Scientist stakes all on A2 cause

By Deborah Hill Cone

Friday 1st November 2002

Corrie McLachlan has such a passion for the A2 "cause" he mortgaged his house, even sold a Goldie painting, to raise funds to keep working on his pet research project investigating links between A1 milk and heart disease.

A former chemical engineer, who has also worked as an analyst for the Treasury, Dr McLachlan has a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

But unlike most decidedly left-brain scientists, Dr McLachlan speaks so emotionally and passionately about his work, you find yourself reluctant to order an ordinary flat white in his presence.

He also has some pretty far out ideas about what causes Aids and whether our life expectancy is stamped upon us at birth that don't necessarily help his cause in making A2 milk seem a mainstream concept but most other passionate inventors like Marconi have suffered from the same "you've-got-to-be-crazy" syndrome.

A2 Corporation is not the first time Dr McLachlan has been involved in developing a new dairy product.

He was involved in the invention of a cholesterol-free butter for the Morrinsville-Thames Valley Dairy Co-op, but the development was never commercialised after the diary coop was sold to Fonterra.

Dr McLachlan's research on the effect of cholesterol on heart disease for the butter project had taken him on a worldwide search for data information he later applied to the A1 milk/heart disease equation to draw parallels between milk consumption from herds with A1 in their milk and heart disease in 19 countries.

His research was published in Medical Hypotheses, a journal described as a home for "fresh medical thinking" by the Times of London, and that work was the basis for the patent application linking A1 milk and heart disease, now owned by A2.

A short history lesson: some time during the domestication of the cow, a small genetic change occurred which means that all Western herds produce milk with a mixture of A1 and A2 milk proteins.

Goats, buffalo, yaks and African and Asian cows produce only A2. It possible to select individual cows of Western breeds such as Fresians and Ayshires which produce only the A2 variant.

By selecting cows carrying only the A2 variant of beta casein the risk could be avoided, A2 claims.

In February 2000 Dr McLachlan sold his research to A2 Corporation and since then the company has been battling to get its product to market.

While A2 owns 100% of the patent originating from Dr McLachlan's work linking A1 and heart disease, it only owns 50% of the patent on A1 and diabetes.

In 2000 A2 bought that 50% stake from the Child Health Research Foundation for $8.5 million and despite a scrap over patent rights Fonterra still owns the other half.

But Dr McLachlan said Fonterra's involvement isn't the reason A2 is taking longer than predicted to get its product onto the shelves and into the flat whites.

Reasons for the delay include the fact that until February this year New Zealand Dairy Foods, owner of the anchor brand, had exclusive rights to market A2 milk although they haven't done so, apparently because they worried it would damage their existing brands. The Commerce Commission investigation into the sale of 50% of NZDF also hampered any progress to be made by NZDF.

A2 had also negotiated to put its milk on the market through Woolworths, possibly even as its own-name brand, but those plans were stymied by Woolworths' sale to Progressive Enterprises.

But A2 is now pushing ahead on several fronts and Dr McLachlan says it is on track to get its product into selected outlets by next year.

A2 chairman Jim Guthrie said the company has always believed the epidemiological data alone justifies offering consumers the choice of A2 milk, but the local dairy sector is waiting for the results of A2's research programme.

"With positive results in hand the A2 proposition will become very difficult for the dairy industry to ignore," Dr Guthrie said.

A2 was recently turned down for public research funding by Foundation for Research, Science and Technology the reason given was that the work it was proposing would "not benefit the New Zealand economy."

But the company is investing its own money in several major scientific research projects including the University of Queensland study under Professor Julie Campbell.

Another study, being carried out under Professor Greg Dusting at the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne, is nearing completion.

This research uses mice which lack the gene involved in cholesterol transport and therefore spontaneously develop arterial lesions, in order to study heart disease.

In August A2 said it was expecting preliminary results from the Melbourne study within three to four months.

A2's annual report, released two months ago, included results of consumer research undertaken by Colmar Brunton which showed in key groups 95% of participants said they would buy A2 milk if it were not significantly more expensive than ordinary milk.

Fay Richwhite played a small but important role in creating A2.

It was they who introduced Dr McLachlan to Mr Paterson in early 2000 a meeting which led to Mr Paterson's investment in the company and its floating on the secondary board.

A2 directors include London-based Wayne Burt, an investment banker with a PhD in economics who owns shares in A2 through several Monaco-based companies.

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