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Vancouver-based ID Biomedical Corporation has begun developing a mock vaccine to protect people against H5N1 influenza, which the World Health Organization believes is the most likely candidate for the next flu pandemic.
The company will develop a vaccine based on a genetically modified variant of H5N1. The firm is working from a genetically modified reference strain supplied by the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control.
ID researchers are using reverse genetics technology to grow the strain in chicken eggs, a technology that also produces a non-pathogenic version of the strain that has been circulating in Southeast Asia. That lesser virulence means ID Biomedical can produce the mock vaccine in its existing Quebec manufacturing plant, instead of waiting to build upgraded containment facilities that would be required to work on the actual strain of H5N1.
Phase II of the project, which will involve conducting clinical trials and using the actual H5N1 strain for a mock vaccine, will require upgraded containment laboratories and renovations at the company's Quebec plant. ID Biomedical is hoping to receive $20 million from the federal government for that vaccine development — a proposal that requires Cabinet approval.
“We are still in discussions with Health Canada for the funding to move to that second phase,” says Michele Roy, a spokesperson for ID Biomedical in Laval, Que.
Even if the eventual pandemic strain does not prove to be H5N1, the company's work on the mock vaccine will help it prepare for whatever strain does emerge, says Roy.
“With a mock vaccine and clinical trials, you learn a lot and you can go [into production] faster. It cuts some days out of the production process.”