PGT owns the exclusive global rights for Aegis, an innovative, patent-pending technology platform initially developed to produce effective and low cost vaccines against viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases in animals using microbial vectors, including both bacteria and yeasts. Aegis represents a combination of processes, know-how and genetic sequences that utilizes low-cost recombinant technology for the insertion of bacterial, viral or protozoan genes into microbial vectors that then produce certain desired antigens, the active components of a vaccine. These antigens are essentially the same (or “universal”) across a range of pathogen strains, serovars and even species.
Aegis has been successful with both live Salmonella and inactivated Bacillus subtilis vectors. Bacillus subtilis has been chosen in part because it has US FDA GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) status, and thus should have a low regulatory threshold and be accepted by the public as a safe. PGT is also working on a yeast vector with a similar safety profile.
While PGT’s vaccines are low cost to produce, they are also cost effective to distribute and use. They are relatively stable at room temperature and will have advantages in transportation and storage over many current vaccines. They can be delivered orally in water or by spray and in flexible dosages while many of the currently available conventional vaccines are injected.
The Aegis universal vaccine approach, combined with simple delivery characteristics, have major implications for cost savings and acceptability, especially in the developing world which faces problems with current vaccination procedures.
Betty Allen Tucker
Director
Betty Tucker is a business woman and an attorney licensed to practice in United States and State courts of Arkansas. She received her B.A and Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She also did graduate work in early childhood education. She is currently Director of Development at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Psychiatric Research Institute. Prior to that she was Director of Development for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy. Since 2009 she has served as President and 50% owner and a Director of Rivers Edge Ventures Inc., an original and current stockholder of Pacific GeneTech (PGT), and closely monitored PGT activities and board meetings since its founding.
From 1982 through 2004 she was President and CEO of Cablevision Management Inc., a cable television company she established with her husband that founded built and invested in cable television and fiber optic systems in the United States, Great Britain and Indonesia. The British and Indonesian systems each merged with and became a part of public companies.
In 1996, she was named one of Arkansas’ top 100 business women. After serving as First Lady of Arkansas from 1992-1996, she moved with her husband to Hong Kong for several years, to focus on their cable television investment in Indonesia. During that time, she helped to establish the Hong Kong branch of Heifer International and traveled extensively throughout Asia. Betty has held positions on the governing boards of the Arkansas Arts Center, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Second Presbyterian Church and the Arkansas chapter of the International Women’s Forum.
Frank Kuo
Director
Frank Kuo is the Chief Corporate Banking Officer of Yuanta Financial Holding Co., Ltd, Executive Vice President of Yuanta Securities Co., Ltd, Board Director of Yuanta Asia Investment Limited, Director of Yuanta Commercial Bank Co., Ltd, Director of Yuanta Securities (Hong Kong) Limited and Consultant of Yuanta Venture Capital Co., Ltd. He has been in charge of investment activities and investment banking business for Yuanta Financial Holding Group.
Mr. Kuo was formerly the President of Yuanta Venture Capital and served as the Managing Director of Grand Asset Management, Manager of Yuanta Securities, and a Special Assistant to president and an Assistant Manager of President Securities.
Mr. Kuo earned his MBA from the University of Texas in Arlington and his Bachelor degree in International Business Management from Soochow University in Taiwan
James Brown
Director
James Brown is Managing Director of AVG Ventures, an investment firm specializing in early to mid-stage technology companies. Prior to joining AVG Ventures in 2009, Mr. Brown was an independent investor and served on a number of boards of directors. Before that, he served in several executive operating roles in public and private technology companies, with responsibilities ranging from finance and legal to operations and strategy. From 1999 to 2002, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of OpenTV, Inc., a technology and media company which he helped to take through the IPO process.
He was General Counsel there and also had responsibility for business development and corporate development, as well as investor relations activities.Later, he co-founded and then ran the company’s applications business unit as it grew from inception to 300 people worldwide and a $25MM annual revenue run rate, before the company was sold to Liberty Media. Prior to Open TV, he was a Partner in the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery in Menlo Park, and prior to that he was a Partner in the law firm of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in San Francisco, where he specialized in corporate finance and technology transactions. He received his BS in Accounting from Weber State University and his JD from BYU Law School where he was Executive Editor of the Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and an active member of the bar in California.
