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Avian Flu Threat Boosts Vaccine Making

Posted on: Saturday, 5 November 2005, 00:00 CST

By Sabine Vollmer, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Nov. 3--Clutching an orange ticket reading "Admit One," Peter Young, chief executive of AlphaVax, was one of more than 500 politicians and public health leaders listening Tuesday to President Bush's $7.1 billion plan to take on bird flu.

Young received a White House invitation because AlphaVax is one of only a few U.S. companies working on an experimental vaccine to prevent a regular flu pandemic.

But other vaccine makers with Triangle operations are hoping to capture a piece of the avian flu business, and many say the government's efforts will boost overall vaccine making.

Young sees this as a chance to raise AlphaVax's profile, and hopes to get about $5 million needed to finish renovations of a manufacturing facility sitting idle.

"I went because an opportunity like this doesn't present itself all the time," Young said. "We hope to attract attention to our Š [proprietary technology] and to our manufacturing facility, so we can provide pandemic vaccines."

The bird flu strain that has swept poultry flocks from Asia to Europe in the past several years has killed 62 people. But that's half of the people who were infected. Bush's plan shows "how serious the government is taking this threat," Young said.

With a little help from the government, Young projects that AlphaVax, which employs about 50 now, could be producing 10 million to 20 million annual doses of pandemic vaccine in 18 months.

The Triangle's largest drug maker also has a large stake in the vaccine efforts.

GlaxoSmithKline plans to invest $100 million to increase production of Relenza, an antiviral drug that has been shown to lessen avian flu symptoms. The British drug maker, which has a U.S. headquarters in RTP and employs about 6,000 in the Triangle, also is moving quickly on developing experimental bird flu vaccines, as well as vaccines to prevent regular flu pandemics.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, GSK's chief executive, announced during the company's quarterly earnings report last week that GSK will spend $2 billion on research, development and manufacturing aimed at preventing or treating the flu and avian flu.

Analysts suspect GSK is trying to get a large contract to provide avian flu vaccine to the U.S. government. Chiron and Sanofi-Aventis, GSK's two main competitors, have already gotten contracts worth $100 million and $62.5 million. GSK spokeswoman Pattie Seif said the company is interested in working with the U.S. government.

The Bush plan includes up to $2.2 billion to buy and stockpile vaccine for 20 million people and antiviral drugs to reduce the flu's severity, about $2.8 billion for research to speed vaccine development and $130 million to help drug makers prepare for a possible surge in demand. Bush said he also would urge Congress to shield vaccine makers from product liability lawsuits.

The plan's scope -- and the threat of a pandemic -- has attracted the attention of vaccine makers that don't even have the facilities to make flu vaccines.

Wyeth makes vaccines for children and doesn't have the manufacturing capabilities for flu vaccines. But the company, which employs about 1,200 at its manufacturing campus in Sanford, would be happy to fill and finish avian flu shots, said company spokesman Chris Garland.

CEOs of Wyeth and Merck joined their counterparts at GSK, Chiron and Sanofi-Aventis for a meeting with Bush last month. Merck, which is building a vaccine manufacturing plant in Durham, did not return calls.

None of this activity will reduce the flu vaccine shortage this winter or offer protection should the avian flu virus make its way to North America next year.

Rather, the Bush administration wants to give drug makers a head start. Developing and manufacturing a vaccine is usually a lengthy process. Manufacturing alone can take a year.

And the drug makers are eager to please the governments that are their customers.

Mandatory immunizations, the lack of generic competition and the emphasis on preventive medicine have all given drug makers more of a financial incentive to make vaccines.

"It's real that people have gotten infected," said Gbola Amusa, a Sanford Bernstein analyst in London who tracks large pharmaceutical companies, including GSK. "It's real that the avian flu virus can mutate and [cause a human pandemic]. The threat is real."

But it also is real that helping the U.S. government face the avian flu threat creates political goodwill that is likely to spill over to the companies' other vaccine business, Amusa said. "Having a high presence in the flu vaccine and bird flu vaccine probably matters."

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GSK, CHIR, SNY, SAN, MRK,

Source: The News & Observer

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