Company overview

Dairy and beef producers buy ImmuCell Corporation’s First Defense products to protect newborn calves against infections that cause diarrhea, known as scours. The company processes antibody-rich bovine colostrum—the first milk cows produce after calving—into products given orally to calves. These supply ready-made antibodies rather than requiring calves to develop their own immune response to a vaccine.

First Defense supplies almost all product revenue, and the business is concentrated in the U.S. dairy and beef industries. ImmuCell sells mainly to animal-health distributors, which resell to farms, veterinary clinics and farm-supply stores; two large distributors account for most sales. Production depends on obtaining suitable colostrum from participating farms and successfully concentrating and purifying its antibodies. U.S. First Defense sales operate under a USDA product license, with continued sales dependent on regulatory oversight and approval of the reference standard used to verify potency.

ImmuCell has shifted resources toward First Defense and stopped pursuing in-house manufacturing of Re-Tain, its experimental treatment for cows with subclinical mastitis. That decision followed an FDA finding that Re-Tain’s contract manufacturer had not met manufacturing requirements. The company plans to finish ongoing studies and seek a licensee or partner rather than invest further in its own Re-Tain manufacturing capability.