New method ‘boosts bird flu drug production’

Life-saving bird flu jabs could be available more quickly in the event of a pandemic due to a new genetic technique which speeds up production of the vaccine, scientists have claimed.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised governments to stockpile the bird flu vaccine, which reduces symptoms and limits the spread of the virus, and has warned that up to seven million people could die in the event of an outbreak.

However, other experts say the figure could be nearer 50 million.

Experts currently predict it would take six months to develop and manufacture enough of the vaccine to treat people in the event of a pandemic.

However, scientists from the University of Tokyo and University of Wisconsin-Madison said the time period could be drastically reduced by using an improved genetic technique.

Scientists say they can speed up production of the vaccine by tweaking the current process of “reverse genetics” which is used to produce vaccines.

Vaccines are currently formed by seeding the genetically altered virus into monkey kidney cells or chicken eggs to generate a vaccine which prepares the immune system to attack the virus instead of making people ill.

The scientists say by reducing the number of molecules needed to transport the viral genes to the monkey kidney cells or eggs, they can make vaccine production much quicker and more reliable.

Usually about 12 of the molecules, known as plasmids, are needed to ferry the DNA to the animal cells, but by combining a selection of DNA codes, the scientists are able to reduce the number to just three.

Lead researcher Dr Yoshihiro Kawaoka from the University of Tokyo said: “By reducing the number of plasmids, we increase the efficiency of virus production.”

Officials are said to be braced for an outbreak of the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus in the European Union (EU) after it was discovered in wild birds in Turkey, Romania and Russia.

Bird flu drug manufacturer Roche currently produces 100 million capsules of the bird flu drug Tamiflu at 13 sites across the world every year.

© Adfero Ltd