Details about the Possibility of an Inexpensive Bird Flu Vaccine

GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical giant, has developed a low-dose and inexpensive vaccine, which could protect humans from being infected by the H5N1 bird flu virus. This virus is a severe type A influenza that has killed hundreds of people and millions of birds worldwide. A global pandemic, scientist fear, could occur if the virus mutates to a form that is easily transmitted from person to person.

Participants given this antigen in a recent study, showed the 80% of those given the antigen developed a high immune response, according to the London-based company. These excellent clinical trial results represent a significant breakthrough in the development of our pandemic flu vaccine,” said JP Garnier, who is GlaxoSmithKline’s chief executive officer. “This is the first time such a low does of H5N1 antigen has been able to stimulate this level of strong immune response.”

He also added that, “there is still a lot more work to be done with this program, but this validation of our approach provides us with the confidence to continue developing the vaccine, including assessment of its ability to offer cross-production to variants of the H5N1 strain. All being well, we expect to make regulatory filings for the vaccine in the coming months,” he added.

Glaxo hopes that it would be able to produce hundreds of millions of doses of the antigen by 2007 and is waiting on it approval from regulatory agencies before it can go forward.

They forecast that when the vaccine becomes readily available, the cost would be comparable to a conventional flu shot. Glaxo is also reportedly in talks with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria about financing for use of the vaccine in poverty stricken countries.

Chinese scientists have also produced a vaccine against the bird flu, although currently the vaccine is just for poultry. It is the first live vaccine against bird flu and Newcastle disease, two major killers for poultry, says the Ministry of Agriculture. The vaccine was developed by the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, and will be a great boost to prevention and control of the two epidemics in China as well as in the world. The vaccine can be administered orally as well as an injection, nasally, or by spraying. Officials are excited by the creation of this vaccine not only to protect poultry and the spread of the avian influenza among chickens and other animals, but they hope it will both help in the prevention of a mutation to humans from birds, and will be the next step in developing a human vaccine.

The H5N1 type A avian influenza is highly contagious, and it is hoped that if the virus is prevented and gotten under control in the poultry population, particularly in China, that it can be contained and kept from entering the United States, or infecting others around the world. It is important to keep in mind how the virus infects humans from the mutation in poultry and a vaccine can widely decrease the possibility of this type of mutation if it is used to treat the virus before the mutation occurs and spreads.

Health officials are also hoping that the development of a vaccine for chickens will lend clues to scientists that will help in the development of a human vaccine. Currently there are no available vaccines for humans to protect against the H5N1 avian bird flu strain and officials worry about the possibility of a pandemic as well as further mutation of the virus that would allow human-to-human transmission.

Hopefully, these new vaccines will offer new hope in the fight against this deadly virus.