Mazen Animal Health Secures $11M in Series A Funding
Mazen Animal Health, an Iowa-based startup, has secured $11 million in their Series A funding round, with investors such as AgFunder and Fall Line Capital.
Mazen is set on improving agricultural animal health by developing orally administered vaccines. These novel biological vaccines and therapeutics have the potential to disrupt the status quo of aghealth and address complex or unsolved challenges in animal health and protein production.
True to its name, Mazen’s technology uses plants, like maize, as molecular farms to produce the protein ingredients for its vaccines. This corn-based formulation is significantly cheaper than the typical precision fermentation process in expensive bioreactors. The cost-effectiveness of their process helps to combat the razor thin margins faced by farmers. With the vaccine being orally administered, it can also cut costs needed to effectively deliver the vaccine. Their formulation can be incorporated into animal feed and delivered as usual rather than individually injecting each animal.
The Series A funding round followed the company’s progress in combating Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV). This virus is deadly for newborn pigs and has been problematic for farmers since 2013. The funding will help support the efficacy studies of their PEDV vaccine to acquire approval by the USDA.
The funding will also help with plans to scale up their ability to manufacture the vaccine at commercial scale, while advancing a pipeline of other vaccines such as one for coccidiosis in poultry among others.
“Our investors are seeing the tremendous potential of the technology platform to deliver better vaccines more efficiently,” said Jennifer Filbey, CEO of the company. “In fact, the technology can help achieve better animal health through disease prevention – rather than treatment – and improve economics, stewardship, and sustainability.”
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