Naira remember the IMU announcement to ASX (18 October 2007,...

Naira remember the IMU announcement to ASX (18 October 2007, Sydney, Australia):

"Trials to evaluate Imugene’s PRRS vaccine have been completed at a specialist trial facility in the US. The trials aimed to determine the best of three PAV based vaccine candidates for progression in the development program. Preliminary results have been received and the best performing candidate from the trial has been chosen to proceed in the product development program. Further detailed results from post trial blood testing and analysis should be received this quarter and will assist design of the next trial.
The trials are part of Imugene’s vaccine product development and follows successful previous trials of the PRRS vaccine in Australia. The current trial measured reductions in the PRRS virus load in the blood of PRRS challenged pigs for three weeks following infection as an important indicator of efficacy.
Imugene managing director Dr Warwick Lamb said, “.... Recent external scientific information indicated that by modifying part of the existing vaccine and adding an additional component the result may be a significant improvement in vaccine efficacy. These changes involve genetic engineering and are ideally suited to the vector based system of vaccine production. We commenced work on these modifications in July this year and we hope the completed candidates will enter the next animal trial early in 2008."


They may have not published the results so far Naira, but this all sounds like a normal (ie slow) progress of vaccine development (not as simple as drilling a core and putting rocks in a bucket) and I would hazard a guess that they would not be doing this time-consuming and difficult research if there wasnt considerable interest from the animal health industry and significant potential returns.