Vaccine Research
The Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium--a joint venture between Emergent BioSolutions and the University of Oxford--has vaccinated the last patient in its 2,784 infant Phase IIb efficiency trial of MVA85A, a tuberculosis vaccine. The trial started in 2009 and will have a two-year follow-up with vaccinated patients. Emergent release
Mark Long of the Wall Street Journal takes a look at the world of addiction vaccines and the difference between them and other addiction-curing medications on the market: vaccines work in the bloodstream, while the meds work in the brain. Article
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded an 18-month, $100,000 grant to researchers at Dartmouth Medical School for their work on polio vaccines. It is one of eight projects receiving grant money from the Grand Challenges Explorations initiative. Story
Vaccine Market
GenVec and Merial Animal Health have signed a second agreement, allowing Merial to evaluate GenVec's technology for swine diseases and other animal health issues. The companies' first pact focuses on GenVec's foot-and-mouth disease vaccine technology. GenVec release
According to a new study, flu vaccinations are safe for kidney transplant patients, and lower the risk of organ loss and death. Patients receiving the vax were 23 percent less likely to lose their transplanted organ and 18 percent less likely to die, although there was no sign the vaccine actually prevented the patients from getting the flu. Item
If the current trend keeps up, the U.S. will have more measles cases this year than it has in more than a decade. There have been 89 cases so far this year, with most years topping off at 50--2008 had 140. Many officials are blaming voluntary abstinence from vaccinations as a primary cause for the spike. News