Vietnam Institute May Produce Safe Vaccine for Influenza A/H5N1

The Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals of Vietnam (IVAC) is going to produce safe vaccine to cope with influenza A/H5N1, the Vietnam News reported on April 23. The institute’s phase 1 clinical trial of an inactivated influenza A/H5N1 pandemic vaccine candidate (IVACFLU-H5N1), involving 75 participants in Long An province’s Ben Luc district, has so far proven to safely induce immune responses at various dosage levels in healthy adults, the news agency said. Overall results showed that the vaccine candidate can be well tolerated and is immunogenic, said Dr. Le Van Be, head of the Nha Trang province-based research institute. The study was sponsored by IVAC and conducted by Ho Chi Minh City-based Pasteur Institute. It was funded by the World Health Organization with a grant through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “We confirm the readiness of IVACFLU-H5N1 to progress into phase 2 and 3 clinical trials,” Dr. Be noted. Influenza is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Seasonal influenza causes 250,000 to 500,000 fatalities and up to five million cases of severe illness each year. If a highly virulent pandemic strain were to emerge, influenza could cause millions of fatalities around the world. Vietnam reports more than one million of cases of influenza-like-illnesses every year and has reported isolated cases of avian influenza A/H5N1 in humans, a strain with a particularly high fatality rate. The strain is being monitored for any evolution or adaptations that could turn it into a form that can spread efficiently among people, which would increase the likelihood of a pandemic. IVAC’s efforts to develop a locally produced A/H5N1 vaccine will not only benefit Vietnamese people, it would also progress towards producing sufficient regional and global influenza vaccine supplies in case of a pandemic. To date, Vietnam has not yet had a steady and domestically manufactured supply of influenza vaccine. (Vietnam News Apr 23)