thanks to davesss at SS for this post:New bird flu vaccine...

thanks to davesss at SS for this post:

New bird flu vaccine http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1729554.htm
AM - Thursday, 31 August , 2006 08:30:00
Reporter: Lindy Kerin
TONY EASTLEY: It's been out of the headlines for several months but the threat of a bird flu pandemic still exists, according to experts.

Health authorities are stockpiling antiviral drugs, while scientists continue their quest to develop new vaccines that don't require the use of eggs.

The latest to join the push is Melbourne-based pharmaceutical development company, BioDiem.

The US Government's Centre for Disease Control is to conduct pre-clinical trials of a vaccine developed by BioDiem and its Dutch partners.

Lindy Kerin reports.

LINDY KERIN: When it was revealed the deadly bird flu virus was passed on from human to human in Sumatra in Indonesia earlier this year, it added a sense of urgency to efforts to develop a vaccine.

About a dozen companies around the world are working on the task.

Currently the vaccines are grown in chicken eggs using a killed version of the current influenza virus.

It's a slow process that can take up to four months - too slow if fears of a pandemic are realised.

Now, a Melbourne-based company BioDiem is developing a vaccine that can be grown in cell culture.

The company's CEO Tom Willams:

TOM WILLIAMS: In the event of a pandemic you can produce a vaccine a little more quickly than you could in eggs, and also you can crank up your production capacity more rapidly, because you're not reliant on the supply of eggs.

LINDY KERIN: The United States Government Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta has agreed to trial the new vaccine over the next two years.

They'll start using ferrets, the animal that most closely mimics the way humans catch the flu.

Viral and immunology expert Dr Stephen Tucker from the Melbourne University says it's been extremely difficult to produce an effective vaccine against bird flu using the current technologies.

He says scientists will be closely monitoring this new method.

STEPHEN TUCKER: It's certainly very much an advancement in sort of how we would think about generating a vaccine against H5 pandemic. You sort of have a full-blown immune response that you would, very similar to the sort of immune response that you would generate against the natural infection, so you're mimicking the sort of immunity generated after a normal infection. That's in contrast to the egg developed vaccine, which is basically an activated virus. You have to purify that, and it's been found that you only get one sort of immunity, antibody immunity. So it's thought that this live attenuated vaccine actually gives you broader immunity.

LINDY KERIN: In preparation for the worst-case scenario, health authorities have been stockpiling antiviral drugs.

The most effective defence is vaccination, but most experts agree that in the event of a pandemic, it would probably take scientists at least six months to develop and produce a vaccine.

TONY EASTLEY: Lindy Kerin with that report.