(Alliance News) - Open Orphan PLC on Tuesday said positive results from a study of Imutex Ltd's FLU-v vaccine have now been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine peer review journal.
Shares in pharmaceutical services firm Open Orphan were up 2.6% at 6.00 pence in London in afternoon trading.
The publication concluded FLU-v "merits phase three development to explore efficacy". Imutex is a joint venture between 49% owner hVIVO - acquired by Open Orphan in January - and SEEK Group.
The vaccine is a "first-in-class 'universal', broad spectrum, standalone, influenza vaccine candidate".
The study involved injecting 175 healthy adverts with either one or two doses of FLU-v or a placebo. The study compared the "safety, immune response, and exploratory efficacy of different formulations and dosing regimens". A single dose produced a greater immune response versus placebo with adverse events being "mostly mild to moderate injection site reactions".
Open Orphan Chief Executive Trevor Phillips explained universal vaccine FLU-v's advantages over the typical seasonal flu vaccine are that the vaccine's composition does not change year-to-year and it is made synthetically, meaning it can be manufactured year-round.
"It will not be subject to a strict vaccination window as is the case with seasonal flu vaccines. Also, being a universal vaccine, it should provide protection against new strains of flu virus which the seasonal flu vaccine is not able to do," said Phillips.
Open Orphan Executive Chair Cathal Friel said: "The market potential for a broad spectrum universal influenza vaccine is significant and has become increasingly important and valuable in recent weeks when governments around the world are finally waking up and realising that universal flu vaccines need to be commercialised and there must be a better way forward than reliance on the traditional annual flu vaccination process which has variable efficacy, offers little protection against emerging strains and is available in limited quantities.
"A universal flu vaccine can and should be targeted at the entire population base. We now await publication of the positive results data from the Niaid FLU-v study (004) in a peer reviewed journal while still focusing on the company's strategy of achieving profitability in the near term and as we target the rapidly growing [contract research organisation] pharmaceutical services sector."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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