Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Novavax reports positive preclinical results for H1N1 influenza VLP vaccine

Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) announced positive preclinical results with Novavax's 2009 novel H1N1 influenza virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine. The study, conducted by scientists from Novavax and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) based in Atlanta, GA, under a collaborative agreement, represents the first efficacy report of a 2009 novel H1N1 vaccine in ferrets. The ferret model is widely accepted to be the most appropriate animal model for evaluating influenza disease and vaccines. Novavax scientists designed the vaccine using recombinant virus like particles (VLP) technology against an H1N1 virus strain (A/California/04/2009) isolated in the beginning of the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.

19 Aug 2009

Research study highlights the biological importance of Vitamin D in humans and other primates

A new study has concluded that one key part of the immune system, the ability of vitamin D to regulate anti-bactericidal proteins, is so important that is has been conserved through almost 60 million years of evolution and is shared only by primates, including humans - but no other known animal species.

19 Aug 2009

Hard to Treat Diseases' swine flu clinical trials in progress

Hard to Treat Diseases (HTDS.PK) Mellow Hope, an operating subsidiary of HTDS, is pleased to report that its clinical trial is currently being processed.

19 Aug 2009

CSL Biotherapies to supply Afluria influenza vaccines from newly licensed packaging facility

CSL Biotherapies, a subsidiary of CSL Limited, one of the world's leading manufacturers of influenza vaccine, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has licensed the company’s newest vaccine filling and packaging facility, located in Kankakee, Ill. The facility, part of an investment to expand CSL’s U.S. influenza vaccine production capabilities, includes a high-speed, single-dose vaccine syringe filling line.

19 Aug 2009

New understanding on meningitis cause

A specific protein on the surface of a common bacterial pathogen allows the bacteria to leave the bloodstream and enter the brain, initiating the deadly infection known as meningitis. The new finding, which may guide development of improved vaccines to protect those most vulnerable, including young infants and the elderly, is now available online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

19 Aug 2009

New production technology to develop vaccine for norovirus

Scientists have used a new vaccine production technology to develop a vaccine for norovirus, a dreaded cause of diarrhea and vomiting that may be the second most common viral infection in the United States after the flu. Sometimes called the "cruise ship virus," this microbe can spread like wildfire through passenger liners, schools, offices and military bases.

19 Aug 2009

FDA places Geron Corporation's IND for spinal cord injury on clinical hold

Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) today announced that its IND (Investigational New Drug application) for GRNOPC1, a cell therapy for neurologically complete, subacute spinal cord injury, has been placed on clinical hold by the FDA pending the agency’s review of new nonclinical animal study data submitted by the company. A clinical hold is an order that the FDA issues to a sponsor to delay a proposed trial or to suspend an ongoing trial.

19 Aug 2009

H1N1 vaccine administration coverage from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire has announced that it will offer coverage for the administration of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine when it becomes commercially available to the general public. The vaccine administration will be covered for members whose benefit plans provide coverage for vaccines.

19 Aug 2009

Elsevier/Lancet launch H1N1 resource centre

An H1N1 influenza channel has been added to the Elsevier Global Medical News (EGMN) wire service division of the International Medical News Group. The H1N1 channel was created to meet physicians' continuing needs to keep up-to-date with the news about the spread of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, as well as the new diagnostics, vaccines, clinical trials, and treatments for H1N1 infections.

18 Aug 2009

H1N1 pandemic: no time for complacency

Prevention of H1N1 influenza virus through vaccination must be our top priority if disease patterns in the northern hemisphere follow those in the southern hemisphere this fall, writes Paul Hébert, Editor-in-Chief of CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) in an editorial.

18 Aug 2009

Opinion: Chronic disease in Africa; education can help combat disease; climate change and health; TB vaccine

"An epidemic of chronic, non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, mental illness, cancer, diabetes, and obesity is growing in Africa, a continent still struggling with infectious and nutritional diseases," according to a Boston Globe opinion piece by Michelle Holmes and Shona Dalal.

18 Aug 2009

New guidance on novel H1N1 influenza for K-12 schools

The Secretary of Health today released guidance on Novel H1N1, also known as swine flu, for elementary and secondary schools in an effort to keep kids and staff healthy and flu-free this school year.

17 Aug 2009

Associated Press examines use of oral polio vaccine in Nigeria

The Associated Press examines how the oral polio vaccine, "made from a live polio virus — albeit weakened," is contributing to the spread of the disease in Nigeria.

17 Aug 2009

GSK starts testing H1N1 vaccine; Opinion piece addresses U.S. role in helping developing countries procure vaccine

"GlaxoSmithKline has started testing its pandemic H1N1 swine flu vaccine in humans, and expects to start giving the results to government agencies next month, the drugmaker said on Friday," Reuters reports. The company "plans to conduct 16 different trials of the vaccine and to test 9,000 people in total across Europe, Canada and the United States," according to the news service (Deighton, 8/14).

17 Aug 2009

Biologist demystifies Acinetobacter baumannii

Tao Weitao, a researcher in the College of Sciences' Department of Biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio is making great strides in a project that was funded one year ago by the San Antonio Area Foundation. The professor in the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases is researching Acinetobacter baumannii, a soil-dwelling bacterium that threatens the health of military personnel in the Middle East and can also infect their family members once the soldiers have returned home following battle.

17 Aug 2009

New consortium to tackle African sleeping sickness and Leishmaniasis

A new consortium has been formed to boost drug development for the treatment of two deadly diseases, African sleeping sickness and Leishmaniasis, which affect millions of people worldwide.

17 Aug 2009

New target for Alzheimer's disease

For close to a decade, pharmaceutical researchers have been in hot pursuit of compounds to activate a key nicotine receptor that plays a role in cognitive processes. Triggering it, they hope, might prevent or even reverse the devastation wrought by Alzheimer’s disease.

16 Aug 2009

New microneedle-based injection device from Nanopass

Following the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of a swine flu pandemic, NanoPass Technologies Ltd. (NanoPass) announced today that it has successfully developed a microneedle-based injection device that could dramatically enhance both the effectiveness and supply of pandemic flu vaccines.

14 Aug 2009

Pharmathene reports Q2 2009 financials

PharmAthene, Inc. (NYSE Amex: PIP), a biodefense company developing medical countermeasures against biological and chemical threats, today reported financial and operational results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2009.

14 Aug 2009

New immune therapy for kidney cancer tested

Researchers at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) have opened a clinical trial to evaluate whether the standard treatment for a common form of kidney cancer works better by itself or when combined with a certain type of blood cell that comes from a patient’s relative. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

14 Aug 2009