Stephen L. Parr
Director
Steve Parr is President and Managing Member of Parr Financial Group, LLC. Parr Financial Group, LLC is an asset management company with a focus on China, Asia and the international markets. Mr. Parr has been an active investor in China for over thirty years.
Prior to founding Parr Financial Group, Mr. Parr was one of the Managing Directors of Memphis-based Pope Asset Management, which managed approximately $400-million. He advised Pope on investment strategy and was Pope’s macro economic and political analyst.
Mr. Parr also served as a vice-president and international specialist at Goldman Sachs from 1977 to 1995 performing portfolio management for individuals. Until joining Pope in 2001, he successfully provided financial and strategic advice to a large number of private and public companies.
Mr. Parr is originally from Little Rock and attended Vanderbilt on a football scholarship, majoring in East Asian history. He joined Goldman Sachs directly upon graduation from Emory’s graduate school of business with an MBA in finance.
Dr. Steve Chu
Dr. Steve Chu is a Scientific Advisor of Pacific GeneTech Limited
Steve has a long and distinguished background. He holds a B.S. in Veterinary Medicine, a DVM, an M.S. in Veterinary Virology and a PhD in Microbiology. He was formerly Global Chief Biologics Officer – Distinguished Research Fellow for Elanco Animal Health, and he’s also held positions at Pfizer, Fort Dodge Animal Health, and Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. He’s a member of the American Society for Virology and he has been honored with the CDC Director’s Innovation Award in the category of People Prepared for Emerging Health Threats and Healthy People in a Healthy World for the “Development of anEquine West Nile DNA Vaccine.” He is proud that he not only developed the first West Nile vaccine, but also the first DNAvaccine for any species. He also created the first inactivated BRSV vaccine and single-dose modified live BRSV cattle vaccine.He’s also co-developed a reverse genetic avian influenza vaccine against highly pathogenic H5N1, and secured the first federally licensed product in the U.S. and European Union.
Steve graduated with a PhD in Microbiology from UC Davis, a Master’s Degree in Veterinary Virology and DVM from National Taiwan University.
Dr. Lisa R. Bielke
Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, OARDC , Ohio State University
After completing her Ph.D. studying poultry microbiology, health, and antibiotic alternatives at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Bielke began a post-doctoral research program at a biotechnology company developing technologies for detection of foodborne pathogens and intervention strategies to reduce microbial load on fresh foods. While completing her post-doctoral work, Lisa was co-investigator on small business innovation research grants from NIH, NSF, and DoD totaling more than $2 million, and primary investigator on grants totaling nearly $400,000. In 2011 Dr. Bielke moved to the University of Arkansas where she began a research program as a Research Assistant Professor at the Poultry Health Laboratory in the Department of Poultry Science. This year Lisa began a position at Ohio State University as Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, OARDC.
The primary focus of her current research is poultry health with emphasis on enteric diseases and ante mortem control of food pathogens, which includes projects developing recombinant vaccine technologies, probiotics selection, and development of tools and assays for assessment of gastrointestinal inflammation with a goal of providing means of producing poultry in a more sustainable manner that promotes health and well-being while increasing profitability. Research collaborations include an international collaboration with the Armed Forces Research Institute for Medical Sciences in Bangkok, Thailand in an effort to transfer recombinant vaccine technologies to human health aspects. Additionally, she has other collaborations within the University of Arkansas and other institutions including Texas A&M University and Pacific Vet Group. Through these collaborations and research within her laboratory, Lisa has been Co-PI or PI on both industry and academic grants totaling more than $1.2 million.
