Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Researchers solve failed vaccine mystery

Research led by Johns Hopkins Children's Center scientists has figured out why a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine used in 1966 to inoculate children against the infection instead caused severe respiratory disease and effectively stopped efforts to make a better one.

15 Dec 2008

NACCHO to donate up to one million doses of FluMist

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has announced a donation of up to one million doses of FluMist (Influenza Virus Vaccine Live, Intranasal) by MedImmune in a partnership aimed at increasing influenza awareness and vaccinations in underserved communities and populations.

14 Dec 2008

Researchers develop universal influenza vaccine for animals

A University of Maryland-led science team has developed a universal influenza vaccine for animals that may help prevent or delay another human flu pandemic.

14 Dec 2008

FDA to review Barr Pharmaceutical's BLA for adenovirus type 4 and 7 live oral vaccines

Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s Adenovirus Types 4 and 7 Live Oral Vaccines Biologics License Application (BLA).

14 Dec 2008

Australians warned of rabies outbreak in Bali

The warning comes from the head of the Northern Territory's Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Peter Markey, who says anyone bitten or scratched on the island by an animal should seek medical advice; the warning also applies to people who have been to Bali recently.

14 Dec 2008

Novavax announces positive results in trial of seasonal influenza VLP (trivalent) vaccine candidate

Novavax, Inc. has announced favorable results from a Phase IIa human clinical trial of its seasonal influenza VLP (trivalent) vaccine candidate.

12 Dec 2008

Trial looks at new treatment for solid cancer tumors and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Researchers at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) have opened a clinical trial, which aims to evaluate a new treatment for solid cancer tumors and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in combination with a chemotherapy agent called cyclophosphamide.

12 Dec 2008

Vaxfectin-formulated H5N1 pandemic influenza achieves T-cell responses and cross-clade reactivity in humans

Vical Incorporated has announced that the company's Vaxfectin-formulated H5N1 pandemic influenza DNA vaccines induced T-cell responses against a matching strain of influenza virus and demonstrated cross-clade antibody responses against a different strain in a Phase 1 clinical trial.

11 Dec 2008

Mathematical models of adaptive immunity

More than five million people die every year from infectious diseases, despite the availability of numerous antibiotics and vaccines. The discovery of penicillin to treat bacterial infections, along with the development of vaccines for previously incurable virus diseases such as polio and smallpox, achieved great reductions in mortality during the mid-20th century.

11 Dec 2008

RNA interference can facilitate vaccine development

Pharmaceutical companies and universities are racing to develop drugs that use the gene silencing mechanism known as RNA interference to treat a host of diseases.

10 Dec 2008

Scans show immune cells intercepting parasites

Researchers may have identified one of the body's earliest responses to a group of parasites that causes illness in developing nations.

10 Dec 2008

Blocking immune receptor molecule improves response to HIV-like virus, prolongs survival in monkeys

By blocking PD-1 (programmed death-1), an immune receptor molecule known to inhibit the immune response to chronic viral infections, scientists have safely and significantly reduced the plasma viral load and also prolonged survival of rhesus macaque monkeys severely infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the nonhuman primate version of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

10 Dec 2008

Hong Kong on high alert over bird flu outbreak

Concerns that an outbreak of what is suspected to be the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in a wholesale market in Hong Kong, has prompted the culling of tens of thousands of chickens.

10 Dec 2008

Accelerating progress in the development of vaccines

This week the Elsevier Journal Vaccine, the most comprehensive and pre-eminent journal for those interested in vaccines and vaccination, organized the 2nd Vaccine Global Congress in Boston MA, USA.

10 Dec 2008

DNA vaccine for SARS achieves neutralizing responses in first U.S. human trial

Vical Incorporated (NASDAQ:VICL) today announced that results from a Phase I clinical trial of a DNA vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the November 25 issue of Vaccine(1), demonstrated that the vaccine was well-tolerated, and induced neutralizing antibody responses in 80% of the vaccinees and T-cell immune responses in all vaccinees.

10 Dec 2008

Conquering cancer: A global effort

Despite the recent good news that cancer incidence and death rates for men and women in the United States continue to decline, cancer is projected to become the leading cause of death worldwide in the year 2010, and low- and middle-income countries will feel the impact of higher cancer incidence and death rates more sharply than industrialized countries.

10 Dec 2008

Researchers hunt for a hi-tech vaccine against Helicobacter pylori

Almost half of the world population is infected with bacteria Helicobacter pylori which colonizes stomach, causing gastritis and ulcers and is recognized by WHO as a type I carcinogen.

10 Dec 2008

Vaccine against malaria could be ready in 5 years

Malaria kills more than one million people every year so the news that an effective vaccine could be available within five years is more than welcome.

9 Dec 2008

Potential new therapy for hepatitis C treatment

Combination therapies similar to those used for HIV patients may be the best way of treating hepatitis C virus (HCV), say researchers from the University of Leeds.

8 Dec 2008

Half-dose vaccination in healthy young individuals may be effective in times of vaccine shortage

Individuals younger than 50 who have been previously vaccinated do not appear to have a substantially different immune response to a half-dose of influenza vaccine than to a full dose, according to a report in the December 8/22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

8 Dec 2008