Horn Flies & Cattle | FlyVax by TNG Pharmaceuticals

FlyVax is a revolutionary veterinary vaccine that is expected to inhibit the horn fly's ability to effectively feed on cattle. FlyVax counteracts the horn fly's anti-clotting agent, Thrombostasin, by triggering an immune response that clots the blood at the point of the wound. The horn fly's inability to feed thus directly affects reproduction capabilities, leading to the potential systematic eradication of horn fly populations. Smaller horn fly populations can directly translate into lower infestations per cow which leads to less stress, more weight, and more milk yield.

Of the 94 million cattle that reside in the United States, a vast majority of them are suffering due to a common pest, the horn fly. The horn fly is considered the most health-depleting and economically damaging pests of cattle. The blood-sucking horn fly causes over $1 billion in economic devastation annually in North America.

Horn flies typically stay on cattle almost continuously. While hot weather and rain persist the flies will move to the lower sides and underbelly of the cow. The females leave only to lay their eggs on manure.

Horn flies develop best in the manure of pastured cattle. Flies have difficulty developing from cattle raised on concentrated feed. The life cycle of the horn fly is completed in 10 to 14 days with a female laying well over 600 eggs. While in the winter months, flies stay in the pupae stage beneath manure pads. Once the weather turns warmer the cycle begins and adults begin to find a source of food. Without a fly control method, infestations can quickly become unbearable. Some breeds are prone to larger attraction of horn flies, where bulls usually have the heaviest infestations.

TNG Pharmaceuticals (TNG), a Louisville, Kentucky-based company, is furthering the development of a patented vaccine that could significantly reduce the horn fly population. The vaccine is expected to hinder the ability of the horn fly to effectively feed on cattle by counteracting the horn fly's anti-clotting agent, Thrombostasin. This revolutionary vaccine will potentially alleviate farmer pain.

This revolutionary vaccine can potentially alleviate farmer pain:

Fly Control - targeted to reduce horn fly populations by approximately 50% each life cycle
Beef production - reduces stress that causes weight loss and lower beef yield
Milk yield - reduces contraction of mastitis bacteria and stress, which causes lower milk yield
Leather quality - reduces bites, resulting in smoother skin quality
Farmer efficiency - reduces the frequency of manually applied pesticides
Infection treatment - reduces flies that spread disease and bacteria
"Green" impact - reduces toxins left by competitors' products

The horn fly is a parasitic insect that inflicts physical duress causing severe weight loss and significant decrease in milk yield in cattle. The horn fly bites the cow using its elongated proboscis and feeds on it by sucking out blood. Each horn fly feeds an average of 50 times per day. A horn fly infestation above the threshold of 200 flies per cow is considered detrimental to cattle. A single cow can have an infestation of up to 3,000 flies at one time.

The typical industry methods for eliminating the horn fly are ear tags and manually applied pesticides. For these methods to work properly, they must be applied frequently, which increases costs and inefficiency. Pyrethrins are organic compounds active in both pesticides and ear tags. Widespread use of this agent is environmentally dangerous and is becoming less effective due to the fly's ability to build up resistance. FlyVax will eliminate these problems in a highly efficient and effective manner.

FlyVax is a revolutionary veterinary vaccine based on recombinant protein technology. It is designed for vaccination of cattle to specifically disrupt blood-feeding by horn flies (Haematobia irritans), the most economically important pest of livestock in the United States and much of the world. The basis of the vaccine is to stimulate cattle resistance to the action of a major protein in saliva of horn flies that is injected into cattle as they cut through skin and vessels in search for blood. This salivary protein, which was identified and characterized by scientists at Auburn University, permits horn fly feeding by interfering with the action of a protein in cattle blood (thrombin) that is essential to clotting. Because of its potent thrombin blocking action the horn fly protein was named Thrombostasin (TS as the shortened form). The recombinant protein antigen (rTS) is expressed in tobacco leaves from cloned cDNA prepared from horn fly salivary glands.

Laboratory experiments conducted in the Auburn University Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine first demonstrated the potential of this novel, immunization approach to horn fly control. For laboratory studies, rTS was prepared in an E. coli expression system and recovered in a highly purified form using HPLC as the final step. Immunizing of cattle with rTS generated a specific immune response not found in control vaccinated cattle and significantly reduced the amount of blood ingested by exposed horn flies. Thus, "proof of concept" as to the efficacy of rTS as an effective antigen for a horn fly vaccine was demonstrated. These results provide the foundation for subsequent field trials and further development and marketing of a commercially available horn fly vaccine. Availability of FlyVax can result in improved cattle health and well-being, and will lead to tremendous monetary savings to the cattle industry.

TNG Pharmaceuticals (TNG), a Louisville, Kentucky-based company, is furthering the development of a patented vaccine that could significantly reduce horn fly populations.
The horn fly is a bloodsucking parasite that can cause an average weight loss of 20 - 40 pounds per cow prior to slaughter, and a 20% reduction in milk yield per lifetime of a dairy cow. This causes an economic devastation of well over $1 Billion in North America alone.

The Company's business model is designed to generate repetitive revenue streams through the need to vaccinate every calf on the farm. Over 36 million calves are born each year in North America and the current cattle inventory is around 94 million cattle. There are 500 million cattle world-wide that are affected by the horn fly.

In 2014, 80% of patented animal health products will expire, creating a need for the large pharmaceutical companies to seek new product acquisitions. The eventual target market for FlyVax is all global cattle operations. The horn fly wreaks havoc throughout the world.

