| ■ Vaccine Said to Ward Off Bird Flu | 2008.09.01 |
| An experimental bird flu vaccine appears to generate an immune response in people that can help guard against getting the disease, its producer says. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 240 people since 2003, mostly in Asia. Experts worry that it will mutate to a form that's more easily passed from birds to people, triggering a human pandemic. Novavax Inc. said of 160 people who got its two-injection vaccine, 94 percent produced an immune response against the virus, the Bloomberg news service reported. The company's process uses insect-cell cultures, allowing it to produce seven to 10 times as much vaccine in the same span as older techniques that rely on mammal eggs or cells. Traditional vaccines are made from chicken eggs, a process that can take up to six months. Novavax, by contrast, said it can produce a vaccine within 12 weeks of identifying a bird flu strain, Bloomberg reported. |