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From Jason Gale overnight we learn a bit more about the early results reported by the Chinese from their pandemic flu vaccine. Produced by Sinovac, this vaccine is reportedly eliciting a good immune response with a single dose.
According to early results, adolescents and adults had a better immune response than did the elderly and children – how much better wasn’t quantified.
While we had heard a similar report earlier this week (see Sinovac: Chinese Vaccine `Protects’ With 1 Dose), this report fills in some important details. This vaccine apparently is an unadjuvanted, standard dose (15ug), `split’ vaccine – which should be similar to formulations being tested here in the United States.
There are interim results, and so far, our scientists have not seen the raw data. But this is encouraging. If only one shot is required, it may significantly increase the number of people who can be vaccinated against this influenza.
We will have to wait to see if these results are duplicated by our own test results, however, before we will know for sure.
This from Bloomberg News.
Swine Flu Shot May Protect at Regular Dose, Data Show (Update2)
By Jason Gale
Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A single standard dose of vaccine may be adequate to protect most people against swine flu, according to preliminary research in China that suggests twice as many people as projected could have access to the pandemic shot.
An experimental swine flu shot induced a protective immune response in 85 percent of adults who received an initial dose at the same strength used in a seasonal flu vaccine, Xiaofeng Liang, director of the national immunization program at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a meeting in Beijing today.
Health officials are awaiting more data from China, as well as studies overseas, to confirm the results. Authorities in the U.S. and U.K. have predicted two shots would probably be required, a regimen that would halve the amount of vaccine available to immunize people before the Northern winter.
“This is very promising information, and if we are able to get an immunogenic response with one dose as opposed to two doses, this would be a very significant change in our expectations,” Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, told the meeting. “Up until now, most of us have been thinking that two doses would be necessary to develop an immunogenic response.”
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