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World News ?
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 05 May 2006 0402 hrs
31 prototype bird flu vaccines undergoing human trials
PARIS - Thirty-one prototype vaccines against strains of bird flu are currently being tested on humans, but only six of them are configured for the fast-track manufacturing technique favoured by the United States in its flu initiative unveiled on Thursday.
The vaccine trials involve 15 companies in Europe, the United States and Australia, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).
Eight vaccines are already undergoing, or will undergo this year, so-called Phase II trials on humans, the second step in a three-phase process of testing for safety and effectiveness, the Geneva-based group said this week.
Three vaccines -- one from Chiron/Novartis and two from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) -- have already been submitted to the European Union (EU) for approval as so-called mock-up dossiers.
Under this, companies are able to file applications based on successful tests of a vaccine before the outbreak of a pandemic.
Once the actual pandemic virus strain has been identified, a variation to the core vaccine is made in order to incorporate that strain.
In the past century, flu pandemics have claimed tens of millions of lives.
The big fear is that a strain of flu that circulates among poultry, the H5N1 virus, could acquire genes that could make it highly contagious among humans.
As this has not yet happened, the present prototype vaccines are configured on the avian strain that, according to an official World Health Organisation (WHO) toll, has killed 113 humans through transmission from birds.
The hope is that these vaccines, if stockpiled, may provide some protection against a pandemic strain and could thus slow the spread of an outbreak.
They could also be swiftly adjusted to cope with the pandemic strain once it is identified, according to this hope.
Most of the 31 prototype vaccines target specific strains of the influenza virus. Twenty-two aim at H5N1, eight aim at H2N2, H5N3, H7N7, H7N1 and H9N2, which are also theoretical pandemic threats, while one formula, under development by the US firm Merck, focuses on a universal vaccine.
However, all but six of the 31 projects use the traditional technique of culturing vaccines in eggs, a process that is used to make seasonal flu vaccines but which is long viewed as too cumbersome for meeting the huge, immediate demands of a pandemic.
Five companies were selected on Thursday by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for contracts worth 1.004 billion dollars to develop a flu vaccine.
The firms have been asked specifically to come up with a vaccine that can be made from cell cultures, a technology used in many other vaccines.
Personal note: also a more handy and safe technique
Technology to make flu vaccines with specialized eggs is almost unchanged after half a century of use.
A study published last month in the British science journal Nature said that a vaccine that gave only 30-percent protection and had been stockpiled for a fifth of a country's population could reduce numbers of flu patients by a third if children were vaccinated within a few weeks of the start of the pandemic.
- AFP /ls
AFP text, photos, graphics and logos shall not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP shall not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP content, or for any actions taken in consequence.
Copyright ? 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
World News ?
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 05 May 2006 0402 hrs
31 prototype bird flu vaccines undergoing human trials
PARIS - Thirty-one prototype vaccines against strains of bird flu are currently being tested on humans, but only six of them are configured for the fast-track manufacturing technique favoured by the United States in its flu initiative unveiled on Thursday.
The vaccine trials involve 15 companies in Europe, the United States and Australia, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).
Eight vaccines are already undergoing, or will undergo this year, so-called Phase II trials on humans, the second step in a three-phase process of testing for safety and effectiveness, the Geneva-based group said this week.
Three vaccines -- one from Chiron/Novartis and two from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) -- have already been submitted to the European Union (EU) for approval as so-called mock-up dossiers.
Under this, companies are able to file applications based on successful tests of a vaccine before the outbreak of a pandemic.
Once the actual pandemic virus strain has been identified, a variation to the core vaccine is made in order to incorporate that strain.
In the past century, flu pandemics have claimed tens of millions of lives.
The big fear is that a strain of flu that circulates among poultry, the H5N1 virus, could acquire genes that could make it highly contagious among humans.
As this has not yet happened, the present prototype vaccines are configured on the avian strain that, according to an official World Health Organisation (WHO) toll, has killed 113 humans through transmission from birds.
The hope is that these vaccines, if stockpiled, may provide some protection against a pandemic strain and could thus slow the spread of an outbreak.
They could also be swiftly adjusted to cope with the pandemic strain once it is identified, according to this hope.
Most of the 31 prototype vaccines target specific strains of the influenza virus. Twenty-two aim at H5N1, eight aim at H2N2, H5N3, H7N7, H7N1 and H9N2, which are also theoretical pandemic threats, while one formula, under development by the US firm Merck, focuses on a universal vaccine.
However, all but six of the 31 projects use the traditional technique of culturing vaccines in eggs, a process that is used to make seasonal flu vaccines but which is long viewed as too cumbersome for meeting the huge, immediate demands of a pandemic.
Five companies were selected on Thursday by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for contracts worth 1.004 billion dollars to develop a flu vaccine.
The firms have been asked specifically to come up with a vaccine that can be made from cell cultures, a technology used in many other vaccines.
Personal note: also a more handy and safe technique
Technology to make flu vaccines with specialized eggs is almost unchanged after half a century of use.
A study published last month in the British science journal Nature said that a vaccine that gave only 30-percent protection and had been stockpiled for a fifth of a country's population could reduce numbers of flu patients by a third if children were vaccinated within a few weeks of the start of the pandemic.
- AFP /ls
AFP text, photos, graphics and logos shall not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP shall not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP content, or for any actions taken in consequence.
Copyright ? 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.