Vical Incorporated has announced that the company addressed an international gathering of pandemic influenza vaccine experts and potential commercial partners to encourage broader use of the company’s DNA vaccine technology and Vaxfectin(R) adjuvant. DNA vaccines can be developed and produced very quickly using scaleable manufacturing processes which are not dependent upon chicken eggs or other cell culture methods.

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Madison and the University of Wisconsin are continuing their push to vaccinate students and a targeted group of community members against the swine flu by offering new H1N1 vaccine clinics in the next few weeks. Public Health-Madison and Dane County will be offering H1N1 clinics at six locations in Madison. The vaccines will be given to pregnant women, people who live with or care for infants less than six months old.

Researchers from Harvard have reported that it may not be cost effective to include boys in a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program. The details of this study were published online in the British Medical Journal on October 8, 2009. The goal of the current study was to assess the cost effectiveness of routinely vaccinating preadolescent boys, as is recommended in girls. These authors suggested that cost effectiveness of vaccinating both boys and girls would improve if the vaccine gave life-long protection against all HPV-related diseases or if the cost of vaccination fell. These authors concluded that “including boys in an HPV vaccination program generally exceeds conventional thresholds of good value for money, even under favorable conditions of vaccine protection and health benefits.”

The FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee agreed on the efficacy, immunogenicity and safety data of Merck & Co Inc’s . The clinical trials support the use of GARDASIL [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16 and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant] for boys and men aged 9 to 26 years for the prevention of genital warts caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6 and 11.

The FDA has approved injectible vaccine and a nasal spray vaccine for the 2009 H1N1. In fact, the results have been better than good. Four manufacturers, CSL Ltd, MedImmune LLC, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Ltd and Sanofi Pasteur Inc, have been given the go-ahead to manufacture them. A study carried in Australia and another one by the US National Institutes of Health indicated that healthy adults got protection from the flu with just one dose of vaccine, instead of two doses. People showed “robust” protection against the virus after about eight to 10 days of getting the vaccine shot, according to the FDA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects about 45 million doses to be available by mid-October.

The FDA has approved GlaxoSmithKline’s Hiberix vaccine to prevent a disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b in children. The company said that it has received accelerated approval for Hiberix as a booster dose in children aged 15 months to four years due to the shortage of the vaccine protecting infants from Hib. Hib is a severe and potentially deadly bacterial infection that can cause meningitis. The vaccine is expected to be available within a few weeks.

In a study conducted by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists, the researchers found that high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or advanced myelodysplasia (a blood disorder) patients who received a cancer vaccine shortly after a stem cell transplant not only had few complications but also mounted a strong immune system attack on the disease. Moreover, the rate of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a potentially severe aftereffect of immune system-based therapies, was no higher than with that from stem cell transplants alone. The study is to be published in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the week of August 24.

Novartis Vaccines has started shipping the first of 30 million doses of its Fluvirin® seasonal influenza vaccine to the US. The shipping has started weeks ahead of schedule. The vaccine indicated for patients aged four years and over will be used to help meet the anticipated increase in demand for the seasonal vaccine as a result of the current global (A) H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

A new study published in The Lancet depicts that GlaxoSmithKline’s human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is highly effective at preventing precancerous cervical lesions that can lead to cervical cancer. The researchers said that the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine was as much as 98% effective against HPV-16/18, and between 37% and 54% effective against 12 other cancer-causing HPV types.

AFFiRiS has announced the start of the pre-clinical development of its first Parkinson’s vaccine PD01. The vaccine will be investigated for efficacy (”proof of concept”) in Parkinson models. On successful conclusion of this preclinical evaluation, initial clinical testing could start in 2010/11. The Parkinson’s vaccine specifically targets the alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn) protein, which is considered to be a key contributory element in Parkinson’s disease. There is clear scientific evidence that the concentration and enrichment of alpha-syn in the brain are contributing factors in the progression of Parkinson’s disease.