Meat+Poultry - October 2018 - 91

expectation on the professors and post
docs. You're telling them, you have this
phenomenal scientific background and
these gifts and talents in science and
discovery, now pull yourself out of that
and figure out how to commercialize
that technology. Their strengths are in
science and technology - not getting a
product to market."
Ab E Discovery is working to bridge
the gap that exists between science
and business.
"We have three priorities as a
business. First, the technology we
licensed to Elanco has to get launched
into the marketplace. Next, we are
building a manufacturing plant, which
will be completed in October. We'll
begin producing product at the plant,
starting with the Elanco product, as
well as doing contract manufacturing
in functional feed ingredients," Eric
Salm explains. "The third priority for
our business is to figure out the
different ways we can support
entrepreneurial scientists, and
drive breakthrough technologies
to help them get commercialized.
What we've done to date is
just one way to get a discovery
to market."
Some other options for the
company include partnering
with industry to scout out new
technologies. Salm also says
Ab E Discovery could be a
commercialization agent for
scientists and entrepreneurs that
have already made discoveries
to help them find the best homes
for those technologies. Another
idea is to serve as an academy for
development. In this function, Ab
E Discovery would bring in both
the new technologies and the
scientists and help them form their
own startups to further develop
their products and ideas.
"There are different routes
we can take to help bring new
technologies to the marketplace,"
Eric Salm says. "We're still trying
to figure out the best way to do it."

For now, the company plans to stick
to developing ideas and discoveries in
the area of animal agriculture. "That's
where our body of knowledge sits.
We are focused on animal health and
nutrition and gut health within those
areas," Salm says. While the company
name (Ab representing "antibodies" and
E representing "eggs") suggests that the
focus will always be on poultry, Salm
says they are open to working with all
proteins and animals.

NEXT CHAPTER
In order to further develop the Elanco
product, Ab E Discovery realized it
needed to build its own manufacturing
facility. "It's hard to find a place to
produce 5,000 lbs. of product. You can
do 50 lbs. of product in a lab and 50,000
lbs. in a large production plant, but we
couldn't find anywhere to produce a
mid-range amount," Eric Salm explains.

So, at the end of 2016, the plan to
build the Ab E Manufacturing plant
was born. "A year-and-a-half in to the
creation of our company and we soon
realized we couldn't find anywhere to
produce our product - even through
contract manufacturing."
The 25,000-sq.-ft. facility in
Waterloo, Wisconsin, set to be complete
in late October, will start with the
production of the Elanco product in
early 2019. It will be equipped with
egg washers, breakers and separators
and in-line pasteurization, as well
as dry encapsulation, blending and
packaging equipment. "In the future
when we work with other products
we'll probably have to develop new
upstream processes," Eric Salm
explains. The plant's design is flexible
and will be able to be adjusted in the
future to accommodate new projects
and products.

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