As a result of her research collaborations, advanced recombinant vaccine and adjuvant technologies for control of multiple poultry diseases are currently under license for commercialization. These vaccines promote mucosal immunity for hard-to-treat diseases such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, coccidia, avian influenza, and necrotic enteritis in which mucosal immunity is of primary importance to prevent infection. In combination with adjuvant technologies, these vaccines can be administered orally, making them more accessible and affordable to broiler and turkey production. Additionally, Dr. Bielke has played a major role in the development of enteric inflammation models in order to better understand the effects of antibiotic growth promoters, probiotics, and other feed additives on the health and performance of poultry. This emerging area of research is an essential component of flock growth and performance as antibiotic growth promoters are phased out of production and producers seek methods of improving feed efficiencies while improving animal well-being. While helping to manage these two major research projects, Lisa has also remained involved in projects, ones that began during her graduate studies, that focus on selection of functional probiotics to improve health and performance of poultry flocks. These projects have resulted in multiple successful commercial products that are sold to poultry producers world-wide.
Lisa served as president of the Southern Conference on Avian Diseases, is presently a member of the Board of Trustees for the Poultry Science Association Foundation, and was awarded the Poultry Science Association Early Achievement Award and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute Early Investigator Award. During her brief career as a scientist, she has participated in publication of three book chapters, 27 journal articles, and 10 published proceedings, as well as over 30 abstracts that have been presented at scientific conferences and multiple invited presentations.
Dr. Billy Hargis
Director Poultry Health Laboratory and Sustainable Poultry Health Chair, University of Arkansas
Dr. Hargis received his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota (B.S. 1980), his Master of Science Training at the University of Georgia (Poultry Science, 1983) and his D.V.M and Ph.D. training at the University of Minnesota (Ph.D. 1987). From 1987 – 2000, Dr. Hargis was a faculty member in the Departments of Veterinary Pathobiology and Poultry Science, Texas A&M University, where he was promoted through the ranks of Assistant Professor to Professor. In 2006, Dr. Hargis was named the Sustainable Poultry Health Chair, an endowed position funded by the Tyson Family with a match from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation.
Dr. Hargis joined the Center of Excellence in Poultry Science on September 1, 2000, as Professor and Director of the Poultry Health Research Laboratory. Dr. Hargis, a diplomate of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians, teaches in the undergraduate and graduate poultry science program. He has an active research program in the area of poultry health and ante mortem food safety intervention with interests in poultry immunology and endocrinology.
Dr. Hargis has advised or co-advised more than 50 M.S. and Ph.D. students and has published numerous manuscripts and book chapters relating to food safety, poultry health and poultry physiology. His laboratory has been recognized by several awards including the Carrington Laboratories Research Award (1991), the Poultry Science Association Research Award (1993), USDA Certificate of Merit for Scientific Leadership (1994), the Texas Veterinary Medical Association Faculty Research Award (1994), the National Broiler Council Research Award (1998), the Texas A&M University Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Research (2000), and the Poultry Science Association Award for Achievement in Poultry Science (2001). Dr. Hargis leads the University’s vaccine research team.
Dr. Yahui Huang
Director, Research & Development (Taiwan)
Dr Huang is the R&D Director in Taiwan. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Veterinary Medicine from National Taiwan University and is a qualified veterinarian. She received her PhD from the University of Bath, UK, and her postdoctoral research career included periods of time at universities in the UK and Taiwan, during which time she worked on signal transduction and gene regulation of bacteria and yeast.
Dr Huang has worked for over ten years as a researcher in microbiology labs before moving into the biotechnology industry. She was a Field Application Scientist for biomedical research instruments, first with GeneTech/Illumina and then with Merck-Millipore.
Prior to joining PGT, she was a project manager at SBC-Virbac, where she was in charge of projects at various stages of the animal vaccine development process, including sponsored and co-development R&D projects with local and international collaborators; the licensing-in and licensing-out of vaccine technologies; coordinating technology transfer processes; and conducting field trials. She is also familiar with the regulatory regime for animal health product registration.
Dr Huang is responsible for PGT’s R&D activities in Taiwan, collaborating with universities and research institutes.
