Medicago's H5N1 VLP vaccine provides protection against multiple strains of avian flu
Cross-protection established against deadly Vietnam strain
Medicago Inc. announced that its H5N1 avian influenza VLP vaccine, made from the Indonesian strain, provided 100% protection in mice against a lethal challenge with live H5N1 viruses of the Vietnam strain. Including these results, the Company has now established that its lead H5N1 VLP vaccine has the potential to protect against three of the deadliest strains of pandemic influenza. In earlier studies, the Company demonstrated that its vaccine provides 100% cross-protection in mice against an influenza strain from Turkey.
In this study, mice were vaccinated with a range of doses of the Company's VLP vaccine made from an Indonesian strain of H5N1 Avian Influenza. During the experiment, 100% of the vaccinated mice survived, while 100% of the control group died. The mice were challenged 80 days after vaccination with a live H5N1 strain from Vietnam. Results showed that mice vaccinated with Medicago's H5N1 VLP vaccine were fully protected from illness and subsequent death even at the low dose of 0.5 microgram.
"We believe these results significantly enhance the value of our H5N1 VLP vaccine. We expect to initiate studies in ferrets in the coming weeks and look forward to taking this new vaccine candidate into clinic trials in early 2009," said Nathalie Landry, Medicago's VP Product Development.
The study was conducted in Lyon, France at the P4 Laboratory Jean Mérieux - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale ("INSERM"), a unique, high security research centre for studying highly pathogenic viruses. The study was performed in collaboration with Dr Hervé Raoul, Director of the P4 Laboratory Jean Mérieux-INSERM, Dr. Vincent Lotteau, Immunologist at INSERM, Professor Bruno Lina from Lyon University and Dr. Eric Quéméneur, Head of Biochemistry and Nuclear Toxicology at the French Atomic Energy Commission.
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