Sanofi-Aventis: bird flu vaccine trial showed high immune response at low dose

[Gert van der Hoek]

Sanofi-Aventis: bird flu vaccine trial showed high immune response at low dose

September 18, 2007

PARIS, Sep. 18, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY) said a clinical trial of its H5N1 avian influenza vaccine achieved a high immune response at the lowest dose of antigen reported to date.

The company said a vaacine containing only 1.9 micrograms of antigen generated a high level of seroprotective immune response in over 70 pct of the participants in the trial.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-19641681.htm

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Sanofi-Aventis: bird flu vaccine trial showed high immune response at low dose

Sanofi-Aventis: bird flu vaccine trial showed high response at low dose UPDATE

(adding details of trial) PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Sanofi-Aventis said a clinical trial of its H5N1 avian influenza vaccine has achieved a high immune response at the lowest dose of antigen reported to date.

The company said a vaccine containing only 1.9 micrograms of antigen generated a high level of seroprotective immune response in over 70 pct of the participants in the trial, which was conducted by vaccines unit Sanofi Pasteur.

When fully developed, this reduced-dose vaccine could increase the company's potential production capacities to billions of doses in a pandemic, Sanofi-Aventis said.

The company said the new vaccine tested was produced from inactivated H5N1 virus and contains a new adjuvant, or modifying agent, aimed at stimulating the immune system to increase the response to the vaccine.

Preliminary data also show good cross-reactivity to a more recently circulating H5N1 strain, Sanofi-Aventis said, and further assessment is continuing of the vaccine's ability to provide cross-protection to variants of the H5N1 strains.

Sanofi-Aventis said that it has committed, in the event of a pandemic being declared by the World Health Organization, to producing the largest possible number of doses of its most advanced pandemic influenza vaccine in the shortest possible time.

http://www.sharewatch.com/story.php?storynumber=28017

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Sanofi-Aventis: bird flu vaccine trial showed high immune response at low dose

Sanofi Says Tiny Dose of Pandemic Flu Shot Worked in Study

By Angela Cullen

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aBEE0crznMdM&refer=europe

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Sanofi-Aventis SA said a tiny dose of an experimental shot against pandemic flu helped protect 70 percent of volunteers in a clinical study, which may lead to a vaccine that can protect billions of people.

The world's largest maker of influenza vaccines used just 1.9 micrograms, a fraction of a normal dose, in a test on 266 healthy adults in Belgium, the Paris-based company's Sanofi Pasteur unit said in an e-mailed statement today. A shot containing 3.75 micrograms of antigen worked for 80 percent of the test subjects.

``Once fully developed, this vaccine should give Sanofi Pasteur the potential to provide billions of doses in a pandemic situation,'' the company said in the statement.

Sanofi was the first company to win preliminary U.S. approval for a pandemic flu vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration in April cleared a shot that worked for less than half of the people inoculated. More than 300 people worldwide have been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus since 2003, and 200 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

Bird flu infections raise the risk that the virus mutates and becomes capable of jumping from human to human, rather than just from bird to person, causing a pandemic because people have no immunity to the virus.

The U.S. government already has bought millions of doses of Sanofi's original vaccine for emergency stockpiles. The shots are worth having until more effective products can be developed, FDA officials said in April. GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG are also developing pandemic flu immunizations.

Sanofi used a new adjuvant, or an additive that allows smaller amounts of viral antigens to be used in each dose, to achieve the lowest level yet for a pandemic flu vaccine.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Cullen in Frankfurt at acullen8@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: September 18, 2007 04:37 EDT

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Sanofi-Aventis: bird flu vaccine trial showed high immune response at low dose

A presentation from Sanofi-Aventis, for Flu start at page 119:

http://en.sanofi-aventis.com/Images/070917_slides_en_tcm24-18814.pdf