Wheat Ridge veterinary biotech firm GeneThera Inc. got a million-dollar boost Wednesday to move ahead on development of a test to diagnose chronic wasting disease.

New York-based BioTech Research Fund I LLC committed a $1 million line of credit to fund commercialization of GeneThera's tests for brain-wasting disorders and production of various vaccines.

"Our fund believes that Gene-Thera has a market lead with its blood test for contaminants in live animals," said Terry Ho, a spokesman for BioTech Research Fund.

GeneThera has spent three years developing new ways not only to diagnose CWD, but to create vaccines for mad cow disease, E. coli contaminants and foot-and-mouth disease. Its tests for CWD - which kills deer, elk and other animals - have been successful in more than 100 samples in Colorado, Wisconsin and Minnesota, company officials said.

Unlike other tests, GeneThera combines the latest genetic analysis methods and recombinant DNA technology to seek out the footprint of CWD in the genetic material of blood cells, said GeneThera President Antonio Milici.

The company's tests arm ranchers in Colorado and elsewhere with a new "live test" that hasn't been available before.

That lack of availability was a major obstacle to controlling CWD, some state veterinarians have said.

GeneThera plans to license and market some of its disease test kits by the end of the year, then begin volume distribution by mid-2003.

GeneThera was acquired in March by Miami-based Hand Brand Distribution, a health and nutritional products company.

Hand Brand President Nicolas Wollner said GeneThera's testing methods are attractive because they offer a way for live animals to be tested more efficiently and cost-effectively for illnesses that threaten the nation's food supply.

Milici said the merger gave GeneThera the resources to take its research out of the lab and apply it directly to cattle and other industries.

BioTech's Ho said that once GeneThera's product is validated in the agriculture and veterinary communities, "Commercial demand for its product will be compelling."

perraultm@RockyMountainNews.com or (303)892-2467