Malaysia approves pre-pandemic H1N1/H5N1 vaccine

[kiwibird]

Malaysia is the first country outside Europe to approve a pre-pandemic avian influenza vaccine called Prepandrix.

The Malaysia Drug Control Authority recently approved the new vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

GSK Pharmaceutical Malaysia MD Francis Del Val said the company?s Prepandrix is a pre-pandemic drug to vaccinate populations prior to a H5N1 avian influenza pandemic. It is designed to provide cross-protection against a range of avian influenza caused by H5N1 strains.

GSK clinical research and development and medical affairs public health physician and director Dr Teoh Yee Leong said Prepandrix was approved by all 27 EU member states as well as Switzerland. "The vaccine has proven in clinical trials that it is immunogenic against a number of H5N1 viral strains, including those circulating in Asia."

Pandemic and pre-pandemic vaccines

Teoh said there were two types of avian influenza vaccines: pandemic and pre-pandemic vaccines. A pandemic vaccine carries the actual pandemic strain and is produced after it has been isolated. The problem with this is that it can take 4-6 months to produce, leaving populations highly vulnerable during the initial period of a pandemic.

Pre-pandemic vaccines are produced before an influenza pandemic and are based on current circulating avian H5N1 influenza viruses.
http://www.farminguk.com/PopularNews/Malaysia-Bird-Flu._12288.html

 

[Commonground]

Re: Malaysia approves pre-pandemic H1N1/H5N1 vaccine

article is dated for 28/02/2009 01:43:27

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Malaysia approves pre-pandemic H1N1/H5N1 vaccine

Thanks Commonground - you are absolutely correct - recycled news:
In Singapore a more current view:

Singapore News

Experts working on new vaccine to tackle both H1N1, seasonal flu
By Claire Huang, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 04 December 2009 1735 hrs

SINGAPORE: A new vaccine that can protect the community against both the pandemic H1N1 flu virus and seasonal flu may be available by the middle of next year.

This spells good news as individuals will be able to immunise themselves against the various flu strains at one go.

Speaking to the media on Friday, the medical director of the Communicable Disease Centre, Leo Yee Sin, said global experts are working on the new drug which will help to tackle the problem of possible H1N1 mutations in the future.

"We understand that the virus mutates and it's mutating all the time. The important thing is to monitor the genetic change of the virus," she said.

"If there's a significant change, and that significant change has again embedded into the community, then that particular mutated or new strains of the virus should be used to become the next vaccine strain.

"In other words, we are continuously developing a vaccine to catch up with the mutations and changes."

Professor Leo added that the H1N1 virus has, in most parts of the world, replaced the various seasonal flu strains as the most dominant.

As H1N1 is easily transmitted, the virus is likely to stay. The key now is to monitor how this will affect seasonal flu strains.

Prof Leo pointed out that the current H1N1 vaccine is potent enough to protect people from the circulating virus, but she stressed that the vaccine's effectiveness will diminish when the virus mutates.

Speaking at the Human Resources Symposium on how to tackle the next flu pandemic, she said flu mortality and morbidity rates here are comparable to that of temperate countries.

"All these years, we thought that influenza caused very minimal impact in the tropical countries, Singapore included.

"But actually that's not the case because in the more recent studies, when we apply international methods in looking into the impact of influenza, we realised that in fact, Singapore has never been spared by the burden of disease caused by influenza," Prof Leo said.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1022542/1/.html