Welcome to Immuron Limited
Immuron Limited is a commercial and clinical stage publicly listed Australian biopharmaceutical company that has pioneered an innovative platform technology focused on development and commercialization of a novel class of orally delivered polyclonal antibodies for enteric disease prevention and treatment.
The company was founded and incorporated under the laws of Australia in 1994 and has been listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), since April 30, 1999. Immuron’s ordinary shares trade under the symbol “IMC.” Immuron completed an initial public offering on the NADAQ Capital Market in June 2017 and our American Depositary Shares and warrants are listed on NASDAQ under the symbols “IMRN” and “IMRNW”, respectively. Each ADS represents 40 of our ordinary shares, no par value.
Immuron’s validated technology platform produces orally active polyclonal antibodies which offer targeted delivery within the gastrointestinal (“GI”) tract and essentially do not cross into the bloodstream. Our lead drug candidates, currently in clinical development, have the potential to transform existing treatment paradigms for Clostridioides difficile infections and the prevention of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infections that are the main cause of travellers’ diarrhoea.
We currently market our flagship commercial products Travelan® and Protectyn® in Australia, where both products are listed medicines on the Australian Register for Therapeutic Goods (TGA).
Travelan® (AUST L 106709) is an over-the-counter orally administered passive immunotherapeutic product indicated to reduce the risk of travellers’ diarrhoea, reduce the risk of minor gastro-intestinal disorders and is antimicrobial. It is sold in pharmacies throughout Australia.
Protectyn® (AUST L 231001) is currently sold in practitioners’ offices and is marketed as an immune supplement to help maintain a healthy digestive function and liver. We also market Travelan® in Canada (NPN 80046016) where it is licensed as a natural health product indicated to reduce the risk of travellers’ diarrhoea, and presently market Travelan® in the U.S. as a dietary supplement for digestive tract protection.
Board
Our Board of Directors
Paul Brennan
Chairman
Mr Brennan has extensive experience in the health system through his clinical background and commercial exposure with various multinational companies.
Mr Brennan was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PolyNovo Limited (ASX:PNV) for 7 years from 2015 to 2021 and took the company from $30M to a high of $2B.
Prior to this Mr Brennan was Marketing Director Australia and New Zealand and Sales Director New Zealand for Smith & Nephew Healthcare for 6 years.
Mr Brennan is also (from November 2024) Chairman of Microbio, an Australian biotech company which has developed a novel molecular diagnostic technology.
David Pollock
Non-Executive Director – LL.B. Dip.L.P.
Daniel Pollock is an internationally experienced lawyer with commercial expertise in new market entries into overseas markets, distribution agreements and corporate start-ups. Mr Pollock is the principle of a specialist legal business based in Melbourne, operating internationally. He is admitted in both Scotland and Australia. He has local and global business experience, and a strong understanding of rapidly growing, technology-based businesses.
Mr Pollock has a long time involvement with international public corporations and corporate governance.
Professor Ravi Savarirayan
Non-Executive Director
Appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the Company on April 1, 2017. He is a consultant clinical geneticist at the Victorian Clinical Genetics Services since August 1999, as well as Professor and Research Group Leader (Skeletal Biology and Disease) at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute since September 2000.
Mr. Savarirayan is a founding member of the Skeletal Dysplasia Management Consortium since January 2011 and has been the Chair of the Specialist Advisory Committee in Clinical Genetics, Royal Australasian College of Physicians since February 2009 . He was president of the International Skeletal Dysplasia Society from July 2009 to June 2011 and has been an invited member of several International Working Committees on Constitutional Diseases of Bone.
Dr Jeannie Joughin
Non-Executive Director – BSc (Hons), PhD, MAICD
Dr Joughin is an experienced biopharmaceutical and medical device leader with 20+ years’ experience locally and internationally. Her operational and leadership experience has been forged through conducting research at universities and holding clinical and commercial positions of increasing seniority in multi-national pharmaceutical companies, start-up environments in private and listed companies located in the USA, Europe and Australia, and as a Venture Partner working with local and global portfolio companies.
Team
Our Management Team
Management Team introduction. To be filled.
Steven Lydeamore
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Lydeamore has 30 years international pharmaceutical experience, working in Australia, Canada and USA. Mr. Lydeamore brings valuable international experience having spent eleven years working at Canadian global pharmaceutical company Apotex Inc., and four years for Mayne Pharma (USA) Limited. This includes valuable experience in mergers and acquisitions, finance, business development, sales and marketing, manufacturing, and research and development.
