Pharma rises to swine flu challenge with early vaccine data from Lipoxen, CEL-SCI etc.

The growing threat of a worldwide swine flu pandemic has prompted a flurry of activity from biopharmaceutical firm hoping to develop a  vaccine against the potentially life-threatening disease.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of  Sciences shows that Aflunov, Novartis' pre-pandemic avian influenza  vaccine formulated with the Swiss drug major's MF59 adjuvant, can elicit  a broadly cross-reactive immune response covering all known H5N1  antigenic variants, even when that booster dose is administered six  years after the initial priming dose.

According to the Basel-based company, the data show that the adjuvanted  vaccine elicited a long-lasting immune response that could be rapidly  boosted following a single dose of the product. It noted that this may  provide public health officials additional flexibility to help protect  citizens well in advance of an avian influenza pandemic. The study also  showed that the adjuvanted vaccine created an immune memory not only  against the H5N1 strain contained in the product but also provided  cross-protection against several other H5N1 strains.