Dr. Anna Obolensky
Director, Translational Research
Dr. Obolensky is a microbiologist and immunologist whose career has spanned the pharmaceutical industry, research institutions and private equity. This includes:The Wellcome Foundation, Group Marketing Headquarters in London, and Porton International PLC in the 1970s and 1980s. The latter was a company established to commercialize drugs and vaccines originating from Intellectual Property generated by the British government’s Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research at Porton Down, part of an initiative sponsored by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. While with Porton, Dr. Obolensky established the company’s Hong Kong office to oversee clinical development and trials in Asia for novel products including a botulinum toxin drug for the treatment of dystonias, an anticancer drug for the treatment of leukemia and a therapeutic vaccine targeting herpes simplex infections.
In the 1990s she returned to academic research for several years and completed a doctorate in immunology at Keble College, Oxford. When she left Oxford she worked as an independent consultant advising companies and institutions on ways to evaluate, protect and maximize their IP for commercialization.
In 2007, Dr. Obolensky became Head of External Sciences, H2O Venture Partners, a private equity company based in Oxford, concentrating on the development of early stage technologies mainly sourced from British universities. In addition to carrying out technology scouting and due diligence on targeted IP for both H2O and it’s client pharmaceutical companies.
Since 2011 Dr. Obolensky has worked as a consultant for the British Heart Foundation and has been responsible for an audit of the work of hundreds of BHF-funded scientists across 14 British universities. The aim was to identify, protect and exploit IP generated by research undertaken by BHF-funded scientists and this work led to a fully functioning IP Group within the BHF that in turn should see a significant increase in BHF revenues for further cardiovascular research.
Dr. Obolensky is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a Member of British Society of Immunology.
Dr. Ariane Davison
Director, Commercial Projects
Dr. Ariane Davison is a viral immunobiologist with executive-level operational experience in the commercial healthcare/biotechnology industries in Asia, and global healthcare equity markets. She served as Director of Research and Product Development at a Goldman-Sachs financed start-up in Hong Kong developing anti- microbial medical devices for international markets, and personally secured a US FDA “First In Class” medical device approval. She also collaborated with the US DOD/BARDA on an anti-microbial respirator to protect against bioterrorism. She is experienced in all value chain processes to market including international regulation for drugs and devices, marketing, investor relations, and venture fundraising.
Ariane has assumed multiple corporate advisory roles, for “big pharma”, biotech companies, asset managers and hedge-funds in Hong Kong. In 2013 she was selected for the Kauffman Venture Capital Fellowship in Silicon Valley, with selection signalling membership amongst the world’s most promising venture investors. She has been an invited speaker at international conferences, and her original work published in medical journals and internationally published textbooks. Ariane received her Ph.D. in Immunobiology & Vaccine Strategy from the University of Sydney School of Medicine, and her Honours Degree in Molecular and Microbial Genetics.
Dr. Thomas D. Overbay
Director, US Operations
Dr. Thomas D. Overbay is the Director of US Operations of Pacific GeneTech Limited. Dr. Overbay serves as a business development and technical consultant to the animal and human health industries. He is one of the founders of Expedite Animal Health which is a company formed to assist with the commercialization of products in the veterinary industry. Dr. Overbay brings over 25 years of experience in the veterinary pharmaceutical industry. He has served as the senior business development officer for a major animal health company and has served in similar roles with a contract services provider and start-up animal health companies in the US and internationally.
In addition to business development, Dr. Overbay’s background of veterinary practice, technical services, and sales management provides him with a unique perspective of the scientific, financial, and legal aspects of innovative technologies. Dr. Overbay has successfully brought to market a number of products arising from universities, government agencies, human hospitals, start-up companies (both human and veterinary), and multinational pharmaceutical and chemical companies.
Dr. Overbay holds his veterinary degree from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and resides in Louisburg, Kansas.
Cindy Tsang
Director, Business Development
Cindy Tsang is the Director of Business Development of Pacific GeneTech Limited. She has over 12 years of experience in corporate strategy and advisory, compliance consulting and scientific R&D for major investment banks, consulting firms, multi-national pharmaceutical corporations and early stage companies. Cindy has broad international working experience in the U.S, Europe and Asia.
