AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/health/15933809.htm
Posted on Sun, Nov. 05, 2006
By Steve Johnson
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
<!-- begin body-content -->SAN JOSE, Calif. - On the hunt for a vaccine against bird flu, biotech companies are coming up with leads on something even better: a universal vaccine that works against all kinds of flu.
Some say it's possible the bird flu medicines they are developing could also provide improved treatments for the common winter flu and even allow people to get flu shots only once every few years.
Experts caution that much still needs to be done. But some claim to have found ways to boost flu vaccine potency by using special additives.
Others have devised methods to manufacture medicines quickly in an emergency, and to tackle the problem of the virus mutating into drug-resistant forms.
Since the bird flu virus took its first human life in Hong Kong in 1997, it has killed a relatively small number of people -- 151 people in 10 countries -- compared with the 36,000 people killed annually by the common flu in the United States alone. Still, many experts think bird flu will inevitably develop into a form that could spread across the globe in a pandemic that could leave many millions dead.
"Someday there will be a pandemic flu," said Anthony Fauci, head of the federal government's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Sooner or later, we're going to get it."
At least 28 bird-flu vaccines are under development by 13 companies worldwide, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations. One of the most intriguing is a so-called universal vaccine, which some people think could be useful against various strains of bird flu as well as seasonal flu.
Drug companies typically design their seasonal flu vaccines to generate antibodies that neutralize two proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, on flu viruses. But because these two proteins are prone to mutate, new vaccines tailored to their changing characteristics usually have to be made every year.
That variability could prove devastating if the bird flu virus suddenly mutates into a form that spreads quickly among people instead of just birds. Before vaccines could be manufactured to target the new virus, thousands of people could die.
However, scientists at Dynavax Technologies in Berkeley, Calif., think they have found a possible solution. They have developed a vaccine that targets two other common flu proteins, the nucleoprotein and matrix protein, which tend to remain stable. That way, even if some bird flu virus proteins mutate, Dynavax scientists say, their vaccine still would be effective against the proteins that didn't change.
Like most other drugs in the works to counter bird flu, the Dynavax vaccine is in an early stage of development. But on Oct. 20, the company presented data, at the Second International Conference on Influenza Vaccines for the World in Vienna, that showed it was effective in mice and baboons.
If it also proves effective in people, it could be used for bird flu or seasonal flu, said Gary Van Nest, Dynavax's vice president of preclinical research.
Moreover, because the vaccine presumably would work no matter how the flu virus mutated, one vaccination every three years or so might be sufficient to protect a person, he said.
As an added safeguard Dynavax plans to give its vaccine to people along with a standard vaccine that targets the mutating proteins.
"The best approach is to combine it with what we know works pretty well, and make it work very well," Van Nest said.
Scientists at Vical in San Diego have reported progress with a similar vaccine. And researchers at the University of Bath in England are trying to develop mutation-resistant versions of anti-viral drugs -- such as Tamiflu, developed by Gilead Sciences -- which would be used to treat people already infected with bird flu.
Another big problem that vaccine manufacturers face with bird flu is its novelty.
Because most people have been exposed to the seasonal flu virus at some time in their lives, they have developed some built-in immunity to it. But because bird flu is new, no previously developed immunity exists.
Consequently, unless some way can be found to boost people's immune systems, health officials fear they would need relatively large amounts of bird flu vaccine. That could require huge stockpiles of the vaccine, and perhaps force people to get more than one shot.
So a number of companies -- including Novartis, which , this year acquired Chiron and its vaccine research facilities in Emeryville, Calif. -- are adding boosters called adjuvants to their bird flu vaccines. Made of water and shark liver oil, Novartis' booster "kind of gets the body riled up a little more so the immune response is better," said company spokeswoman Alison Marquiss.
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Posted on Sun, Nov. 05, 2006
By Steve Johnson
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
<!-- begin body-content -->SAN JOSE, Calif. - On the hunt for a vaccine against bird flu, biotech companies are coming up with leads on something even better: a universal vaccine that works against all kinds of flu.
Some say it's possible the bird flu medicines they are developing could also provide improved treatments for the common winter flu and even allow people to get flu shots only once every few years.
Experts caution that much still needs to be done. But some claim to have found ways to boost flu vaccine potency by using special additives.
Others have devised methods to manufacture medicines quickly in an emergency, and to tackle the problem of the virus mutating into drug-resistant forms.
Since the bird flu virus took its first human life in Hong Kong in 1997, it has killed a relatively small number of people -- 151 people in 10 countries -- compared with the 36,000 people killed annually by the common flu in the United States alone. Still, many experts think bird flu will inevitably develop into a form that could spread across the globe in a pandemic that could leave many millions dead.
"Someday there will be a pandemic flu," said Anthony Fauci, head of the federal government's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Sooner or later, we're going to get it."
At least 28 bird-flu vaccines are under development by 13 companies worldwide, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations. One of the most intriguing is a so-called universal vaccine, which some people think could be useful against various strains of bird flu as well as seasonal flu.
Drug companies typically design their seasonal flu vaccines to generate antibodies that neutralize two proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, on flu viruses. But because these two proteins are prone to mutate, new vaccines tailored to their changing characteristics usually have to be made every year.
That variability could prove devastating if the bird flu virus suddenly mutates into a form that spreads quickly among people instead of just birds. Before vaccines could be manufactured to target the new virus, thousands of people could die.
However, scientists at Dynavax Technologies in Berkeley, Calif., think they have found a possible solution. They have developed a vaccine that targets two other common flu proteins, the nucleoprotein and matrix protein, which tend to remain stable. That way, even if some bird flu virus proteins mutate, Dynavax scientists say, their vaccine still would be effective against the proteins that didn't change.
Like most other drugs in the works to counter bird flu, the Dynavax vaccine is in an early stage of development. But on Oct. 20, the company presented data, at the Second International Conference on Influenza Vaccines for the World in Vienna, that showed it was effective in mice and baboons.
If it also proves effective in people, it could be used for bird flu or seasonal flu, said Gary Van Nest, Dynavax's vice president of preclinical research.
Moreover, because the vaccine presumably would work no matter how the flu virus mutated, one vaccination every three years or so might be sufficient to protect a person, he said.
As an added safeguard Dynavax plans to give its vaccine to people along with a standard vaccine that targets the mutating proteins.
"The best approach is to combine it with what we know works pretty well, and make it work very well," Van Nest said.
Scientists at Vical in San Diego have reported progress with a similar vaccine. And researchers at the University of Bath in England are trying to develop mutation-resistant versions of anti-viral drugs -- such as Tamiflu, developed by Gilead Sciences -- which would be used to treat people already infected with bird flu.
Another big problem that vaccine manufacturers face with bird flu is its novelty.
Because most people have been exposed to the seasonal flu virus at some time in their lives, they have developed some built-in immunity to it. But because bird flu is new, no previously developed immunity exists.
Consequently, unless some way can be found to boost people's immune systems, health officials fear they would need relatively large amounts of bird flu vaccine. That could require huge stockpiles of the vaccine, and perhaps force people to get more than one shot.
So a number of companies -- including Novartis, which , this year acquired Chiron and its vaccine research facilities in Emeryville, Calif. -- are adding boosters called adjuvants to their bird flu vaccines. Made of water and shark liver oil, Novartis' booster "kind of gets the body riled up a little more so the immune response is better," said company spokeswoman Alison Marquiss.
.
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