Vaxin develops 'revolutionary' flu vaccine
Vaccine is said to offer significant potential advantages over traditional products
US biotechnology company Vaxin, of Birmingham, Alabama, is developing an influenza vaccine that is said to offer significant potential advantages over traditional products in both its method of manufacture and its method of delivery.
The Vaxin influenza vaccine, which has been tested in both proof-of-principle animal studies and a Phase I human clinical trial, employs a recombinant adenovirus to deliver an influenza antigen to the nose, where it stimulates a protective immune response. Vaccine delivery to the nose may stimulate multiple arms of the immune system, offering protection at least as good as traditional flu vaccines. And because the virus is inactivated, it does not have some of the issues associated with live-virus vaccines, the company says.
Currently, all flu vaccines are produced in chicken eggs, whereas Vaxin produces its vaccine in cell culture. Among the benefits is that product availability is not dependent on the long lead times required to secure chicken eggs every year, which may be important especially in the event of a pandemic. In addition, the use of cell culture manufacturing eliminates the possibility of contamination with the avian flu virus, a risk inherent in egg-based production.
The Vaxin process provides higher yields, greater quantities in a faster timeframe, and more reliable manufacturing than the egg-based process. Furthermore, it is not dependent on how well a particular strain grows in eggs. Finally, because the Vaxin process does not need to be adapted to grow in eggs to achieve higher yields, the Vaxin vaccine is 'truer' to the strains picked by the regulatory agencies.
'We will be conducting additional Phase I and Phase II clinical trials in 2005 and 2006 for our nasal delivery influenza vaccine,' said Dr Frank Cano, chairman and ceo of Vaxin. 'Although the Vaxin influenza vaccine is several years from commercialisation, we are pioneering a new technology that in the future could solve many of the problems associated with today's traditional flu vaccines.'
