Swine Flu stocks?

NVAX is being mentioned more and more. Not sure if this is some kind of pump and dump or what. They asked for the make up of the H1N1 Flu strain rather than waiting for the CDC to give it out so that they can start on the Vaccine. The thing is, are they truly a viable candidate for the vaccine, because I also see how Glaxo and some other big Pharm company are waiting for it....but they have different technology.

Suggestions and comments appreciated.



http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090503/HEALTH/305039982/-1/style



Health

Published: Sunday, May 3, 2009

Anti-flu action plan Swine-flu outbreak prompts search for faster vaccine production
By LEE BOWMAN Scripps Howard News Service
The widening outbreak of a new strain of swine flu puts a renewed spotlight on technologies aimed at making influenza vaccines much faster than traditional methods.

One of the first things national and international authorities did as they determined they were dealing with a novel virus with genetic ties to flu strains found in people, North American birds, and American and Eurasian pigs was to start working on culturing the virus.

"Anytime we get a new strain, we look to create a seed stock that would be used if we decide to make a vaccine,'' said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

It's a standard precaution whenever a nasty new virus crops up, but also reflects the realities of vaccine production. If everything goes right, it still takes six months to get to full-scale production of a new vaccine using the standard technology of growing the virus in eggs.

It takes some 900 million eggs to make 300 million doses of the annual flu shot, or for that much vaccine against a new strain. It's a slow and sometimes difficult process, with the potential for contamination or for egg shortages to interfere. And it isn't yet known how well the new virus grows inside eggs.

There are several alternatives to egg-based vaccines in the works. Most advanced is cell-based vaccine production, which uses lab-grown cell lines, often from kidneys, that are used to host a growing virus.

The virus is injected into the cell, where it multiplies. Then the cell's outer wall is removed and the virus harvested, purified and inactivated before being put into serum.

This process is already used to produce polio vaccine and some flu vaccine in Europe. The U.S. government has contracts with Sanofi-Pasteur and Novartis subsidizing new or refurbished plants using cell technology in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, part of a master plan to increase pandemic "surge" capacity to 600 million doses of vaccine within six months of an outbreak.

And Baxter International, which also uses a cell-based production line, has announced plans to work with the World Health Organization on a swine-flu vaccine.

Another option is a recombinant virus-like particle technology, which works with insect viruses to create a "shell" that mimics the shape of a flu virus and spurs an immune response to it, but lacks the genetic material to replicate or cause infection.



Many researchers and several biotech companies have been working on this approach. Some, including the vaccine firm Novavax, have started human safety trials on their production system and have told CDC officials that they're prepared to start working with the new strain on a contingency basis.



Novavax officials say they could produce significant amounts of new vaccine in as little as 12 weeks.



Besser said last week during a teleconference that no decision has been made about starting work on a new vaccine – or possibly adding the strain to next year's seasonal flu-vaccine formula.



"It's under discussion, but it's not an easy decision,'' he said.



Government health officials are particularly cautious about developing and distributing a vaccine against swine flu because of the institutional memory of botched efforts surrounding the 1976 swine-flu-immunization program.



Officials 33 years ago feared that the virus causing an outbreak in New Jersey was a close cousin of the strain that caused the 1918-19 pandemic that claimed more than 50 million lives worldwide. Genetic testing done more recently now shows the 1976 virus likely came from birds.

But in February 1976, many health officials were convinced the country needed vaccine protection before the next flu season and started a massive project to make enough doses for everyone.

The mass inoculation reached only about 40 million Americans before the effort was cut short because hundreds suffered Guillain-Barre syndrome – a condition in which the immune system attacks the nervous system – after getting the shots.

And the swine-flu threat fizzled, with only about 200 reported cases in all.

"There's a lot that's been learned since the 1976 swine-flu concern in terms of decision-making, as well as the safety monitoring, as well as understanding production, so I think there's a lot that's happened,'' said Dr. Anne Suchat, head of the CDC's center for immunization and respiratory diseases.

"There are a lot of things being discussed and a lot of expert groups providing input."

Lee Bowman can be reached at bowmanl@shns.com.
 
