University partnership makes Immvac a global competitor

Immvac Inc. is a $50 million-plus veterinary pharmaceutical company with more than 40 employees doing business around the world, an inspiring example of what can happen when academia goes corporate.

But driving up gravel-covered Bass Lane to Immvac’s the 650-acre ranch southeast of Columbia, visitors receive no indication of the company’s stature. There is no sign in front of the rural two-story office building—just two-inch-high letters on a residential-style mailbox across the street.

Immvac, Inc. sprouted from the fertile academic soil of the University of Missouri-Columbia, in a process often called “tech transfer,” the commercialization of technologies originating within the university.
The company was founded in 1984 by two MU professors, Ronald Sprouse and Harold Garner, and Sprouse’s wife, Dorothy Sprouse.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, while at MU, Ronald Sprouse and Garner had developed biological agents that led to an array of vaccines and serums for treating production and companion animals. Today, Immvac’s products assist in the protection and treatment of virtually all gram-negative bacteria, many of which are harmful and even deadly to both humans and animals. Common examples of gram-negative bacteria include E. coli and salmonella.

Immvac’s current products are based on two patented technologies: a genetically engineered gram-negative mutant strain of bacteria and a patented immunopotentiator, which enhances an animal’s overall immunity to disease.

Immvac President Kevin Sprouse said his parents developed the company at a time when MU had little experience with tech transfer contracts. “We were kind of stumbling through this in the beginning,” he said. “The technology was so new that getting people to comprehend it was tough.”

Working with veterinary pharmaceutical technology puts Immvac in direct competition with some of the world’s biggest corporations, including pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

Sprouse said Immvac continues to be competitive because of its unusual technologies and recent refinements in training and support of their sales team.

Texas-based veterinary consultant John Lynch, who provides technical training and support to Immvac’s sales force, says the company can compete because it’s a totally different kind of business in a landscape dominated by mega-companies.

“Immvac is very focused on quality and is especially hands-on in the field,” Lynch said. “They can do this because they are specialists, with just a few, unique products instead of brochures-full of product lists.”

Sprouse said the company is constantly improving on its product lines, often working hand-in-hand with University of Missouri researchers. He said a continuing research relationship with MU provides a cost-effective way to advance the company’s technological edge.

“Working with the university helped us keep from building a $30 million research lab,” Sprouse said.

Dr. Mark McIntosh, chair of microbiology at MU, and others in his department are working with Immvac to develop new technologies. The work is made possible, in part, by grants from Immvac.

“Immvac has been very generous with seed money to help get these projects off the ground,” McIntosh said. “This is a common theme between industry and academia, translating basic science into products that can be marketed successfully.”

McIntosh said scientists today are more aware of how to enlist the help of private industry to take their ideas as far as they can go—and that there is a greater expectation for a pathway from basic research to commercialization.

Since starting the company in 1984 with just the three founders as employees, the company has grown; it now has sales in 34 countries and is in negotiations for distribution in another eight. Here in the United States, Immvac has a coast-to-coast presence, employing 12 outside sales representatives. Regional managers are located in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Florida, with additions coming in Pennsylvania and New York.

According to a 2004 article published in Venturing@MU, a newsletter covering MU’s tech-transfer relationships, Immvac’s “assets exceed $50 million and annual sales revenues exceed $37.5 million per annum.”

Sprouse declined to share details of the company’s finances, but indicated that the numbers were out of date and that Immvac has consistently grown an average of 30 percent per year since its early days.

Immvac recently completed the purchase of a new facility in Belton, Texas, to expand its reach in the beef industry.