New beginnings for Nexvet



Dr David Gearing and his dog, Chloe.

It was a “nugget of an idea” that spawned a biotech start-up, beginning with one part-time scientist working on spare days at one lab bench in the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Disease (CiiiD) at the Hudson Institute five years ago.

Now, pet-focused biopharmaceutical company Nexvet employs more than 30 full-time staff, is worth around US$63 million and is now one of a very small group of biotechs of Australian origin to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States. Remarkably, Nexvet achieved this without being acquired by a larger company or an ‘intermediate’ listing on a smaller exchange.

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr David Gearing, says the decision to relocate Nexvet away from its space in the Hudson Institute to a larger laboratory is due to size.

“The Institute’s done a fantastic job of nurturing our business. I’ve really appreciated the friendships that have grown here as well as the professional support,” Dr Gearing said.

Dr Gearing was working in commercialisation at Monash University’s Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, when he recognised a gap in the market for antibody-based therapeutic drugs and pain relief for companion pets.

Professor Paul Hertzog

Teaming up with co-founders Dr Mark Heffernan, Tsutomu Mori and his brother Andy Gearing, whose biotech business development company BioComm² is based within the Hudson, the team went about testing the hypothesis that animals could respond to antibody therapies and produce the same remarkable results that have been seen with human antibody therapies.

Friends and contacts provided early financial investment.

Hudson Institute Director Professor Bryan Williams and Deputy Director Professor Paul Hertzog provided lab space and a 0.5 FTE CiiiD scientist, Dr Alec Drew.

“That was the start, half of Alec and half a bench,” Dr Gearing said.

The initial experiments led to the validation of PETization, Nexvet’s proprietary platform technology, which allows monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to be recognized as “native” by an animal’s immune system.

This patent led to the development of product candidates to treat chronic inflammatory diseases and pain control for osteoarthritis in dogs and cats.

Within three years, Nexvet’s staff grew tenfold from 0.5 to five staff members. Now, with around 35 employees, the company’s size warrants its own laboratory space.

Dr Gearing says the Hudson Institute’s professional support has been key to this growth.

“The Hudson Institute gave us a huge advantage in the start-up stage by providing us with a managed laboratory space and a collaborative environment, it’s a fantastic environment for anyone wanting to start a biotech,” he said.

Professor Paul Hertzog says Nexvet’s success story is a testament to the Hudson’s can-do attitude in providing an incubator environment for biotech start-ups.

“Nexvet is proof that, with a positive attitude, the right support and perseverance, a spark of an idea can be shaped into a worldwide success,” Professor Hertzog said.

“The Nexvet ‘incubation’ worked perfectly in both directions as CiiiD scientists benefited from the expertise of Nexvet scientists in protein production and purification”

“We’ve enjoyed seeing the company grow inside the Hudson’s walls, and we wish David Gearing and the entire Nexvet team every success on the next stage of their journey.”