Australian researchers say an experimental bird flu vaccine failed a human trial, delivering immune protection in only a small group among the 400 participants. About half of the patients getting the highest dosage developed by CSL responded favorably. People receiving smaller doses were much less likely to respond. The company's chief science officer said that the company vaccine was well tolerated in the trial. He also noted that it was impossible to tell how effective the treatment would be once the H5N1 virus mutated into a human-to-human disease. Terry Nolan of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the principal investigator of CSL's vaccine, said that the vaccine would "probably" protect people from the H5N1 virus, but didn't know for sure. Nolan also noted that while a pandemic was inevitable at some point in the future, it is impossible to say whether bird flu would trigger an outbreak of its own.
- see this report from the Sydney Morning Herald for all the data
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