Acambis Bird Flu Jab Now Ready for Trials

By Tracey Boles Chief Reporter

ACAMBIS, the London-listed vaccine maker, will announce on Tuesday that its pandemic flu vaccine a potential prophylactic against bird flu is ready to enter clinical trials. The company is showcasing the product as part of a research and development day alongside its third-quarter results. It is hoped the vaccine, one of two potential flu treatments in the companys pipeline, will be effective against all strains of flu during a pandemic.

Also on show will be a revolutionary universal flu vaccine in early stage pre-clinical trials. The once-in-a-lifetime innoculation will eliminate the need for flu jabs to be administered each year.

Human flu is caused by two influenza strains, A and B. The killer bird flu virus H5N1 is a derivative of the A strain. The pandemic vaccine is being developed to tackle the A strain while the universal vaccine should act against A and B.

The pandemic vaccine, in pre-clinical trials, will be manufactured using new technology which removes the need for traditional egg-based production methods saving time and cost.

Companies are racing to find treatments and vaccines for bird flu before it jumps the species barrier to humans. Those with existing treatments that may be effective against bird flu such as Roche and GlaxoSmithKline are stepping up production. Roche makes Tamiflu and GSK an inhalable drug called Relenza. The UK plans to build a stockpile of influenza drugs which will probably include both drugs.

Last week, the World Health Organisation announced plans for a $1bn fund to root out bird flu before it starts an epidemic.

Experts have been warning that a global flu pandemic is long overdue. The Spanish flu that killed up to 30m people after the first world war was also a bird flu. The current bird flu strain first sprung up in Asia in the late 1990s but as been steadily moving westwards.

Influenza vaccines need to be changed, generally each year, to cope with mutations. This need to change vaccine formulations results in delays when flu breaks out. The ground-breaking Acambis universal vaccine would mean that flu vaccine formulations would no longer have to be modified each year.

At the Acambis R&D day, updates will also be given on its vaccine for Japanese encephalitis, in late stage clinical trials, and on its jabs for West Nile disease and Clostridium dificile, an MRSA type hospital superbug that causes infectious diarrhea.

Acambis, also listed on Nasdaq, has a contract with the US government to develop a vaccine against the West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne disease that causes encephalitis in humans and animals. Since its introduction into the western hemisphere in 1999, the virus has spread rapidly across North America. The vaccination being developed by Acambis is called ChimeriVax-West Nile.

Acambis is competing with Austrias Intercell to produce the first approved vaccine for Japanese encephalitis. Both firms have jabs slated to enter phase III trials this year

Japanese encephalitis is spread from pigs to humans by mosquitoes during the June to September monsoon season.