flu vaccines news from FierceBiotech

Big Pharma has a big stake in creating new flu vaccines, but tiny Protein Sciences in Connecticut believes it can get a new vaccine approved in '08. The big trend in vaccines today is to Read more...

Press Release: GSK Awarded $63 Million HHS Contract for Pandemic Vaccine Research and Development

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NovImmune garners $46M in second round

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VaxInnate, which is developing new flu vaccines, has raised $40 million in its third round of venture capital. The company is relying on its Toll-like receptor technology to develop a new generation of vaccines that are far more effective and less expensive to produce than today's vaccines. New Leaf Venture Partners led the round, joined by Canaan Partners. Existing investors HealthCare Ventures, Oxford Bioscience Partners, MedImmune Ventures, and CHL Medical Partners also participated in …

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Health officials say that seasonal flu vaccines are arriving early and in plentiful supply this fall. And they hope that a record 115 million doses in the U.S. will avoid the shortfalls that have bedeviled the country for years.

- here's the article on flu vaccines from The New York Times

ALSO: One reason for the optimism was yesterday's announcement that the FDA has approved …

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Chinese health officials are touting preclinical data for a new bird flu vaccine. A 10 microgram dose of the vaccine, which includes four antigens, created a 78.3 percent response in antibodies needed to protect people from bird flu. Beijing Sinovac Biotech Co says it is readying a second round of tests, well on the way to completing the three rounds health officials rely on for drug approvals in China. About a dozen companies are working on flu vaccines.

- read the …

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The FDA has signed off on the flu vaccines to be made for the upcoming season by GlaxoSmithKline, Chiron, MedImmune and Sanofi-Pasteur. Those four manufacturers are intended to supply 100 million doses of vaccine to the U.S. market, which is expected to be enough to satisfy demand. Federal officials have been working hard to try to even out the kinks in the supply of flu vaccines to the country, working to prevent the kind of supply snafus that have snarled treatment programs over recent …

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With the help of a $220 million federal government grant, Novartis announced it will build a $600 million flu-vaccine manufacturing facility in North Carolina. Construction will begin in 2007 and the plant will be ready for vaccine production for the 2012 flu season. Novartis's decision to construct a new plant is an effort to update older manufacturing facilities that have had production problems in recent years. Rather than making the vaccine from chicken eggs, production at the new …

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Five pharmaceutical companies won a billion dollars worth of government contracts in the race to develop new technology to make flu vaccines needed to combat a human pandemic. U.S.-based MedImmune and DynPort Vaccine along with Europe's GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Solvay Pharmaceuticals will divvy up the money. Novartis plans to do its vaccine work at the newly acquired Chiron facilities in California.

For MedImmune, it's a welcome bit of good news for its beleaguered FluMist …

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Shares of BioSante Pharmaceuticals were buoyed by the news that its vaccine adjuvant produced more bird flu antibodies in an animal study. BioVant is being developed with the company's calcium phosphate nanotechnology, which uses microscopic materials to deliver therapies. BioVant demonstrated steadily rising antibody levels over the 10 weeks of the study. Adjuvants are considered a vital ingredient in making bird flu vaccines effective for large numbers of people. Report