PowderMed’s avian influenza vaccine nears clinical stage

PowderMed has produced an H5N1 vaccine by cloning the H5 gene from the current circulating avian flu strain into its proprietary DNA vaccine backbone. Manufacturing and toxicology studies are now in progress, and it is anticipated that the vaccine will enter clinical trials by the middle of 2006.

According to PowderMed’ CEO, Dr Clive Dix, once developed, the company’s avian flu vaccine program will be able to react more quickly to counter an outbreak than conventional treatments.

This is because as soon as a new influenza strain becomes known, PowderMed’s “plug and play” system would enable the company to rapidly insert the relevant DNA gene cassette into its standard DNA backbone in order to specifically adapt a vaccine to a particular strain. Then a PowderMed manufacturing facility would be capable of delivering 150 million vaccine doses within three months.

Commenting on the program, Dr Dix said: “We are very excited by the potential for our flu vaccine technology to address the major healthcare challenge that influenza presents, in particular in the event of an avian flu or other pandemic outbreak.”

Currently, the H5N1 flu strain carries a limited threat to humans and is not transmitted from person to person easily. However, experts fear the virus will eventually mutate to a form that is dangerous to humans, which, unabated could cause a pandemic and thousands of deaths.