Vaccination News

Novartis has demonstrated its commitment to the vaccine market with a $500 million (600 million Swiss francs) global licensing deal for Switzerland's Cytos Biotechnology's anti-smoking vaccine. Cytos gains 35 million Swiss francs up front for CYT002-NicQb, which is scheduled to go into late-stage trials in 2008. The rest of the money will be paid in scheduled milestones for a successful development program. Novartis takes over all development costs and responsibilities. NicQb works by spurring the development of antibodies that attach to nicotine molecules, making them too big to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, thereby reducing nicotine stimulation.

ISLAMABAD, 27 February 2007 (IRIN) - Muslim and community leaders are seeking to counter the disinformation surrounding polio vaccinations in parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and tribal areas.

"To make people understand the importance of polio immunisation in an Islamic context is extremely important. We are engaging moderate religious leaders, community leaders and influential tribal elders. And we are holding community jirgas [councils] to address the concerns of the parents and ensure their children are vaccinated," said Melissa Corkum, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The message is "that the polio vaccine is safe and that the same vaccine has been used to eradicate polio in other Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia", Corkum said. 

A MUSLIM doctors’ leader has provoked an outcry by urging British Muslims not to vaccinate their children against diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella because it is “un-Islamic”.

Dr Abdul Majid Katme, head of the Islamic Medical Association, is telling Muslims that almost all vaccines contain products derived from animal and human tissue, which make them “haram”, or unlawful for Muslims to take.
Islam permits only the consumption of halal products, where the animal has had its throat cut and bled to death while God’s name is invoked.

BASEL (AFX) - Novartis AG said it has received a contract from the US health department worth approximately 55 mln usd to further develop a novel antigen technology that could extend vaccine supplies in a pandemic outbreak.

The contract supports the company's efforts to develop and manufacture its MF59 adjuvant in the US, the Basel-based drug maker said.

An adjuvant is a substance added to a vaccine to enhance the body's immune response to the vaccine's active constituent.

source - AFX 

Passive immunization is the answer.

Author: Jack Woodall

Jan. 5, 2007 -- The CDC has released its 2007 recommended vaccination schedule for kids 0-18 years old.

The schedule includes two new vaccines and tweaks to recommended flu and chickenpox vaccination.

One of the two new vaccines targets certain strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer.

The CDC recommends routine HPV vaccination for girls 11-12 years old. Girls can get the vaccine when they're as young as 9 years old.

The advance market commitment plan aimed at funding the development of vaccines for diseases -- including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- that largely affect developing countries is "a new way for partners in the private and public sectors to solve an old problem," Orin Levine, an associate professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Michael Klag, the Bloomberg school's dean, write in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece (Levine/Klag, Baltimore Sun, 1/3).

Under the plan, the Group of Eight industrialized nations would provide between $800 million and $6 billion to subsidize the purchase of new vaccines. Wealthy nations also would provide funding to pharmaceutical companies when they produce safe and effective vaccines, and drug makers would sell the vaccines at reduced prices in developing countries when G8 nations have provided the promised amount. 

A law requiring students in sixth through ninth grades to provide records of chickenpox and hepatitis B vaccinations took effect with the new year.

The only exceptions were for those who had proof with proof of appointments to get the shots by January 22nd.

AMSTERDAM, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Dutch biotechnology firm Crucell (CRCL.AS, CRXL.O) said on Wednesday it has signed a cross-licensing agreement with U.S. drugmaker Merck (MRK.N) on its vaccine production technology.

"This agreement will make it possible to speed up the delivery of our malaria and TB vaccines to the people in need, and makes it realistic to do so on the mass scale required," Jaap Goudsmit, chief scientific officer at Crucell, said in a statement.

© Reuters 2006

2006 was a very big year when it came to health news. New drug approvals, new vaccines, health scares that never quite made it and health scares that keep coming back for more. They were all part of the big year in health news in 2006.

2006 could easily be named the year of the vaccine. Several new shots hit the market: the first shingles vaccine, a whooping cough, or pertussis vaccine, for adults and a new, safer rotavirus vaccine to prevent the common diarrheal illness in children.

The biggest news, perhaps, surrounded the cervical cancer vaccine. It's approved for pre-teen girls to prevent HPV--human papilloma virus--the sexually transmitted virus that triggers cervical cancer.

London - Professor Vijay Kakkar has the gentle demeanour of a man into whose hands you would happily entrust your heart, should disease and circumstance require it. And you would be wise to do so. For the professor is a world-renowned vascular surgeon and research scientist whose career has spanned more than 40 years.

Now, approaching his 70th birthday, he is embarking on his most ambitious project yet a vaccine against heart disease that can be administered in childhood and he is confident he will achieve it before the decade is out.

