Generex Biotechnology proposes collaborations in China for the co-development of a novel vaccine for pandemic avian influenza

Peptide-based vaccine offers easy scale-up and flexibility in preparing for possible pandemic bird flu threat

14-Nov-2005

Generex Biotechnology Corporation announced that Antigen Express, Inc., its wholly-owned immunotherapeutics subsidiary, has made proposals for co-development of the Antigen Express novel H5N1 avian influenza vaccine in China following a trip to Beijing by Dr. Minzhen Xu, the Antigen Express Vice-President of Biology.

Proposals were made to: Professor Hualan Chen of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute; Ms. Nan Wang, Vice General Manager of Sinovac Biotech Co., Ltd.; and Professor Bing Sun of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. All have an interest in vaccine development for the H5N1 avian influenza in China.

The vaccine technology being employed at Antigen Express for the potentially pandemic avian influenza is the same as that for its novel immunotherapeutic cancer vaccine currently in clinical trials. Scientists at Antigen Express are developing a vaccine for the potentially pandemic Asian bird flu utilizing highly conserved fragments of the H5 protein to stimulate potent T-helper cell activity. The H5 fragments are modified using a portion of an immunoregulatory protein (termed Ii-Key) that greatly facilitates their ability to stimulate T-helper cell responses specific to the H5N1 strain. The vaccine peptides have been selected for their likelihood of being both potent and active in more than 90% of the population. This technology has the advantage of being applicable to any novel agent or protein once one has sequence information. As vaccine peptides are manufactured by entirely synthetic means they can be produced rapidly, relatively inexpensively, and in large quantities (hundreds of millions of doses).

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/50187/generex-biotechnology-proposes-collaborations-in-china-for-the-co-development-of-a-novel-vaccine-for-pandemic-avian-influenza.html