Mr. Lydeamore was most recently Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Anatara Lifesciences Limited (ASX:ANR), during which time the company successfully transitioned from a preclinical to a clinical company following development of a gastrointestinal tract delivery technology from which two products have commenced human clinical trials.
Jerry Kanellos
Chief Operating Officer
Dr Jerry Kanellos brings over 30 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, with expertise spanning executive management, business development, project management, intellectual property, and R&D.
Dr Kanellos has led successful clinical drug development programs, overseeing formulation, scale-up, CMC, cGMP manufacturing and clinical study design, resulting in the regulatory approval of multiple products.
As a consultant, has advised academic institutions, private and public companies, and government bodies on technology development and commercialisation strategies.
Dr Kanellos holds a PhD in Medicine from the University of Melbourne.
Flavio Palumbo
Chief Commercial Officer
Flavio is a successful, commercial leader with over 20 years extensive global management and business development experience. Flavio has extensive consumer healthcare experience holding leadership roles for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) locally (Australia & NZ), regionally (South East Asia) and Globally where he has been responsible for developing strategic plans and achieving hyper growth targets.
Flavio’s experience extends to sales & marketing leadership roles for Procter & Gamble (P&G) in the UK, Europe and Australia and Deloitte in Australia. MBA qualified from the University of Adelaide, with a proven record of accomplishment in commercial strategy, sales, marketing, brand and product management, communication, finance, digital technology and product innovation.
Aaron Laurita
Chief Financial Officer
Aaron is an experienced finance executive with a decade of cross sector experience, including the biotechnology industry, supporting organisations across Australia, the United States, and Canada. His expertise spans complex financial management, accounting, compliance, and broader operational and management services.
He holds a Bachelor of Business (Professional Accountancy) from RMIT University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant, as well as a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Aaron currently serves as Chief Financial Officer, providing strategic financial leadership, oversight, and guidance to a portfolio of listed and unlisted companies.
Dr Joanne Casey
Research & Development Manager
Dr Joanne Casey has an extensive background in clinical and translational research spanning more than two decades of academic and biotechnology industry environments. Dr Casey has been active in the fields of antibody engineering and she has gained extensive experience in both research management and project management at the interface of discovery and clinical translation.
Dr Casey has a PhD (Medicine) from University College London (UCL) developing recombinant antibodies for targeting colorectal tumours in patients. During her career she has discovered and developed many antibodies resulting in over 30 journal publications including Nature Medicine and Cell and is an inventor on several granted patents and patent applications. Dr Casey has led Australian biotechnology antibody research and development programs and has worked closely with global biotechnology and pharma companies to translate human antibodies into pre-clinical and clinical trials.
Olga Smejkalova
Company Secretary
Olga is an experienced Company Secretary with a background in financial services, specifically in the areas of company secretarial and corporate governance services. With over ten years of experience, she has honed her skills in these fields.
Olga is a graduate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. Prior to joining Acclime, she held positions at BoardRoom, the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australasian Investor Relations Association, where she managed various corporate secretarial and financial matters.
Currently, Olga serves as the Company Secretary and Governance Advisor for several listed and unlisted Australian and International companies.
Olga brings valuable insights and guidance to the organizations she works with, ensuring the implementation of sound governance practices and providing effective company secretarial support. Her deep understanding of corporate governance principles and her proficiency in managing company secretarial matters make her a trusted advisor in navigating complex regulatory requirements. Olga’s attention to detail and strong organizational skills contribute to the smooth functioning of boards and committees, promoting transparency and compliance. Her dedication to upholding best practices in corporate governance further strengthens the overall effectiveness and integrity of the organizations she serves.
Partners
Our Research Partners
Immuron works with highly recognised and reputable research partners across the globe to deliever our flagship commercial products.
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) provides unique research capabilities and innovative medical solutions to a range of Force Health Protection and Readiness challenges currently facing U.S. Service Members, along with threats anticipated during future operations. Through both times of peace and war, infectious diseases have killed, sickened, and disabled far more Service Members than bombs and bullets. WRAIR has created a model of vaccine and therapeutic development that is unique, nimble, and responsive to dynamically evolving infectious disease threats of military importance. WRAIR, with its unparalleled expertise, facilities, and international network, has developed many vaccines and drugs in use today by military and civilian medicine around the globe.
The U.S. Department of Defense has recognized the benefits of Immuron’s technology platform and has an established long-standing relationship with Immuron to evaluate the commercial over-the-counter bovine colostrum product Travelan® for its specificity and effectiveness against diarrheal pathogens.
