Results tagged “development” from Vaccination News

The new initiative was announced today by the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to contribute to global efforts to develop HIV vaccines.

Developing a safe and effective vaccine to protect people against HIV is one of the most important goals in public health. The world has already lost tens of millions of lives to this virus and we must do everything we can to prevent future deaths.

The new Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative partnership will make a significant contribution to this effort through the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, established through the efforts of the G8 countries.

New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) India is on the threshold of launching an oral vaccine for diabetes that would replace the current practice of insulin injections, promising relief to millions in the country suffering from the debilitating health condition.

The Andhra Pradesh-based pharmaceutical company Transgene Biotek Ltd is currently doing research and pre-clinical trials of the vaccine in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad.

"We have made considerable progress in the drug development process. The new vaccine will be administered in liquid form," Prakash V. Diwan, chief of pharmacology of IICT, told IANS.

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative's (IAVI) January 2007 Annual Issue of VAX, an editorially independent bulletin on AIDS vaccine research published by IAVI, reports that 13 new preventive AIDS vaccine trials were initiated in eight countries around the world in 2006. There are now more than 30 trials ongoing in 24 countries, across every continent.

This annual publication provides the only comprehensive listing of all AIDS vaccine clinical trial activity worldwide.

WASHINGTON - The government awarded contracts Wednesday to three drug makers tasked with developing a vaccine for bird flu using technology that will help stretch the supply of the medicine.

The contracts, valued at $132.5 million, may provide a way for more Americans to have access to a vaccine in the event of a pandemic, said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

The vaccines would use an immune booster called an adjuvant, which reduces the amount of active ingredient per dose that's necessary to achieve protection from the virus.

BASEL (AFX) - Novartis AG said it has received a contract from the US health department worth approximately 55 mln usd to further develop a novel antigen technology that could extend vaccine supplies in a pandemic outbreak.

The contract supports the company's efforts to develop and manufacture its MF59 adjuvant in the US, the Basel-based drug maker said.

An adjuvant is a substance added to a vaccine to enhance the body's immune response to the vaccine's active constituent.

source - AFX 

AMSTERDAM, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Dutch biotechnology firm Crucell (CRCL.AS, CRXL.O) said on Wednesday it has signed a cross-licensing agreement with U.S. drugmaker Merck (MRK.N) on its vaccine production technology.

"This agreement will make it possible to speed up the delivery of our malaria and TB vaccines to the people in need, and makes it realistic to do so on the mass scale required," Jaap Goudsmit, chief scientific officer at Crucell, said in a statement.

© Reuters 2006

London - Professor Vijay Kakkar has the gentle demeanour of a man into whose hands you would happily entrust your heart, should disease and circumstance require it. And you would be wise to do so. For the professor is a world-renowned vascular surgeon and research scientist whose career has spanned more than 40 years.

Now, approaching his 70th birthday, he is embarking on his most ambitious project yet a vaccine against heart disease that can be administered in childhood and he is confident he will achieve it before the decade is out.

By 2008, he and his team also hope to have developed a cheap, reliable urine test to identify those at high risk of heart disease.

by Michael N. Westley

A vaccine that prevents the spread of the human papillomavirus (HPV) has been approved for women and promises to decrease the risk of cervical cancer.

But in the face of such an exciting announcement, one question remains: What about the guys?

Of course, men don't have cervixes, but they do contract and spread HPV, which can cause genital warts and in some cases, rectal cancer. Research also has shown that men are excellent carriers of the strain of HPV that causes cancer in women without developing any symptoms themselves.

The good news is that a vaccine for men may not be too far away, according to a Utah researcher.

BEIJING, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- China is seeking volunteers to participate in its second clinic trial of a new AIDS vaccine early next year, a leading Chinese scientist said recently.

The center is looking for men and women to participate in the trials which will take place in Beijing, said Shao Yiming, chief expert for the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention.

He revealed the plan at a conference on Sino-U.S. AIDS vaccine research and development held on Sunday without indicating how many participants will be involved in the trial.

By Ed Susman SAN ANTONIO, TX -- December 15, 2006 -- A experimental breast cancer vaccine appeared to offer protection against recurrences but failed to achieve statistical significance after 2 years of treatment, doctors reported here at the 29th San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

"Recurrence rates reached 8.3% among the 101 women who received the vaccine and 16% among the 85 women who acted as controls in the trial," said Col. George Peoples, a surgeon at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Despite the nearly 50% reduction in recurrence, the small numbers of women in the trial resulted in a statistical value that is above the cutoff generally recognized as being significant.

The first vaccine against atherosclerosis is not far away in the future, according to Jan Nilsson, professor of Experimental Cardiology at Lunds Universitet in Malmö (Sweden) and EVGN member.

Human clinical trials are likely to begin at the end of next year: they will be aimed at verifying the safety of a preparation, still under investigation in a laboratory model, made of antibodies obtained against selected fragments of oxidized Low Density Lipoproteins, or oxLDLs. LDLs are the major component of the “bad cholesterol”: their accumulation in the arterial wall causes inflammation and is a key factor in the onset of atherosclerosis.

