GSK pre-pandemic vaccine shows promise

A mid-stage study released by GlaxoSmithKline shows that the drug developer's pre-pandemic H5N1 vaccine was effective against multiple strains of the disease. A vaccine containing low levels of the Vietnam H5N1 antigen also elicited an antibody response against the Indonesian strain of the virus. According to the press release, the company hopes that "the immune response elicited with this vaccine could help prepare or 'prime' the immune system to rapidly respond against variants of the H5N1 strain and therefore protect the vaccinated population in the event of an H5N1 human pandemic." In addition, the treatment was boosted using GlaxoSmithKline's own adjuvant system, which means that low levels of antigen can be combined with the adjuvant to produce large quantities of the drug.

"I am extremely encouraged by the new trial data that has been reported today on GSK's candidate pre-pandemic influenza vaccine. The data confirm that our pre-pandemic influenza vaccine has the ability to recognize and kill an H5N1 strain that is different to the one contained in the vaccine. This means that proactive administration of our pre-pandemic vaccine before or just after the start of the pandemic could help to substantially slow down the spread of disease," stated Jean Stéphenne, President, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals.

- read GSK's press release [1] for more

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