Iomai reports success with traveler’s diarrhea patch

John Carroll — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:04:32 -0400

Iomai has racked up more positive data for its vaccine patch to prevent traveler's diarrhea. A new study details that only three of 59 volunteers who used the patch experienced a severe or moderate bout of diarrhea compared to 24 of 111 who were given a placebo. The three patch users who did get sick reported that the bout lasted for only a half day. No side effects were reported.

"These results suggest that the Iomai patch has the potential to fundamentally change the way we approach prevention of this disease, an ailment against which we now have very few weapons," says Dr. Herber L. DuPont, professor and director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas School of Public Health.

Iomai recently agreed to a takeover by Intercell.

- here's Iomai's release
- read the story in CTV

Iomai gets boost in bird flu vaccine adjuvant study

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:59:55 -0400

In a Phase I/II trial, three out of every four people in a study of 500 people using an adjuvant patch developed by Iomai achieved a protective immune response after a single dose. That compares to 49 percent who achieved a protective response after a single, unsupported dose of vaccine. The currently approved H5N1 vaccine requires two doses on its own to become fully effective. That's big news at Gaithersburg, MD-based Iomai, which has also reported success advancing a patch for traveler's diarrhea through mid-stage trials.

"The problem here is that we don't have any way to respond to a pandemic right now," Dr. Gregory Glenn, chief scientific officer at Iomai, tells us in an interview. There's an urgent need to improve the effectiveness of vaccines--and extend stockpiles--in the event a human outbreak occurs.

The trial report marks a particularly sweet moment for Glenn, whose early work in vaccine and adjuvant research at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research later developed into the patch technology advanced at Iomai. And every new insight of his hasn't been greeted with instantaneous applause from his peers.

"The scientists and I had a good laugh," says Glenn. "They were recalling when I first came up with the idea. They laughed at me, said it was crazy, using a patch on the skin to get improved immune response to a selected vaccine."

- check out the profile in FierceBiotech