Avian flu pandemic vaccine achieves 100% protection in a lethal challenge study
source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Medicagos-Avian-flu-pandemic-cnw-2753926387.html?x=0&.v=1
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Medicago Inc. a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and affordable vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), today announced that it has reached an important milestone in the development of its pandemic influenza vaccines with the successful completion of preclinical studies for its H5N1 Avian Influenza VLP vaccine. In the final preclinical study performed in ferrets, the Company demonstrated that at very low doses, its pandemic vaccine formulated for the H5N1 Indonesia strain of Avian flu provided 100% protection against a lethal challenge with the highly virulent Vietnam Influenza virus.
The objective of Medicago's ferret study was to determine the protective efficacy and optimal dosage of its H5N1 VLP vaccine. The ferret is the most relevant and recognized animal model for evaluating the effectiveness of influenza vaccines in humans because ferrets exhibit similar clinical symptoms as humans. At the start of the study, ferrets were vaccinated with a range of doses of the Company's clinical grade VLP vaccine made for the Indonesian strain of H5N1 Avian Influenza. Animals were then challenged with a lethal dose of the Vietnam influenza virus (A/Vietnam/1194/04).
The results demonstrated that ferrets vaccinated with doses of 1.8 and 3.7 micrograms were fully protected when exposed to this lethal virus, while non-vaccinated animals did not survive.
The objective of Medicago's ferret study was to determine the protective efficacy and optimal dosage of its H5N1 VLP vaccine. The ferret is the most relevant and recognized animal model for evaluating the effectiveness of influenza vaccines in humans because ferrets exhibit similar clinical symptoms as humans. At the start of the study, ferrets were vaccinated with a range of doses of the Company's clinical grade VLP vaccine made for the Indonesian strain of H5N1 Avian Influenza. Animals were then challenged with a lethal dose of the Vietnam influenza virus (A/Vietnam/1194/04).
The results demonstrated that ferrets vaccinated with doses of 1.8 and 3.7 micrograms were fully protected when exposed to this lethal virus, while non-vaccinated animals did not survive.
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