Glaxo ?will have bird flu vaccine next year?

[Snowy Owl]

Glaxo ?will have bird flu vaccine next year?
​

http://www.thebusinessonline.com
​

GLAXOSMITHKLINE, Britain?s biggest drug maker, is confident it will have a bird flu vaccine ready for the first half of next year as fears of a global pandemic grow.

With the UK?s first H5N1 case confirmed in Fife, Scotland, last week and dead birds in other parts of the UK being tested, new urgency has been added to the need for an affective vaccine.

GSK is one of a handful of companies at the forefront of flu vaccine development. The pharmaceutical giant has invested ?1.2bn (E1.7bn, $2.1bn) upgrading its vaccine facilities in the past six to eight months as it prepares to beat rival drug companies in the race to produce effective protection against the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu.

A spokesman for the company confirmed it is in talks with European governments about their plans to stockpile GSK?s bird flu vaccine. Some analysts estimate governments will collectively demand around a billion doses.

If GSK was able to meet about half this demand, it could be lucrative for the company. No one yet knows how much each jab might cost, although one analyst estimated ?2.50 a dose.

Ten days ago, GSK started an international clinical trial programme to test two pandemic vaccines against the H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus in humans.

One trial, in Germany, involves 400 volunteers who will be injected with a ?whole? version of the current H5N1 virus mixed with aluminium, a standard chemical ?adjuvant? which is capable of boosting the human immune response and cuts the amount of the vaccine needed.

In a separate trial in Belgium, 400 healthy adults are testing another version of the vaccine, made using GSK?s novel adjuvant system, which the company hopes will enable an individual to develop an immune response to different strains of the H5N1 virus, therefore offering broader protection against the threat of a global pandemic.

Speaking at the launch of the two trials, David Stout, president of GSK?s pharmaceutical operations, described the scenario of a global outbreak of the disease as ?scary? for people.

He said: ?There are three scenarios. It never comes and people say it was overhyped. It comes faster and harder than anticipated and people say we have not done enough. Or we move as fast as it does.?

GSK is gearing up to increase its output of seasonal flu vaccines from 30m doses to 150m by 2008.

Last year GSK generated seasonal flu vaccine sales of ?106m out of a ?700m market globally. It hopes to increase its share of the global market, which it estimates will rise to ?2bn by 2010.
Its main rivals in the race to dominate the global flu market include France?s Sanofi-Aventis.

 

[Tan06]

Re: Glaxo ?will have bird flu vaccine next year?

When I read the comment of Henry Niman march 31 2006, about the trouble with vaccins, and combine that with his comment on the Turkish siblings in his comment of H5N1 in Liaoning China april 6,

"Moreover, the tree suggests that the isolates from the index case and his sister are identical. Since the report also indicates that the isolate from the index case has S227N, it seems that the tree contradicts media reports indicating that the sister's isolate did not contain S227N. This initial report may be related to how the sisters isolate was cultured. Culturing in chicken eggs would select against S227N, but growth on mammalian cells like MDCK would increase the likelihood of detection of changes in the receptor binding domain that would increase affinity to mammalian receptors."


would it be sensible then to produce vaccins in chicken eggs, or can the breeding tissue be of influence on the appropriateness of a vaccin for H5N1?
Or am I thinking too complicated?

 

[DB]

Re: Glaxo ?will have bird flu vaccine next year?

"One trial, in Germany, involves 400 volunteers who will be injected with a “whole” version of the current H5N1 virus mixed with aluminium, a standard chemical “adjuvant” which is capable of boosting the human immune response and cuts the amount of the vaccine needed."

One possible way the pandemic starts:

Guy in lab coat: Would you like to test our new unproven vaccine for one of the most lethal viruses known to man.
Guniea Pig: Hmmm....I'll pass.
Guy in lab coat: We will give you $200
Guniea Pig: Make it $300 and 2 pints and you got a deal
Guy in lab coat: Done.

 

[Mellie]

Re: Glaxo ?will have bird flu vaccine next year?

Ten days ago, GSK started an international clinical trial programme to test two pandemic vaccines against the H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus in humans.

One trial, in Germany, involves 400 volunteers who will be injected with a ?whole? version of the current H5N1 virus mixed with aluminium, a standard chemical ?adjuvant? which is capable of boosting the human immune response and cuts the amount of the vaccine needed.

In a separate trial in Belgium, 400 healthy adults are testing another version of the vaccine, made using GSK?s novel adjuvant system, which the company hopes will enable an individual to develop an immune response to different strains of the H5N1 virus, therefore offering broader protection against the threat of a global pandemic.

That virus in the middle paragraph above must be a typo. I think they meant vaccine. It doesn't make sense otherwise???? Am I mis-reading? Maybe I stayed up too late last night...

Time for beddie bye...