AmVac and Taiwanese researchers to develop H5N1 vaccine

AmVac, a Swiss biopharmaceutical company, is working with the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan to develop a new vaccine to combat H5N1, the avian flu virus.

The Taiwanese scientists will use AmVac's vaccine adjuvant MALP-2, which is suitable for absorption through the mucosal membranes. Thus, for the first time, a nasal spray that is safe and easy to handle, could be feasible as a vaccination product, the company said.

With MALP-2, the immune system is strengthened effectively and permanently, AmVac added. At the same time, the implementation of the adjuvant makes it possible to reduce the quantity of the antigen used, which means large quantities of vaccine can be produced more quickly and at a lower price.

Professor Michel Klein, chief scientific officer of AmVac, said: "Mucosal vaccination via the mucous membranes is the most efficient strategy to elicit both strong local and systemic immunity against respiratory viruses. Intranasal immunisation against flu would allow for the production of protective antibody responses at the site of entry of the virus."

AmVac has acquired exclusive rights to the adjuvant MALP-2 (Macrophage Activating Lipopeptide-2), developed by Professor Guzman at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, for all infectious diseases worldwide. This synthetic class of adjuvants acts as a "toll-like" receptor agonist in activating cells of the immune system and thus at central sites in mediation of the immune response. Animal models have already shown strong antibody and cellular responses.

Preliminary results in mice have revealed that the pandemic H5N1 flu vaccine combined with MALP-2 elicits flu-specific antibodies following intranasal immunisation. The first clinical studies on the H5N1 vaccine will start in 2009, while the implementation of the combination with the adjuvant is planned for 2011.