,
resulting in direct
and indirect
contamination of our
food supply, water
supply and the
environment. Human
illness resulting
from foodborne
diseases costs our
health care system
millions of dollars
each year. Add to
that the cost of
lost productivity,
reduced demand for
certain foods,
recalls, and
investment in
interventions, and
the scope of the
problem is
overwhelming.
Bioniche Life
Sciences Inc. has a
food safety division
with a focus on
developing vaccines
for food animals to
reduce the threat of
zoonotic diseases.
The first such
intervention - a
cattle vaccine
against E. coli O157
- is fully licensed
in Canada. The
Chairman, President
& CEO of Bioniche,
Mr. Graeme McRae,
will address the
costs of emerging
foodborne illnesses,
including the costs
of developing and
producing
interventions such
as the Bioniche E.
coli vaccine.
Biography
Graeme McRae is
Chairman, President
& CEO of Bioniche
Life Sciences Inc.,
a research-based,
technology-driven
Canadian
biopharmaceutical
company based in
Belleville, Ontario,
Canada that
discovers, develops,
manufactures, and
commercializes
products for both
human and veterinary
markets around the
world.
Mr. McRae worked in
sales and managerial
positions in the
pharmaceutical
industry, first in
Australia and later,
in Canada. He
founded Vetrepharm
Animal Health in
1979 to focus on the
research and
development of
products to improve
the health of
animals. His keen
interest in the
environment was a
dominating force
behind the founding
of the Company,
where his goal was
to develop
non-antibiotic
solutions for animal
health challenges.
Over time, it became
clear that the
technologies that
were developed for
animal health
applications at
Vetrepharm could be
used for human
health also. In
1992, Mr. McRae
founded Bioniche
Inc. to develop
Vetrepharm's
technologies for
human health
applications. The
Company was renamed
Bioniche Life
Sciences Inc. in
1999.
Bioniche employs
close to 200 skilled
personnel and has
three divisions:
Human Health, Animal
Health, and Food
Safety. The
Company’s primary
goal is to develop
proprietary cancer
therapies supported
by revenues from
marketed products.
One of these
products is the
world’s first fully
licensed cattle
vaccine against E.
coli O157. The
Company has also
developed a product
to treat human
bladder cancer that
is currently in
Phase III clinical
testing and is being
supported by a
development and
commercialization
partner – Endo
Pharmaceuticals.
Click to view Graeme
McRae's ABIC 2010
presentation
