Chemeq touts study supporting chicken weight drug

An independent study of a polymeric antimicrobial drug made by WA-based company Chemeq has demonstrated that it significantly increases weight gain in chickens compared with two leading antibiotics used as growth promoters.

The study was performed by Chemeq consultant Prof David Hampson, from Murdoch University.

Chemeq CEO Graham Melrose said the results were further confirmation of the efficacy of the product over existing antibiotics. The poultry market is Chemeq's second target for commercialisation of its antimicrobial drug, after the pig market.

"In comparison to our product for pigs, the poultry market is not as well studied yet," said company secretary Andrew Dwyer. He noted that Chemeq needed to perform additional trials demonstrating the efficacy of the product in poultry before filing for approval from the appropriate local and international approvals.

"It will be a quicker process to regulatory approval for poultry," Dwyer said. "We will be able to use the approval for use in pigs to expedite the poultry filing."

But Dwyer said the company had not finalised its timelines for poultry at this point as it was concentrating on getting its new production facility on line and into the pig production market.