Travelan® was the focus of a comprehensive scientific study conducted by the Department of Enteric Disease at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research – Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (WRAIR-AFRIMS). Travelan® was tested against 180 different samples of bacteria collected from personnel with travellrs’ diarrhea. The results revealed that Travelan® reacted with every single one of the 180 bacteria samples tested.
In August 2024 Immuron announced the funding of a new research agreement for the Naval Medical Research Command (NMRC), and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). The focus of this new research agreement is to develop an enhanced formulation of BCP products potentially expanding the coverage of the product as a therapeutic measure against endemic military relevant diarrheal pathogens. This work will utilize the extensive experience of the U.S. Department of Defense human infectious disease vaccine programs and will target key protective antigens of the major enteric bacterial pathogens Campylobacter, Enterotoxigenic E. coli (NMRC) and Shigella (WRAIR) strains not present in the current Travelan® formulation.
National Institutes of Health
The NIH is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world, creating hundreds of thousands of high-quality jobs by funding thousands of scientists in universities and research institutions in every state across America and around the globe.
NIH is made up of 27 Institutes and Centers, each with a specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems. NIH leadership plays an active role in shaping the agency’s research planning, activities, and outlook.
Immuron’s IMM-124E was chosen as one of three of 27 novel candidates submitted to the NIH for funding of a phase II study in ASH which began in 2015.
The Center for Vaccine Development
The Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) has earned an international reputation as an academic vaccine development enterprise for creating and testing vaccines against cholera, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, non-typhoidal Salmonella disease, shigellosis (bacillary dysentery), Escherichia coli diarrhea, malaria, and other infectious diseases, including influenza.
Immuron is very pleased to announce that it has engaged the services of the CVD to provide a comprehensive range of analytical support for our clinical development programs with the FDA (SAH and NASH).
CSIRO
Immuron and CSIRO have been working together for almost a year on the development of an improved scalable manufacturing process that is needed to make the antigenic material required for production of Travelan. This work is being undertaken in CSIRO’s Microbial Manufacturing Facility which can develop and demonstrate at pilot-scale, production and purification of microbial products including: whole cells, cell extracts, proteins and other macro molecules, enzymes as well as small molecules. The Facility has a high degree of flexibility and has worked with many different types of microorganisms (both native and genetically modified) developing processes for products with applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to industrial chemicals. The Facility is equipped with a wide range of microbial bio reactors ranging from 2 litres up to 400 litres and downstream processing equipment for recovery and purification of microbial products. This is supported by a suite of analytical equipment used to follow cell growth and metabolism and characterise process outputs. CSIRO’s Microbial Manufacturing capability is assisting with the further development of Immuron products in preparation for future large-scale manufacture. Health, safety and environmental sustainability are fundamental to all work completed at CSIRO; the organisation has a longstanding commitment to safeguarding the health, safety and well being of its people, partners and the communities in which it operates.
Monash University
Immuron entered into an ARC linkage research agreement with Monash University in 2011 under which the Company agreed to contribute to the Clostridium difficle (C.difficile) research project over a three year period. This work focused on developing and advancing the technology to enable progress towards its eventual evaluation in humans. Given the worldwide C. difficile epidemics currently occurring, this is a high priority research project for Immuron.
IMM 529 is being designed to both prevent and treat C.difficile infections. Since June 2012, when the first results of our C.difficile program conducted under collaboration with Monash University, were announced we have continued to see very encouraging data, demonstrating its potential as both a preventative and a treatment. These results have formed the basis of patent applications which are designed to provide multiple aspects of monopolistic protection. Additional pre-clinical (mouse model) trials is currently being undertaken to support a human trial.
Since the initiation of the very successful research collaboration, Immuron has also initiated a second research project with Monash University to examine the therapeutic efficacy of polyclonal antibodies targeting Uropathogenic E. coli.
The University of Melbourne
Immuron has a long standing partnership with the University of Melbourne for research which lead to the commercialisation of Immuron’s first commercial product for the prevention of Travellers’ Diarrhoea (Travelan™). Immuron gained access to ‘gold standard’ animal testing models for influenza at CSIRO Animal Health Laboratories in Victoria. Immuron has exclusive rights to the commercialisation of this technology.
Tréidlia
Immuron has a long standing partnership and history with Tréidlia dating back to 2003 for the manufacture of our ETEC vaccines. Tréidlia Biovet specialises in quality veterinary vaccines, diagnostic laboratory services and promotes quality animal health in commercial animal industries,
Our products
Our products are scientifically formulated using our patented technology platform to reduce diarrhoea, enhance gastrointestinal health, promote immune defence, and support liver and digestive health.
