MedImmune has licensed the use of its proprietary reverse genetics technology by a Hungary-based manufacturing and research firm, Omnivest, to develop new vaccine strains for the production of non-live vaccines for influenza in humans. The technology enables generation of viruses such as influenza from segments of DNA. It requires the manufacturers to work only with segments of genome of the virus and not directly with highly infectious strains. Before this, MedImmune has licensed the technology to CSL Limited (Australia), sanofi pasteur, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and BIKEN (Japan).

Novavax Inc. declared that its candidate for the vaccine against pandemic influenza virus-like particle (VLP)  has shown favorable results for the second stage of the Phase I/IIa of the human clinical trial. The vaccine candidate, which does not include an adjuvant, induced robust neutralizing antibody titers across all three doses tested. Avian influenza, the disease that the vaccine will prevent, emerged in humans in 2005 in Indonesia. 81% of  the 135 documented human cases have been fatal. The safety report for the trial is pending, but no adverse case has been reported.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) is the first company to get the go ahead from the European Commission (EC) for a wide spectrum vaccine to protect humans ahead of a possible future bird flu pandemic. The company will market its pre-pandemic vaccine Prepandrix in all 27 member states of the European Union (EU). Although Prepandrix has only just received its first regulatory approval, countries such as the US, Switzerland and Finland have already started stockpiling the vaccine, sales of which last year topped £102 million.

Iomai Corporation has announced positive interim results from its immunostimulant adjuvant patch phase 1/2 trial. The patch was used with the injected H5N1 influenza vaccine. A single 45-microgram dose of an H5N1 influenza vaccine with a single 50-microgram Iomai patch produced a sufficient protective response in 73% of tested patients. The figure showed substantial improvement over those who were administered the H5N1 influenza vaccine alone.