Giuseppe
Emeritus
[fluWho - Sunshine Project]
US Government Bids Out Prepandemic Vaccine Contract
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On July 31, the US government released a solicitation for bids to produce prepandemic H5N1 vaccine for a national stockpile.
The bidding requires the vaccine be made in the same US-licensed facilities and with the same processes as currently used for trivalent egg-based seasonal vaccines, and for the jab to be effective at 15 micrograms a dose.
The solicitation guarantees an initial request for 250,000 doses per year, but the actual order could range as high as 50,000,000 doses.
The US health ministry will prescribe the exact "qualified virus reference strains" to be used in the vaccine.
If produced at a facility outside the US, the contract requires that the vaccine (and adjuvant) be immediately shipped to and stored in the United States.
According to the solicitation document, previous H5N1 vaccine contracts for the US government have produced "several million" doses of vaccine utilizing strains originating in Vietnam (A/Vietnam/ 1203/2004), Indonesia (A/Indonesia/05/2005), and China (A/Bar-headed / Goose/QuinghaiLake/1A/05 and A/Anhui/01/2005).
Recent US government subsidies to the vaccine industry have stimulated new vaccine plant construction in the US, which may increase capacity
in coming years.
To download a PDF of the documents: https://www.fbo.gov/utils/view?id=c2ee00524d9d9925557fbf8bc6572ea5
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Canadian Vaccine Maker Explores Building Plant in France
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Quebec City-based Medicago says it may build an influenza vaccine plant in France, to complement a 14,000 square foot facility in Canada. Medicago's candidate H5N1 vaccine uses virus-like particles (VLPs, i.e. proteins) produced in a "transient expression system" in plants (i.e. the plants are infected with a genetic construct containing H5N1 genes, and then the proteins produced are harvested for use in vaccines).
The company is tight-lipped with details about the production system. According to Medicago press releases, the most recent batches of its experimental vaccine have been produced using an Indonesian strain of H5N1.
See: http://www.medicago.com
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Avir Green Hills Biotech to Trial New Vaccine
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The Austrian biotech company with the funny name (we'll call it Green Hills), announced last month that it will begin human trials of its "deltaFLU" vaccine.
Developed with European Union subsidies, the H5N1 vaccine is a live attenuated influenza strain produced in cell culture.
Green Hills claims to have optimized reverse genetic methods to produce vaccines against any strain, and has a collaboration with Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York (where one method of influenza reverse genetics was invented).
A detailed description of the vaccine strain could not be found; but, based on other publications, it appears to be a replication- incompetent virus in which the influenza NS1 gene has been deleted or disabled.
We could not determine which influenza strain(s) is or are being used to produce the trial vaccines.
"deltaFLU" is an intransal (i.e. aerosol) vaccine and was developed in collaboration with Russian researchers.
See: http://www.greenhillsbiotech.com/news.html
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Vical Promises New DNA Vaccine
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Add San Diego, California-based Vical to the ever-lengthening list of companies claiming a "breakthrough" in influenza vaccine technology.
Vical's vaccine involves creation of a DNA plasmid that, when used as a vaccine, prompts production of a immunogenic protein in the body
(e.g. an influenza HA). The company also uses a proprietary adjuvant.
For pandemic influenza vaccines, the company has worked with St. Jude's Hospital (a WHO Collaborating Center) in tests.
The vaccines are currently in early human trials. To date, the company says it has used a Vietnamese strain (A/Vietnam/1203/04) in its plasmid vaccine.
See: http://www.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUSN16332078
...
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http://lists.sunshine-project.org/lists/info/flu
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US Government Bids Out Prepandemic Vaccine Contract
---------------------------------------------------
On July 31, the US government released a solicitation for bids to produce prepandemic H5N1 vaccine for a national stockpile.
The bidding requires the vaccine be made in the same US-licensed facilities and with the same processes as currently used for trivalent egg-based seasonal vaccines, and for the jab to be effective at 15 micrograms a dose.
The solicitation guarantees an initial request for 250,000 doses per year, but the actual order could range as high as 50,000,000 doses.
The US health ministry will prescribe the exact "qualified virus reference strains" to be used in the vaccine.
If produced at a facility outside the US, the contract requires that the vaccine (and adjuvant) be immediately shipped to and stored in the United States.
According to the solicitation document, previous H5N1 vaccine contracts for the US government have produced "several million" doses of vaccine utilizing strains originating in Vietnam (A/Vietnam/ 1203/2004), Indonesia (A/Indonesia/05/2005), and China (A/Bar-headed / Goose/QuinghaiLake/1A/05 and A/Anhui/01/2005).
Recent US government subsidies to the vaccine industry have stimulated new vaccine plant construction in the US, which may increase capacity
in coming years.
To download a PDF of the documents: https://www.fbo.gov/utils/view?id=c2ee00524d9d9925557fbf8bc6572ea5
-
-----
Canadian Vaccine Maker Explores Building Plant in France
--------------------------------------------------------
Quebec City-based Medicago says it may build an influenza vaccine plant in France, to complement a 14,000 square foot facility in Canada. Medicago's candidate H5N1 vaccine uses virus-like particles (VLPs, i.e. proteins) produced in a "transient expression system" in plants (i.e. the plants are infected with a genetic construct containing H5N1 genes, and then the proteins produced are harvested for use in vaccines).
The company is tight-lipped with details about the production system. According to Medicago press releases, the most recent batches of its experimental vaccine have been produced using an Indonesian strain of H5N1.
See: http://www.medicago.com
-
-----
Avir Green Hills Biotech to Trial New Vaccine
----------------------------------------------
The Austrian biotech company with the funny name (we'll call it Green Hills), announced last month that it will begin human trials of its "deltaFLU" vaccine.
Developed with European Union subsidies, the H5N1 vaccine is a live attenuated influenza strain produced in cell culture.
Green Hills claims to have optimized reverse genetic methods to produce vaccines against any strain, and has a collaboration with Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York (where one method of influenza reverse genetics was invented).
A detailed description of the vaccine strain could not be found; but, based on other publications, it appears to be a replication- incompetent virus in which the influenza NS1 gene has been deleted or disabled.
We could not determine which influenza strain(s) is or are being used to produce the trial vaccines.
"deltaFLU" is an intransal (i.e. aerosol) vaccine and was developed in collaboration with Russian researchers.
See: http://www.greenhillsbiotech.com/news.html
-
------
Vical Promises New DNA Vaccine
-------------------------------
Add San Diego, California-based Vical to the ever-lengthening list of companies claiming a "breakthrough" in influenza vaccine technology.
Vical's vaccine involves creation of a DNA plasmid that, when used as a vaccine, prompts production of a immunogenic protein in the body
(e.g. an influenza HA). The company also uses a proprietary adjuvant.
For pandemic influenza vaccines, the company has worked with St. Jude's Hospital (a WHO Collaborating Center) in tests.
The vaccines are currently in early human trials. To date, the company says it has used a Vietnamese strain (A/Vietnam/1203/04) in its plasmid vaccine.
See: http://www.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUSN16332078
...
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http://lists.sunshine-project.org/lists/info/flu
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