By 2008, he and his team also hope to have developed a cheap, reliable urine test to identify those at high risk of heart disease.

Are you wondering who might have called for this research, as I am? What is the real purpose of this number - 62 million dead people? I think, this number is in the news for a simple reason. Fear. Put fear in us. When this pandemic will come (not if, but when), the solution will be a vaccine shot.

BOSTON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. and Australian researchers have re-analyzed data from 27 countries on the 1918 pandemic and estimate a similar pandemic might kill 62 million today.

Based on 2004 population data, the researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Queensland in Australia say if a similarly virulent strain of flu virus were to strike today approximately 96 percent of deaths would occur in developing countries.

BAKERSFIELD -

The grant would triple the amount of money that has been raised over the past decade to develop a vaccine.

Valley Fever occurs naturally in Kern County and is contracted by breathing in a fungus found in soil.

Last year, nearly 1,600 cases were diagnosed in Kern County, but according to the Health Department, there could be a lot more considering about 60 percent of the people who have it also have no symptoms.

The next step could be funding through the appropriation of a new bill or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could make the funds available.

via 17KGET

By Anai Rhoads Ford

The first vaccine against atherosclerosis is not far away in the future, according to Jan Nilsson, professor of Experimental Cardiology at Lunds Universitet in Malmö (Sweden) and EVGN member.

Human clinical trials are likely to begin at the end of next year: they will be aimed at verifying the safety of a preparation, still under investigation in a laboratory model, made of antibodies obtained against selected fragments of oxidized Low Density Lipoproteins, or oxLDLs. LDLs are the major component of the “bad cholesterol”: their accumulation in the arterial wall causes inflammation and is a key factor in the onset of atherosclerosis.

LONDON (AFX) - Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc said it has amended some of its exclusive licences with GlaxoSmithKline for the use of Coley''s VaxImmune vaccine in the development of vaccines for infectious diseases.

This means that the US company can enter into non-exclusive VaxImmune agreements with other vaccine developers, but will see it taking a 17.4 mln usd reduction in potential milestone payments.

The amendments do not affect the GSK''s agreement with Coley on the use of VaxImmune in the development of cancer vaccines.

source - AFX 

KARACHI - The officials of WHO had not supplied the required quantity of P3 vaccines due to which two more cases of polio in the province had resulted, said Sindh Secretary Health Dr Naushad Shiekh while speaking at the closing ceremony of a training workshop organised by the UNICEF and EPI Sindh Thursday.

He said that another case of polio had been registered in Kashmore and that he would ask the WHO authorities to transfer the officials responsible for the negligence.

He said that the P1 virus had been curbed in the area while P3 had migrated from Balochistan to Sindh. He appreciated this workshop and stressed the need for more such events.

source - Daily Times 

Panacea has also entered into an agreement to in-license Cambridge's technology for pentavalent and other vaccines used in the treatment of diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and a virulent form of influenza.

University of South Alabama - Beginning next fall all students must have proof of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations to attend the University.

"The student health center will be tracking it, and we will be holding up registration for those who have not provided verification," Beverly Kellen, practice director of Student Health, said.

In a step toward this new requirement, international students were required to submit MMR documentation as well as tuberculosis skin testing results this fall semester.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Patsy Covey said she believes the newly required immunizations are "more than justified."

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The World Health Organization launched a new global effort on Monday to find a vaccine against malaria, which infects up to 500 million people each year, and the donors to pay for it.

The Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap aims to develop and license a first generation vaccine by 2015 against the mosquito-borne disease which kills more than one million people a year, mainly African children.

"The Roadmap marks the first concerted global attempt at mapping out a shared plan of action for making a preventive malaria vaccine reality," Marie-Paule Kieny, a top WHO official, said on the sidelines of a vaccine conference in Bangkok.

Temple University researchers who conducted the first metric analysis of the prophylactic health program say it fell short on several levels and raises questions about future preparedness.

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked each state to vaccinate at least 50 to 100 healthcare workers per hospital -- a number the government considered large enough to respond to a possible smallpox outbreak.

In association with Shantha Biotechnics, the European company, which has a strong presence in preventive medicine, aims to develop a global strategy for managing the infectious diseases segment. Specifically, it will have access to the Indian company’s indigenous proprietary R&D and a branded product base in recombinants.

God, bless these children... 

QATAR - MORE than 60,000 children will be vaccinated over a five-day period in the first phase of the multi-antigen mass immunisation campaign launched yesterday by the National Health Authority’s (NHA) Communicable Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention section.

