Chiron awarded avian flu vaccine contract

Under the agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Chiron will provide a bulk stockpile of H5N1 influenza vaccine, which the company will produce at its Liverpool manufacturing facility using the US-licensed commercial-scale manufacturing process. The company says that production of the H5N1 stockpile vaccine under this agreement will not affect production of Chiron’s annual Fluvirin influenza virus vaccine.

The stockpile vaccine, which Chiron will provide to HHS in 2006, is based on an inactivated influenza strain similar to the H5N1 avian subtype that has circulated throughout Southeast Asia and more recently in Eastern Europe.

H5N1 is one of a number of avian influenza viruses that do not usually infect humans. However, if the virus acquired the ability to readily transmit from person to person, it could result in a global outbreak of influenza to which people have no natural immunity, commonly called a pandemic.

“Chiron has invested in R&D to improve global capabilities to combat both annual and pandemic influenza,” said Rino Rappuoli, chief scientific officer of Chiron and head of Research for Chiron Vaccines. “Stockpiling is an important primary step toward readiness for this potential threat. We expect that our work with adjuvants and, longer-term, flu cell culture, may also contribute to efforts to prevent a pandemic.”