Cindy joined PGT in 2013 from an advisory firm she founded. Her advisory firm assisted early stage healthcare companies prepare business plans, develop growth strategies and obtain funding. She also has prior experience working with venture capital-backed healthcare start-ups in medical devices, diagnostics and healthcare IT. Prior to those experiences, Cindy held management positions as an Assistant Director in the quality and risk management group at Ernst & Young in the U.S and an Associate at Morgan Stanley where she focused on corporate structures analysis and AML compliance in Asia.
She also had prior experience as an investment banking analyst at a boutique Mergers and Acquisitions advisory firm in Chicago where she led diligence analysis and research of technical and business issues associated with potential investments for a life sciences venture fund.
Before joining the financial industry, Cindy began her career as a research scientist at Abbott Laboratories’ Pharmaceutical R&D division in Abbott Park, Illinois. She spearheaded a membrane protein purification project to support the use of structural biology in drug discovery efforts. Her work has been published in scientific journals.
Cindy received her M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Seattle University in the U.S.
Tim Collard
Chief Executive Officer
Tim Collard is the Chief Executive Officer of PGT and has overall management responsibility for PGT’s operations. Tim studied biology at Bristol University in the U.K. and he has worked for 40 years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. After university Tim worked with Connaught Laboratories to supply human vaccines to the Hong Kong government and also established a business supplying poultry vaccines to Hong Kong farmers. He then joined Califas, a China-based consultancy, negotiating the first Sino-US joint manufacturing contract in the Chinese healthcare industry for a subsidiary of Squibb.
Tim conducted preparatory work for the Shanghai Squibb pharmaceutical joint venture which subsequently opened in 1983. In 1980, Tim joined Solvay as Far East Director for Solvay’s Biochem Products division, a JV with the Pasteur Institute developing both both human health and agricultural insecticides. In 1987 he became General Manager, Far East, of Porton International, a British biopharmaceuticals company. He successfully established marketing, distribution and local R&D for these companies across Asia. Later, working as an independent consultant he built a marketing and distribution network in Asia for Ecogen, a U.S. agricultural biotechnology company, and was also responsible for negotiating a “first mover” supply agreement for bulk antibiotics between a Chinese producer and British veterinary pharmaceutical companies.
In 1993 he was appointed Vice President of Lotus Healthcare Corporation, a manufacturer of oral controlled-release morphine and other medicinal narcotics in China. He was responsible for business development, sourcing of Chinese pharmaceutical raw materials, and all in-licensing and technology transfer for Lotus which included upgrading China’s production of bulk opiates. In 1997 he established Phoenix Lifesciences and in 2007 its associate company Phoenix Innovation, providing transactional consultancy services to the pharmaceutical, life science and high technology sectors in Greater China and SE Asia. At Phoenix Tim has worked on a variety of projects with multinational companies such as AstraZenica, Authentix, Aventis, bioMérieux, Proctor & Gamble, SciClone and Xenova, as well as several Asian companies. His areas of expertise include business development, planning and contract negotiation, regulatory issues facing western companies, technology licensing and transfer, and the organization of marketing, distribution and local sourcing in the Greater China / SE Asia region.
Louis Bowen
Executive Chairman and Director, Finance
Louis Bowen is the Executive Chairman and Director of Finance of Pacific GeneTech Limited which he co-founded in 2009. Louis has been a financial services professional for over forty years in the US and Asia. He also currently serves as the Chairman and CEO of Asia Capital Management Limited, a private investment banking company based in Hong Kong that he founded in 1994. From 1982 to 1994 he was Managing Director of one of the first private investment companies in Asia, Arral and Partners Limited. He started his career with Citigroup in New York in 1972 and then moved to Hong Kong in 1977 to establish the Citigroup corporate finance activities in Asia. In his 35 years of private equity and investment banking in Asia, Louis has overseen over 50 investments and acquisitions in a range of industries including pharmaceuticals, primary care services and medical diagnostics.
He has served on the boards of numerous companies during his professional career. Louis received an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and has a BA in Economics from the University of Arkansas. He was a co-founder of the Hong Kong Venture Capital Association. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Wharton Alumni Association of Hong Kong on the Board of Advisors of the Arkansas World Trade Center and is on the Advisory Council of the HK University of Science and Technology Business School.