Novavax reports positive preclinical results from influenza vaccine study

Results of a study conducted by a research group at The University of Hong Kong through a collaboration with Novavax showed 100% survival of mice immunized with this broadly protective H5N1 virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidate.

The H5N1 VLP contains three proteins, hemagglutinin, neuraminidase and matrix 1, which are considered important for inducing protection against influenza infection and severe disease. This new influenza VLP, which was constructed and produced at Novavax, was designed to provide broad protection against several clades of H5N1 avian influenza.

In this study, two injections of the VLP vaccine candidate resulted in 100% survival of mice that were challenged with lethal doses of three different H5N1 strains including A/Indonesia (clade 2.1), A/Qinghai (clade 2.2), and A/Shenzhen (clade 2.3.4) in contrast to unimmunized controls. The vaccine candidate also induced robust antibody responses against several H5N1 strains as demonstrated by hemagglutination inhibition and neutralizing antibody assays, the company said.

This study suggests that Novavax’s recombinant VLP technology may be utilized for development of a vaccine capable of inducing broad cross protection against a variety of strains with pandemic potential without the use of an adjuvant.

Rahul Singhvi, president and CEO of Novavax, said: We believe that our recombinant VLP technology has the potential to be a powerful, new approach to develop broadly cross-protective vaccines.

This approach may provide a viable strategy for pre-pandemic vaccination without an adjuvant and for stockpiling of vaccine to be utilized during the first wave of an influenza pandemic. Further studies of the new VLP will be conducted in ferrets and methods of inducing protection against even more divergent strains will be explored.