Novartis: Data supports pre-pandemic vax campaign

John Carroll — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:07:24 -0400

Investigators are touting new data that shows Novartis' pre-pandemic flu vaccine Aflunov can deliver swift protection to people primed with the MF59-adjuvanted vaccine up to six years earlier. Those people primed with the adjuvanted vaccine developed immunity seven days after a booster shot.

That sort of response could help immensely in the event of a pandemic and supports efforts to launch a pre-pandemic immunization campaign. If health workers can protect people from a bird flu outbreak with a single booster shot, they could rapidly offer protection to a large population.

"These data highlight the potential for priming the public against an avian influenza of pandemic proportion with the MF59 adjuvant. The results indicate that regardless of which avian strain individuals are originally primed with, they are quickly protected against a broad range of avian strains following their MF59-adjuvanted booster vaccine, even strains they were not initially inoculated against," said study investigator Iain Stephenson M.R.C.P., Infectious Diseases Unit, University Hospitals Leicester and Department of Inflammation, Infection and Immunity, University of Leicester, UK.

- check out the Novartis release

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