Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Sinovac completes construction of H1N1 virus seed bank

Sinovac Biotech announced today that it has completed construction of the H1N1 virus seed bank necessary to produce a virus antigen.

16 Jun 2009

Agencies and health departments prepare for swine flu

Governments and drug companies are struggling with efforts to prepare for a possible resurgence of swine flu in the fall as well as questioning who should receive swine flu vaccines as they ramp up production.

15 Jun 2009

GlaxoSmithKline to cut some drug costs in emerging markets

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plans to decrease the prices of many of its leading medicines in emerging markets following the success of a pilot program in the Philippines, Andrew Witty, GSK's chief executive, said, Financial Times reports. Witty said the price cuts are part of an effort to diversify and expand globally.

15 Jun 2009

Reuters examines WHO efforts to fight H1N1 in developing countries

Reuters examines the WHO's battle against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in "[d]eveloping countries, where medical care systems are weak and supplies of antivirals insufficient." In addition to "supplying countries with diagnostic kits, medicines and masks and gloves to protect health care workers and minimize the further spread of the new virus," the WHO is continuing to distribute doses of the antiviral Tamiflu, which has been "shown to be effective so far against H1N1," according to Reuters.

15 Jun 2009

Cancer immunotherapy can use small numbers of ‘stem-like’ immune cells to destroy large tumors in mice

A new approach to stimulating immune cells enhances their anticancer activity, resulting in a powerful anti-tumor response in mice, according to a study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health. This work represents an important advance in the development of immunotherapy for cancer and appears online June 14, 2009 in Nature Medicine.

15 Jun 2009

To flu experts, 'pandemic' confirms the obvious

"It came as no surprise on Thursday when the World Health Organization declared that the swine flu outbreak had become a pandemic," The New York Times reports.

13 Jun 2009

Drugstores group sues Delaware over Medicaid cutbacks

Walgreen Co.'s member organization in Delaware has "filed a suit against the state to put a stop to Medicaid rate cuts" just one week after "Walgreens announced it will stop filling prescriptions of brand-name medications for patients on Medicaid" in Delaware, the News Journal reports.

13 Jun 2009

Global Post articles examine Malaria worldwide

Global Post examines the quest for an effective vaccine to fight malaria. According to Global Post, "epidemiologists are pinning their hopes on a malaria vaccine" because "[k]illing mosquitoes, or avoiding bites, is an imprecise solution to malaria."

13 Jun 2009

Wall Street Journal examines program to spur vaccine development for developing world diseases

The Wall Street Journal examines a $1.5 billion program supported by Italy, the U.K., Canada, Russia, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that hopes "to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines for diseases common to poor countries," which is expected to be announced Friday "on the sidelines of a meeting of top finance officials from the Group of Eight major industrial powers."

13 Jun 2009

Declaration of H1N1 pandemic to accelerate H1N1 vaccine production

The WHO's decision Thursday to declare H1N1 (swine) flu a pandemic will "speed the production of a vaccine against the new virus," however scientists continue to caution that "it will be fall at the earliest before the first doses are available," the Los Angeles Times reports.

13 Jun 2009

90 per cent of the world's population won't have access to antivirals in pandemic - generic drugs may help though

Almost 90 per cent of the world's population will not have timely access to affordable supplies of vaccines and antiviral agents in the current influenza pandemic, but it is possible that inexpensive generic drugs that are readily available, even in developing countries, could save millions of lives.

13 Jun 2009

Bioprocess increases vaccine yield

Empa researchers have managed to adapt a process for manufacturing certain vaccines - in particular that against Haemophilus influenzæ bacteria - for use in bioreactors, with the result that the yield is enhanced enormously.

12 Jun 2009

Don't panic because there's a pandemic!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially raised the level of the swine flu alert to 6 - the highest level - and declared the outbreak a pandemic following an emergency meeting.

12 Jun 2009

Spike in Australian H1N1 cases could lead WHO to declare pandemic

The H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak could soon be declared the first flu pandemic in 41 years after a recent jump in the number of confirmed cases in Australia, WHO officials said Tuesday, the AP/Google.com reports (Jordans, AP/Google.com, 6/9).

10 Jun 2009

GlaxoSmithKline opens pneumonia vaccine plant In Singapore

Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on Tuesday opened a $600 million plant in Singapore that is slated to begin producing vaccines to fight pneumonia-causing bacteria in 2011, Reuters reports.

10 Jun 2009

Philippines Health Secretary warns of impending Dengue threat

With the start of the rainy season, Francisco Duque III, health secretary in the Philippines, on Tuesday emphasized a continued government commitment to controlling and preventing dengue - a disease for which there is currently no vaccine or specific drug, the Manila Times reports.

10 Jun 2009

AP/Washington Post examines experimental malaria vaccine, mutant mosquitoes to combat malaria

During the 1990s, Sanaria CEO Stephen Hoffman "irradiated malaria-carrying mosquitoes to weaken the parasites inside them, and he and 13 colleagues subjected themselves to more than 1,000 bites," according to the AP/Washington Post.

9 Jun 2009

Sinovac begins production of H1N1 vaccine

Sinovac Biotech Ltd. announced today that it begins the production of a vaccine against influenza A (H1N1) virus. The virus seed was received from U.S. CDC and was delivered to the company on June 8, 2009.

9 Jun 2009

3-day polio, measles vaccination campaign launched in Uganda

Uganda on Saturday launched a three-day polio and measles immunization campaign, Possy Mugyenyi, the country's immunization manager, said, UGPulse.com reports (Nyanzi, UGPulse.com, 6/5). More than 6 million children are being targeted, IRIN reports (IRIN, 6/5).

9 Jun 2009

WHO to incorporate disease severity into pandemic alert scale

A meeting of the WHO's emergency committee held Friday to discuss the H1N1 (swine) flu ended without a pandemic declaration, but experts concluded that declarations would now be based upon the severity and transmission pattern of a virus, Reuters reports (Nebehay, Reuters, 6/5). "The Emergency Committee is composed of international experts and its task is to give advice to the WHO chief on influenza outbreak responses," according to Xinhua writes (Xinhua, 6/6).

9 Jun 2009