Public Funding for Nobacz Healthcare Limited

In 2018 the founder scientists of NoBACZ Healthcare, working in the department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, were introduced to the lameness-associated infection 'digital dermatitis', which mainly afflicts dairy cows. Infectious lameness is, in fact, a major welfare issue for livestock which in turn affects animal growth rates and/or feed conversion efficiency and may require early culling or cause abortion. Indeed these are recognised problems in terms of efficiency and sustainability in livestock farming. Based on these facts, the scientists set out to develop innovative technology that would not only aid in the management of digital dermatitis and similar livestock problems but would be affordable, composed of vanilla-safe components and be sustainable- particularly reducing requirements for bandages and dressings (which go to landfill or incineration) as well as antibiotics. The result was the discovery of rapid-setting, liquid-apply barrier dressings, created from feed and food grade components. These were patent protected and the spin out company, NoBACZ Healthcare, was born with its focus especially on livestock. NoBACZ's barrier dressings have shown strong potential in many veterinary applications in 'use studies' on animals that may otherwise require antibiotics, dressings and bandages. The innovation is not just about sustainability and practicality, its also about effectiveness as pilot works suggests that NoBACZ's prototype products are better dressings and better bandages leading to better outcomes. We have also shown that simple skin disinfectants, like iodine, are compatible as pre-applications for our liquid barrier dressings and this may be a powerful combination in the management and prevention of wounds and topical infections as well as the sequalae of disease and welfare issues. In spite of great progress to date with prototype products and use-studies on livestock, the products themselves, the optimal manufacturing routes and the processes of practical application (including co-application with iodine) are not yet substantially established. This project aims to fully develop those technical improvements, moving the products much closer to market. In particular, we will optimise both gel and spray formulations as well as their packaging, show what best application procedures are in the farm environment and measure the quality and efficiency of health outcomes versus current standards of care. Bovine digital dermatitis and udder cleft dermatitis, alongside ovine foot-rot and general 'first aid' applications in livestock will be major focal points.

Bandages have two primary roles: firstly, they cover a wound to stop it getting dirty and infected and secondly they allow any ointments or other applied treatments to be 'locked in', so that they don't get rubbed off and can have their effect where needed. However, bandages do not do well in the wet- such as the bath, the shower or just outside in the rain. They generally should not touch the wound directly but, instead, a sterile dressing is used and all of this is time consuming to take off and replace, on a regular basis, as the wound heals. Our company, NoBACZ Healthcare Ltd, has developed liquids that can be painted or squeezed directly onto wounds where they rapidly set, forming robust barriers that naturally degrade and shed over time and can be re-applied as required. These paint-on bandages do very well in the wet as they repel water, do not need an under dressing and are designed to repel bacteria. They could be used for any trauma wounds or surgical wounds in humans or animals, but we have identified a particularly unmet need in a disease of dairy cattle, called 'digital dermatitis'. Here, cattle get painful ulcers on their feet, which are infected with slurry-dwelling bacteria, and these are terribly hard to treat. The cost to the farming industry in the UK alone is about £60 million per annum. Worldwide it is well over a billion pounds per annum. In a small study at the University of Cambridge farm, we showed that these liquid bandages adhere well to digital dermatitis wounds, have no obvious adverse effects, promote healing and overcome associated lameness one week after a single application. We now plan to show in a large farm trial that there is a convincing case on the grounds of treatment effectiveness, animal welfare and economics for the adoption of our liquid bandages by the dairy farming community, worldwide, for the management of digital dermatitis.

NoBACZ Ltd, a spin-out company of the University of Cambridge, is developing an environmentally friendly antimicrobial, antiviral coating that prevents common-touch surfaces from harbouring viruses during and beyond the COVID-19 outbreak. The Company has developed an innovative, customisable antimicrobial coating that has a multitude of applications across industries. The coating is effective against pathogenic bacteria through a contact-killing mechanism. The active agents in these materials are copper compounds and there is strong evidence that copper reduces the viability of the virus strain that causes COVID-19 \[DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2004973\] We now intend to test the coating against a range of viruses, including the COVID-19 virus. If successful, the coating will be applicable to a wide variety of materials---from wood, to cloth, to metal and steel-- that are located in areas where the public congregates, such as public transport, office buildings, hospitals, gyms, care-homes, supermarkets etc. Such an invention would prove to be invaluable as countries emerge from lockdown by helping to minimize virus transmission through surfaces. Applied as a liquid, the NoBACZ products are adhesive and water repellent and they rapidly form solid but flexible barriers that are robust enough to form semi-permanent coatings on any surface. Lifetime (anticipated to be months) is easily visualised through their distinct colour (deep green) and top up coating can be applied if required. The material is environmentally friendly, comprised from food-chain compatible reagents and manufacturing is straight-forward and easy to scale. The NoBACZ coating product will be investigated to confirm its activity against single strand RNA viruses like the coronavirus. NoBACZ will then iteratively test combinations and consistencies of different formulations in order to zero in on the most durable and widely applicable viricidal version. The target product profile is a coating, visible on any surface, such as a doorknob, a train hand rail, or a supermarket trolley handle, that kills any virus that happens to land on it but is vanilla safe to humans. This would reduce the labour-intensity of decontaminating high-traffic surface areas, ideally allowing cleaning and reapplication to occur only now and again vs the impracticality of several times a day with alcohol / cleaning agents. _ Additional Information for request: We have now successfully developed surface coatings with broad applicability. Moreover, the new materials have appropriate physicochemical properties for use as safe and affordable coatings and can be retrofitted to existing surfaces (e.g. painted on), as evidenced with a variety of surfaces from stiff fabric through to smooth plastics. Antiviral assays have been initiated, as per plan, but we have now identified additional manufacturing, regulatory and commercial knowledge gaps upon which successful commercial exploitation is likely to live or die. We have, therefore, designed several small blocks of work that will address these unknowns, taking this highly novel technology to a state of commercial readiness in a very short period. As reported by the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54500673), recent scientific findings from Australia's national science agency have shown that SARS-Cov-2can survive on surfaces for far longer than initially thought. The researchers have shown that the virus responsible for Covid-19 can remain infectious on surfaces such as plastic, glass and stainless steel for 28 days. Our technology, once commercialised, has the potential to greatly reduce viral transmission on many common touch surfaces, from door handles through to shopping trolleys and, crucially, by rendering high contact surfaces safe, it will aid society’s recovery of business, social, commuting, sporting and educational activities. We also anticipate these materials to be antibacterial which, if confirmed, would be an added benefit in healthcare, care home and food processing arenas. We plan, therefore, to now add bacterial contact killing assays to the list of tests with our materials (ie anti-viral and anti-bacterial assays).