Sanofi Pasteur initiates trial for pandemic avian flu vaccine

Sanofi pasteur has started a trial for the assessment of a new pandemic avian influenza vaccine.

The vaccines arm of sanofi-aventis has said that it is to begin investigating the efficacy of a new generation of H7N1 vaccine as part of its work with Flupan ? the EU-funded collaboration intended to improve pandemic preparation in the European Union.

Phase I clinical trial work has begun in Bergen, Norway and will assess the safety of the vaccine and its ability to “generate an immune response of a split, inactivated prototype pandemic H7N1 vaccine produced on cells”.

The manufacturer states that two influenza types, H5 and H7, have caused highly pathogenic avian influenza, with a H7N7 strain recently responsible for a large outbreak of fowl plague in the Netherlands, leading to 89 humans being infected, including one fatality.

Dr John Wood, Flupan coordinator, comments: “The H7N1 vaccine strain was developed from an avian influenza virus (bird flu) by the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) and the University of Reading (UK).

“A highly pathogenic H7N1 avian influenza virus which caused outbreaks in Italian poultry in 1999 has been modified, so that it is safe to use and grows well in mammalian cell culture.”

The World Health Organisation expects a next influenza pandemic is likely to result in between one and 2.3 million hospitalisations with 280,000 to 650,000 deaths in Western countries alone.

Recently, sanofi Pasteur stated that it will begin shipping Fluzone, its influenza vaccine to the US market for the 2006-07 season with around 50 million doses planned this year.