Vienna (Austria), December 12, 2006 - Intercell AG (VSE, "ICLL") announced   today that it has completed a Phase II trial for its therapeutic Hepatitis C vaccine (IC41), where the vaccine was applied in combination with the standard Hepatitis C therapy (pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin - PegIFN- RBV) to patients infected with genotype 1. In the study, the vaccine  administration was bound to the schedule of the first patient trial  concluded in 2004 where route and frequency was still sub-optimal as  compared to the improved induction of pivotal T cells achieved in recently  concluded optimization trial.

In the current clinical trial, chronically infected Hepatitis C patients receiving standard therapy with PegIFN-RBV were enrolled in Germany, Austria and in the UK. 22 patients who had an early response at week 12 to standard therapy received vaccinations with IC41 as an add-on to standard therapy during the second half of their treatment (week 28 to 48). 

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CytoGenix (OTCBB:CYGX) has demonstrated that a synDNA™ vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has activity in monkeys. The study, conducted by Drs. Yin Chen and Frédéric Kendirgi at CytoGenix in collaboration with Lauren Hirao and Dr. David Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrated that rhesus monkeys injected with a synDNA™ HIV vaccine mounted a significant cellular immune response. The study involved monkeys treated with a synDNA™ vaccine targeting two key viral proteins (gag and env) with interleukin-15 as an adjuvant.

"This observation, the first evidence of activity for a synDNA™ vaccine in non-human primates, is encouraging in that it shows that the synDNA™ vaccine is as effective as the DNA plasmid-based vaccine expressing the same antigen. The advantages of using DNA vaccines can be significantly extended using synDNA™ constructs and warrants further study to determine if the response is sufficient to protect against HIV infection,” stated David B. Weiner, Ph.D., an expert in DNA vaccination and a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Novartis AG and Sanofi-Aventis SA are among drugmakers searching for new weapons against influenza viruses that evade protection from existing vaccines.

Each year, a new strain of the flu virus circles the globe and kills as many as a half million people annually worldwide. As the virus changes annually into forms that can circumvent the human immune system, scientists are seeking the first universal vaccine against the flu.

To defeat the flu, doctors will need new vaccines with unprecedented power, said Albert Osterhaus, the head of virology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Such a vaccine should be able to protect against many strains at once, including the avian form arising in Asia that threatens to become a pandemic deadly to tens of millions of people.

A recently approved project of the sixth EU Framework Programme – MimoVax – is focussing on a new target for an Alzheimer's vaccine. The project, coordinated by the Austrian company Affiris GmbH, centres on the use of immune reactions to combat previously overlooked forms of the beta-amyloid that cause Alzheimer's disease. It is being run by seven partner organisations from three countries and has received an exceptionally positive response from Brussels – as well as Euro 2.4 million in financial support.

The signing of the contract yesterday signalled the start of the active
phase of the EU MimoVax project. The project is part of the sixth EU
Framework Programme and is seeking to develop an Alzheimer's vaccine that targets specific types of beta-amyloid, the causative agent of Alzheimer's disease. 

LONDON (AFX) - Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc said it has amended some of its exclusive licences with GlaxoSmithKline for the use of Coley''s VaxImmune vaccine in the development of vaccines for infectious diseases.

This means that the US company can enter into non-exclusive VaxImmune agreements with other vaccine developers, but will see it taking a 17.4 mln usd reduction in potential milestone payments.

The amendments do not affect the GSK''s agreement with Coley on the use of VaxImmune in the development of cancer vaccines.

source - AFX 

The trial of the vaccine has been launched this morning at the University of Melbourne, and the researchers say if all goes well it could be as significant as the recently approved vaccine for cervical cancer.

In Melbourne, Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Type 1 diabetes is the least common form of the disease. Only 10-15 per cent of people with diabetes have it. It's marked by an inability of the pancreas to produce insulin, because the cells that make insulin have been destroyed by the body's own immune system. That's usually triggered by something like a viral infection, which leads the immune system to destroy the cells. The insulin must be replaced by daily injections.

Unlike type 2 diabetes, which can be caused by poor diet and lack of exercise, the cause of type 1 diabetes isn't fully understood. But researchers say there's a strong family link.

Dec 4 (Reuters) - ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (PLI.TO: Quote, Profile , Research) said its UK unit has entered into an agreement with Novartis (NVS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) to develop a synthetic-ligand affinity adsorbent for the purification of protein vaccines.

ProMetic will receive funding from Novartis to screen its chemical combinatorial libraries for ligands suitable for the purification of a new vaccine product developed by Novartis and currently undergoing clinical trials, it added. (Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bangalore)

© Reuters 2006

A small Australian biotech company has secured the help of the world's leading miners to fund clinical trials of its Aids vaccine in South Africa.

In the first programme of its kind, Virax, which is listed on the Australian stock exchange and plans to float on Aim next year, has set up a non-profit organisation for corporate donors with operations and interests in South Africa and other neighbouring countries, and whose workforces are affected by the disease.

Eight companies including Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton will fund the trials, expected to cost between $5m and $6m.

There are more than six million people with HIV/Aids in the country. The incidence of the disease varies - in KwaZulu-Natal, for example, up to 35% of the population is HIV positive, and 41% of those in the penal system have the virus.

A Perth researcher playing a key role in the fight against HIV-AIDS says there could be a breakthrough in vaccines within 10 years.

Professor Simon Mallal leads a team of 42 scientists at a collaborative research centre in Perth who have already notched up a breakthrough in HIV-AIDS research.

In 2002, the team discovered that a person's genetics will determine how they will react to HIV and how they should be treated.