Rockville-based vaccine company Novavax announced Monday that it will collaborate with General Electric’s health care division to develop a way to produce a pandemic avian flu vaccine that is cheaper and faster than traditional methods, allowing for a quicker response to an outbreak.
Novavax produces its H5N1 avian flu vaccine, which is still in the clinical trial period, by cloning the proteins from a live virus and using the genetic code to create a synthetic version of the virus using insect cells.
The process takes about 12 weeks, the company said — about half as long as the traditional method of growing analtered version of the virus in chicken eggs.
To further accelerate the process, GE Healthcare will supply the company with pre-certified, disposable manufacturing equipment that Novavax estimates is a quarter as expensive and twice as fast to set up as the standard steel equipment.
“There’s a huge issue with access to vaccine — the current vaccine is so expensive to make, only a few countries have it,” Novavax Vice President James Robinson said. “Many countries could afford this technology but could not afford to do it the traditional way. That’s the goal of the agreement — to make the vaccine available to a country that would be interested.”
The world saw three influenza pandemics in the 20th century.
If avian flu, which has killed 207 people worldwide since 2003, were to mutate into a pandemic virus, it would kill between 500,000 and 5 million people in the U.S. alone, according to estimates from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Whether Novavax’s vaccine will be as effective as traditionally produced vaccines remains to be seen — the company should be finished with its clinical trials by mid-2008, according to Robinson.
Robinson declined to disclose the financial terms of the company’s deal with GE but said that GE is not buying a stake in Novavax.