The initial target market will be the cattle operations in the warm climate region of the southern U.S. where the horn fly is the most prevalent. These farms contain 60% of all cattle in the U.S. Initial market research estimates that 80% of farmers within the target market are viable customers who already use some form of fly deterrent.

Board of Directors: (Includes Founders, Jenny Corbin and Larry Horn)

Phoebe A. Wood, Executive Chair of the Board. Ms. Wood is a principal of CompaniesWood, a consulting firm that specializes in advising and investing in early-stage ("angel") investments. She recently served as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Brown-Forman Corporation, where she was responsible for the corporate development, controller, treasury, investor relations, tax, information technology, and internal audit departments.Before joining Brown-Forman, Ms. Wood served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Motorola's telecom subsidiary, Propel, Inc. Prior to joining Motorola, Phoebe enjoyed a career of over 20 years with the Atlantic Richfield Company (now BP).

Ms. Wood was graduated cum laude by Smith College and holds an MBA from UCLA. She is a director of Leggett & Platt Corporation, Invesco Ltd., and Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. Previously, Ms. Wood served on the Board of Directors at OshKosh B'Gosh. She is a Trustee of the University of Louisville, The Gheens Foundation, and the American Printing House for the Blind. She is a former trustee of Smith College and Louisville Collegiate School.

Butch Mercer is President and CEO of BioMark Inc., an international business and executive coaching firm, focused on bringing valued-added services in the areas of executive management and strategic business issues for early and mid-stage companies, technology concepts, venture capital firms and government agencies. Prior to BioMark, he was the Global Business Leader for Dow AgroSciences, Animal Health and Food Safety efforts. This responsibility included a focused effort on successfully bringing the plantmade technology platform to scientific and commercial success for Dow Agro-Sciences, which resulted in the company obtaining the world's first registration for a Plant-Cell-Produced Vaccine in less than five year's time. Mr. Mercer has negotiated over $3.6B dollars worth of agreements and managed fully integrated businesses up to $200 million dollars in his career. His career has spanned more than 30 years in the Animal Health industry, including the past 20 years with the related biotechnology industry. He is cofounder of Rimedion Inc., a gene therapy start-up company. Previously he has served as Chairman and CEO of Xylogenics, a renewable energy company, Vice President of the Indiana 4-H Foundation, been a member of the Board of Directors of the Animal Health Institute and also its Affiliate Chairman. He is a former Board member of SemBioSys Corporation, a publicly traded biotechnology company. He is also a former board member of Internous Inc., a data-mining firm and has served as Vice Chairman of the BIO Plant-Made Pharmaceutical Committee. He also served four years as a Member of the Dow Chemical Venture Capital Committee for Life Sciences. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Licensing Executive Society.

Mr. Mercer grew up on a livestock and grain operation in central Indiana and attended Purdue University in Animal Sciences.

Kent R. Van Kampen DVM, PhD served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Office of Vaxin, Inc. before retiring. Dr. Van Kampen has a wealth of experience in the field of vaccinology especially in the research, development and commercialization of vaccines. From 1985-91 he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Virogenetics, Troy, New York, a subsidiary of Institut Merieux, Lyon, France. At Virogenetics, a number of recombinant animal vaccines were designed that are currently marketed by Merial. He was instrumental in obtaining a license from the USDA for Raboral, an orally active rabies vaccine used to vaccinate wildlife. At ImmunoMed, Inc. Tampa, Florida he helped license one of the first immunomodulators used in large animals. From 1976 to 1980, Dr. Van Kampen served as Head of the Department of Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences at Utah State University. From 1980 to 1984, he headed of the Physiological Research Laboratory and was Director of The Implantable Drug Delivery Device program forMedtronic, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Van Kampen serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ImmunoMed Corp and as a Director of Cognitive Engineering, SVK Laboratories, HMV Corp. and The Van Kampen Group Inc. He also serves as a Member ofthe Scientific Advisory Board at Qu Biologics Inc., Vancouver, BC, Canada Dr. Van Kampen is a Co-editor of a book and the author of more than 70 scientific publications. In 1994, Dr. Van Kampen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Utah State University. He is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and holds a Doctorate Degree in Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. in Comparative Pathology from the University of California, Davis.

TNG Pharmaceuticals, a Louisville, KY based company is focused on the research and development of our patented vaccine, FlyVax. TNG Pharmaceuticals began at the University of Louisville in the Entrepreneurship MBA program. TNG competed on a global business plan competition circuit: winning four of five competitions, including the world's largest, richest, and most prestigious competitions. Our success culminated with being named 2011 Global Business Plan Champions. This competitive circuit allowed our business plan to be examined and judged by over 250 judges, mostly investors and scientists.

Serge Martinod, DVM PhD MBA - CEO and CSO (Chief Scientific Officer) Dr. Martinod has 30 years of experience in all aspects of product development for animal health and a thorough knowledge of the veterinary markets worldwide. He has a DMV degree from the National Veterinary School, Lyon, France (1980); a PhD from the University of Science and Medicine of Grenoble, France (1983); and a MBA from the University of Nebraska (1995).

Contact Dr. Serge Martinod

Jenny Corbin, MBA - Co-Founder, holds over 20 years of experience in the equine and agricultural industry, and five years of experience working with Wyeth and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, specifically in new program development and strategic partnerships in the agricultural realm.

Contact Jenny Corbin

Larry Horn, MBA - Co-Founder, has over 15 years sales and operations management experience. He also has extensive experience managing mergers and acquisitions, projects and integrations.

Contact Larry Horn

EMAIL. WEBSITE@FLYVAX.COM
P. 888.345.0878

201 EAST JEFFERSON STREET
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LOUISVILLE, KY 40202