NHA chief executive officer Dr Michael Walsh inaugurated the campaign at the vaccination unit at Abu Hamour. Chairman of the Expert Committee on Immunisation, Dr Mohamed al-Janahi, CDC head Dr Syed Fazal Shah, and NHA director of communications Abdul Azeez al-Sulaiti were also present.

Walsh told a press conference at the NHA headquarters on Thursday that all children aged two months to five years would be administered two doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV) and a dose of pneumocococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in the current round.

Investors around the world vied with each other on Tuesday to buy into a $1-billion US bond offering to fund vaccinations for children in some of the world's poorest countries.

The securities — the first of their kind — were so popular that there were twice as many bids as there were bonds.

Among those rushing to invest were rock stars such as Bono and Bob Geldof, religious leaders ranging from the Pope to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs of United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.

Investors also included the Muslim Council of Britain, the Hindu Forum of Britain and the Network of Sikh Organisations.

Hundreds of mothers with babies, and curious children and adults, turned out at this vaccination center, one of 95,000 across the country. Serena Williams winced, as she watched as health workers administered vaccines to children five years and younger.  "I hate shots," said Williams.

UNICEF Ghana's chief of health and nutrition, Mark Young, explained the process of administering polio vaccine. "Polio is just given in drops, two drops, is not by injection, an oral polio [vaccine]," he explained.

The two time Wimbledon champion was offered a bowl of water to wash her hands, after which she administered oral polio vaccine to babies.

WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials have decided to forgo gathering detailed data on whether children in 22 big cities are receiving recommended immunizations and instead will survey teenagers, who are the target of several new vaccines.

The decision is drawing protests from local health officials, who say the soon-to-be-lost information is essential to their efforts to make sure that infants and toddlers, many from poor families, are protected against childhood infections.

"Unfortunately, we are going backward here," said Jeffrey Duchin, chief of the communicable-disease section of Seattle's health department. "At a time when we need more information, we are getting less about what is happening in little kids."

SAN FRANCISCO - VaxGen Inc.'s troubled $877.5 million federal contract to produce a new anthrax vaccine hit another snag Friday that delayed delivery of the shots a third time and jeopardized the struggling company's future.

The Food and Drug Administration is concerned the vaccine will lose its potency too fast to be effective and halted a pivotal human test of the experimental drug, the company said. In a conference call with analysts, VaxGen officials said the vaccine lost potency over time, but its scientists didn't believe the loss was significant.

Chief Executive Officer Lance Gordon said company officials hoped to meet with FDA officials soon to discuss the agency's refusal to allow the human test to begin.

Horowitz, a former dentist, has authored 16 books, including three national best-sellers, on topics ranging from emerging diseases to vaccination risks. He is also the founder of the Tetrahedron Publishing Group, a non-profit health education corporation.

"Public health and school officials nationwide are poisoning people, violating civil rights, religious freedoms, state statutes and federal laws, including your right to abstain from risky medical procedures," Horowitz said, adding that he believes vaccinations and tuberculosis skin tests are causing the bulk of newly emerging diseases.

New Delhi, Oct 31. (PTI): Resurgence of polio in parts of India could be attributed to faulty storage of vaccines, but an Indian scientist has invented a solar vaccine cooler for use in rural parts where electricity is in short supply.

SolarChill, a vaccine cooler developed by Rajendra Shende under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), promises to be viable eco-friendly solution, which replaces the lead batteries and the ozone depleting chloro-fluro-carbons used in conventional refrigerators.

Paris-based Shende, the head of UNEP's OzonAction Branch, is in the capital to deliver two units of SolarChill to its first Indian customer -- President A P J Abdul Kalam, who proposes to intall them at the clinic in the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex.

Scientists are working on a vaccine against drug-resistant staph bacteria such as MRSA.

MRSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It resists treatment with many antibiotics.

MRSA infections are rising worldwide. It often infects the skin but can also infect the blood, lungs, urinary tract, and other parts of the body.

by AUDREY ALFSON, Lacrosse Tribune

Help me understand: It’s OK to talk about drug studies that show thousands (700,000) are sent to the emergency room yearly for drug reactions to “common” over-the-counter and prescription drugs (Tribune Oct. 18). And it’s OK to highlight the dangers of the all- too-common ADHD drugs that send thousands to the ER (Tribune, spring 2006). Authors of the studies admit that thousands die from said drugs and that the numbers are probably higher because of lack of reporting.

Why is it, therefore, not OK to put vaccinations in the same category? Vaccinations, like all drugs, can have side effects (probably underreported); people can end up in the hospital; people can die. Instead we are given a warm fuzzy article in the Tribune with quotes from a local doctor telling us there is nothing to worry about.