For the next outbreak if significant:

Buy stocks that provide for the outbreak... medical supplies, vaccines, antiviral drugs. Indirect beneficiaries would be home entertainmment, local attractions

Sell stocks whose are involved in pork production, suffer from reduced travel (airlines, hotels, cruise ships, ski areas). And perhaps any industry that might be damaged by large short term loss of employees.

Not familiar with them but check for Mexican ADR's involved in the above.
 
Its at Level 6 = Pandemic



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124471165680705709.html


Health Officials Declare Flu Pandemic Article Maps Comments


GENEVA -- The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring an H1N1 flu pandemic -- the first in 41 years.

The move came Thursday as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.


Getty Images

A masked girl sits with a classmate at a kindergarten in a residential estate in Hong Kong, which ordered all primary schools in the city to be closed for two weeks after a cluster of local H1N1 flu cases was found.
In a statement sent to member countries, WHO says it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, meaning that a global outbreak of H1N1 has begun. The decision was made after the U.N. health agency held an emergency meeting on the flu with its experts. The last flu pandemic was in 1968.

"At this early stage, the pandemic can be characterized globally as being moderate in severity,'' WHO said in the statement, urging nations not to close borders or restrict travel and trade. "(We) remain in close dialogue with influenza vaccine manufacturers.''

The pandemic declaration will require all countries, including the dozens that haven't yet reported any cases, to launch pandemic-prevention plans.

Flu: Complete Coverage
View Map
Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the WHO based in Manila, noted that the term pandemic was "a measure of the spread of the virus, not the severity of the virus." The virus's effects are moderate at the moment, he noted. "But it's still going to infect an awful lot of people."

On Wednesday, WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of H1N1, including 141 deaths. About half the world's confirmed cases, or 13,217, are in the U.S., including 27 deaths, according to the WHO.

In Australia, the number of the new disease, also known as swine flu, has more than tripled in the past week, reaching 1,263 on Thursday, when three new cases were confirmed in the state of Tasmania. It recorded its first case of the disease on May 9.

"Australia catches our eye particularly not because of the number of cases but because of strong evidence of community transmission," particularly in the southern state of Victoria and its capital, Melbourne, said Mr. Cordingley. He said the WHO is also focusing on similar evidence in the U.K., Spain, Japan and Chile.

More than 1,000 Australia's swine flu cases are in Victoria, which has been hit by the cold temperatures and dry conditions that flu viruses thrive in.

Victorians now account for around 3.6% of total confirmed cases globally, and authorities are struggling to understand exactly why the virus has taken such a hold in the state, Victoria's acting chief health officer, Rosemary Lester, said Thursday.

"Perhaps we may never have a definitive answer on that," Lester told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "We do know that we have had an extensive testing regime so we have uncovered a lot of cases that were there to be uncovered. And because the disease is so mild in the majority of people, that allowed it to spread undetected," she said.

Cases detected so far have been relatively mild, with no deaths from the virus yet recorded in the country. The majority of sufferers in Australia have been aged between five and 18, but the virus continues to strike healthy adults including several professional Rugby League players who competed in an interstate match in Victoria's capital, Melbourne, last week.

Those players were quarantined from their clubs, and earlier this week, authorities canceled a major swim meet due to be held in Melbourne. Victoria is on a higher level of alert than other Australian states.

On the streets of Melbourne there is little evidence of major concern among the city's nearly four million residents. Shops, bars and cafes -- while affected by the economic slowdown -- are still busy, and the city's public transport has shown no signs of reduced patronage.

Schools in the nation are no longer being closed if a student is reported as having the virus, although authorities have requested that school aged children at risk from the virus stay home for seven days.

In contrast, Hong Kong's government on Thursday ordered the closure of all nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools for two weeks after a dozen students at one school tested positive for swine flu.

Australian health authorities have stopped testing every suspected case of the virus -- drawing some condemnation from critics -- and Victoria is now focusing treatment on those most vulnerable to viral infections, such as the very old or very young.

New York City health officials say three more people have died from swine flu, bringing the city's total to 15. One victim was a child under the age of 5, one was a person between 5 to 24 years old, and another was between 30 to 39 years old.

The city health department says a telephone poll of over 1,000 residents found nearly 7% had flu-like symptoms in April and May. That suggests more than half a million New Yorkers were ill.

—Lyndal McFarland in Melbourne, Peter Stein in Hong Kong and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
 
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