Bird Flu Vaccine Shows Promise
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Sanofi pasteur, the vaccines unit of Sanofi-Aventis, said Thursday that preliminary results of a clinical trial in France show that its bird flu vaccine candidate showed a good immune response in volunteers.
After inoculating 300 healthy volunteers with a vaccine candidate for H5N1, the bird flu strain of most concern, immune responses were "at levels consistent with requirements of regulatory agencies for licensure of seasonal influenza vaccine" in a significant number of volunteers, the company said in a statement.
The vaccine candidate included an additional ingredient, or adjuvant, to increase the effectiveness of the treatment.
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The company will release more data as it becomes available and plans to use the study to assemble a dossier for European regulators to reduce the necessary time for an approval during a flu pandemic.
The World Health Organization estimates that the next flu pandemic could result in 1 million to 2.3 million hospitalizations and 280,000 to 650,000 deaths in industrialized nations alone, with significantly higher casualties in developing countries.