Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Deal between GSK, Brazil to strengthen country's pharmaceutical R&D

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Chief Executive Andrew Witty on Friday announced Brazil has agreed to buy roughly $2.2 billion of the company's vaccine for pneumococcal disease, Synflorix, for a period of at least eight years, in exchange for a technology transfer, eventually allowing Brazil to manufacture the vaccine itself, the Wall Street Journal reports.

29 Sep 2009

International Medica Foundation sponsors rotavirus vaccine trial in Ghana

More than half a million children – or 1,400 to 1,600 each day – die from rotavirus, the most common cause of severe childhood diarrhea. Almost all of these deaths occur in developing countries, where lifesaving medical care may not be affordable or available to the families with the most critical needs. In addition, income loss due to the need for parents to take care of sick children can have a very significant economic burden on families that can least afford it.

29 Sep 2009

Flu shots available at Concentra Urgent Care locations

The flu season is in full swing, and health officials predict this year’s outbreak of seasonal influenza to be stronger than usual. To help protect against this highly contagious illness, Concentra is offering seasonal flu vaccines at more than 300 medical centers across the country.

29 Sep 2009

Additional countries to join in donating H1N1 vaccines to developing countries, U.N official says

Additional countries are expected to soon announce they will follow in the footsteps of nine developed countries who recently said they would donate H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine supplies to poorer nations, David Nabarro, of the U.N. said Friday, Reuters reports.

29 Sep 2009

Secretary of State Clinton announces food security initiative

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday "unveiled … a food security initiative launched by the Obama administration to combat hunger worldwide," the Associated Press reports.

28 Sep 2009

Government plans intense monitoring for swine flu vaccine side effects

Although health officials say they have no reason to expect any unusual problems with the vaccine that will likely be available next month, the government is establishing an extensive tracking system to watch for possible side effects, the Associated Press/Washington Post report.

28 Sep 2009

Merck to distribute Afluria in the U.S. for CSL Biotherapies

CSL Biotherapies and its parent company, CSL Limited, one of the world's leading manufacturers of influenza vaccine, have reached an agreement with Merck & Co., Inc. on rights to market and distribute Afluria® in the United States under an exclusive, six-year agreement effective September 3, 2009.

28 Sep 2009

Presentations on Inovio Biomedical's electroporation-delivered DNA vaccines

Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today it will make multiple presentations at the Vaccine 3rd Global Congress being held in Singapore October 4th – 6th.

28 Sep 2009

WellPoint covers administration costs for H1N1 vaccines

Each year, influenza causes illness, hospitalizations and deaths, and severely strains the health care delivery system. This year, seasonal flu is complicated by the emergence and rapid spread of the H1N1 virus. In an effort to ensure that individuals and their families can take the appropriate actions to help protect themselves against the H1N1 virus, WellPoint's affiliated health plans will cover the administration of the H1N1 vaccine without co-pay or deductible for all health plan members. Plans also are encouraging self-insured employers to cover the cost of the vaccination for their employees.

28 Sep 2009

Merck, Qiagen pledge cervical cancer tools at CGI, meeting highlights effects of gender inequality

Drugmaker Merck & Co. announced Wednesday at the Clinton Global Initiative's (CGI) annual meeting in New York that it will "donate more than $500 million of its Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine" with the goal of improving women's health in developing countries, Bloomberg reports.

From QIAGEN Manchester Limited 28 Sep 2009

Phase 2 clinical trial results of IMO-2055 announced

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced the presentation of final data from a clinical trial evaluating IMO-2055, an agonist of Toll-like Receptor (TLR) 9, as monotherapy in patients with Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC). The data are being presented during the Eighth International Kidney Cancer Symposium being held in Chicago, September 25-26, 2009.

28 Sep 2009

H1N1 vaccine for limited supply only to people at highest risk

The novel H1N1 virus (Swine Flu Virus) is expected to complicate the 2009/2010 flu season. The H1N1 vaccine has been approved for release but availability and access is still unknown. Seasonal influenza vaccine (flu shot) is available and the CDC recommends vaccination over the next few months.

28 Sep 2009

Investigational vaccine regimen 31% effective in preventing HIV infection

In an encouraging development, an investigational vaccine regimen has been shown to be well-tolerated and to have a modest effect in preventing HIV infection in a clinical trial involving more than 16,000 adult participants in Thailand. Following a final analysis of the trial data, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, the trial sponsor, announced today that the prime-boost investigational vaccine regimen was safe and 31 percent effective in preventing HIV infection.

27 Sep 2009

EMS provides free resources for protection against swine flu

Emergency Management & Safety Solutions (EMS), the crisis planner for many Fortune 100 companies, international government agencies and large non-profit organizations, is providing free resources to help people prepare for, prevent transmission of and take care of the ill to survive this wave of this year’s H1N1 flu pandemic. Today, over 180 countries have experienced the H1N1 virus outbreak and at least 3,486 people have died – including 1,000 Americans.

26 Sep 2009

GenVec to receive $2.3M from NIAID for HIV vaccine candidate production

GenVec, Inc. announced today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has executed its third option period (year four) under a previously announced, five-year contract with GenVec valued at up to $52 million for the production of HIV vaccines.

26 Sep 2009

Researchers discover potential treatment for Friedreich's ataxia

Using clever chemistry, a Scripps Research team has pinpointed the enzyme target of a drug group that stops the progression of the devastating disease Friedreich's ataxia in mice and may do the same for humans. The findings, developed in collaboration with scientists from Repligen Corporation, help advance this treatment approach one step closer toward human clinical trials, which will be a welcome event for disease sufferers who currently have few treatment options.

25 Sep 2009

Associated Press/Washington Post examine contributions of military research to reducing global disease burden

In light of the U.S. Army's announcement yesterday that an experimental HIV vaccine trial it is sponsoring in Thailand showed modest potential for preventing infection, the Associated Press/Washington Post examines how military research is contributing to the fight against major diseases around the world.

25 Sep 2009

WHO lowers expectation of H1N1 vaccine output, appeals for donations to fight pandemic

International drug makers are expected to produce three billion doses of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine, "enough for just under half the world's population," a WHO official said Thursday, Canwest News Service/Ottawa Citizen reports. "The agency was hoping pharmaceutical companies would be able to make about five billion doses a year, but data collected over the summer led to the revised estimate," the news service writes (Fitzpatrick, 9/24).

25 Sep 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

A study appearing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases explores how well access to safe drinking water reduces rates of diarrhea experienced by 6-month-old infants born to HIV-infected mothers following weaning.

25 Sep 2009

Health officials anticipate 6 million H1N1 vaccine doses by early October

U.S. health officials announced Thursday that "[m]ore than six million doses of swine flu vaccine will be available by the first week in October, more that twice as many as had been recently expected," The New York Times reports.

25 Sep 2009