Novavax shares spike on new vaccine success

Shares of Novavax spiked 21 percent after the company announced that it was able to create a swine flu vaccine with its virus-like particle technology in only 11 weeks.

"Demonstration of our ability to construct and produce GMP-quality influenza vaccine within 12 weeks under real pandemic conditions is an important and successful test of our VLP technology," Jim Robinson, vice president of manufacturing and quality operations at Novavax, said in a statement. VLP technology uses an artificial virus that doesn't contain the genetic material required for transmission.

Novavax has completed a Phase I/IIa clinical study with a candidate H5N1 influenza VLP vaccine and is currently in Phase II trials with a VLP based seasonal flu vaccine candidate. The company plans to initiate a Phase II study with its seasonal flu vaccine candidate in the elderly population during Q4.

- read the story from Reuters