Vaccination News

The World Today (interview)
Reporter: Gillian Bradford

ELEANOR HALL: After weeks of toing and froing, the Federal Government has announced it will now fund the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, from next year.

Health Minister Tony Abbott initially said the vaccine couldn't be available until at least 2008, but under pressure from the Coalition's own backbench, the Prime Minister intervened to force a faster process.

The vaccine will be targeted at 12 and 13-year-old school girls and the Health Minister Tony Abbott says the Government has extracted the best price from the drug manufacturer after weeks of negotiation.

Continue reading "Govt to fund Gardasil vaccine" »

LONDON (AFX) - Biotechnology company Acambis PLC confirmed that it has requested a meeting with the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to discuss its rationale for excluding Acambis from the ongoing Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) procurement process.

Acambis is developing an investigational smallpox vaccine, ACAM2000.

DHHS determined that Acambis' technical proposal was no longer in the competitive range for award, and to-date, DHHS has not provided a specific reason for the decision.

Continue reading "Acambis requests meeting with US Health Department on smallpox vaccine" »

(AGI) - Rome, Nov 28 - 27pct of young people believe that there already is a vaccine against AIDS. 20pct are mistaken in how the HIV virus is spread. These figures were given by Prof. Fernando Aiuti, immunologist and Chairman of Anlaids, opening for the XX National Congress in Rome in the presence of Prof. Roberto Gallo, a world expert on the disease.

"There is no vaccine against AIDS, but there are some candidates which could become it, though it is not yet known which ones will work," he added. "Condoms should be placed in selling machines in high schools or nearby. Joints should not be allowed," added Prof. Aiuti, recalling data given by the Italian National Health Institute (ISS), which count one infection every two hours.

Continue reading "Italy - 27 percent of youth believe there's already AIDS vaccine" »

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. firm AVAX Technologies said Wednesday it is cleared to launch a phase 3 study of its metastatic melanoma vaccine, M-Vax.

The trial will enroll as many as 387 patients with stage IV melanoma at sites in the United States, Europe and Australia. Patients will be randomized in a 2-1 ratio to receive either M-Vax or placebo.

The study will measure best overall anti-tumor response rate and the percentage of patients surviving two years, AVAX said.

Continue reading "AVAX tests metastatic melanoma vaccine" »

The initial doses of bird flu vaccines that were stockpiled by US authorities are less effective now - they lose their strength over time. As the vaccines have a shorter 'shelf-life' than was first expected, it is possible that the US stockpile would now cover one million fewer people than previously thought.

In other words - as the vaccines have a shorter shelf-life than we had previously thought, many of the first ones that were bought may now not be so good.
(Shelf life = How long a drug can be kept/stored before it has to be thrown away. A bit like 'expiry date' on foods. If a drug has a two-year shelf life and was made on 1 January, 2007, it must be discarded by the end of 2008.)

Continue reading "Bird Flu Vaccines Lose Their Strength" »

OTTAWA - Health Canada is informing Canadians of international reports of hallucinations and abnormal behaviour, including self harm, in patients taking the antiviral drug Tamiflu. These reports include children and teenagers, primarily from Japan. While the connection with the drug in these cases has not yet been proven, high fever or other complications of influenza can affect mental state, which in turn can lead to abnormal behaviour. Health Canada has not received any such reports in Canada and is continuing to actively monitor adverse events reported for Tamiflu.

As of November 11, 2006, there have been 84 reports of adverse events occurring in Canadian patients using Tamiflu, including 10 which reported a fatal outcome. A causal relationship has not been confirmed in these cases. There have been seven Canadian reports of psychiatric adverse events, suspected by those reporting the events, due to Tamiflu, most involving elderly patients. There have been no Canadian reports of abnormal behaviour or deaths involving children.

Continue reading "New information regarding Tamiflu" »

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd., which was formerly known as Optical Molecular Imaging, Inc. ("ICT"), announced today that it has entered into an exclusive, worldwide license agreement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center covering Cedars-Sinai's technology for cellular therapies, including dendritic cell-based vaccines for brain tumors and other cancers, as well as other neurodegenerative disorders. The technology is covered by patent applications that have been filed in the United States.

Dendritic cell-based vaccines may bolster the body's natural tendency to defend itself against various forms of cancer. ICT's first product candidate will be a vaccine for treating malignant brain tumors. The high rate of mortality of patients diagnosed with brain cancers and in particular with glioblastoma multiforme (the most lethal form) is driving the scientific community to develop improved treatments to increase the survival time and enhance the quality of life of patients. More than 17,000 cases of glioblastoma are diagnosed each year in the United States. There currently is no satisfactory treatment and two-year survival rates are only in the range of 26%.

Continue reading "ICT Completes Licensing Transaction for Cancer Vaccine Therapy Technology" »

The authors note that inactivated, trivalent, injectable influenza vaccine (injectable vaccine) is the only formulation approved for use in high-risk children, owing in part to concerns that live attenuated influenza vaccine (given nasally) might worsen asthma symptoms in asthmatics. This paper reports the results of an efficacy and safety trial of a reformulated live attenuated vaccine (live vaccine).

Subjects were European children aged 6-17 years with asthma enrolled during the 2002-2003 influenza season. The study excluded children with many other chronic diseases and children who were immune compromised. For 15 days after vaccination (1:1 randomization to live or injectable vaccine), parents recorded daily asthma symptom scores and peak expiratory flow measurements. In addition, the parents recorded nocturnal symptoms and asthma medication use. After the 15 days of parental log completion, investigators contacted subjects weekly to determine if they required revisit for symptoms. Any subject who developed fever or upper or lower respiratory illness was seen for office visit and nasal swab for influenza culture. The subjects were also monitored for side effects and other unscheduled medical visits. The study enrolled 2229 subjects, with 1114 receiving live vaccine.

Continue reading "European Study Looks at Safety, Efficacy of Reformulated Live Attenuated Vaccine in Asthmatic Children" »