By Richard Asinof
Contributing Writer
Twitter: @RichardAsinof

PROVIDENCE – New recipes for a vaccine to combat the H7N9 flu went into production this weekend, in a collaboration between EpiVax and Aldevron in Fargo, N.D., and a researcher at Fort Detrick, Md., the home of the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, according to Dr. Anne S. De Groot, chief science officer and CEO of EpiVax, a bioscience firm based in the Knowledge District.

“The goal is to produce enough vaccine to do a proof in principle study,” De Groot told the Providence Business News. “At Aldevron, they will be manufacturing a DNA vaccine that can be used to immunize mice that are subsequently challenged with the virus.”

At Fort Detrick, she continued, the work will be focused on developing a vaccine that can be employed by an FDA-approved delivery system currently used to deliver anti-bacterial products in food, such as the anti-listeria product used in cheese. “Our vaccines are platform independent,” she said.

The accelerated production schedule was prompted by news from China about the increasing spread of H7N9 infection: confirmed cases in the last two weeks have climbed from 3 to 60 with 13 deaths, with two cases of human-to-human transmission and with more than 1,000 people being “watched,” according De Groot, who has been monitoring reports from scientists and from the World Health Organization. One new case of H7N9 was reported in Beijing on April 12,….. Full PBN Article Here.

Sign up for EpiVax’s Newsletter to be kept up-to-date on our progress – Sign Up Here!

Read more about H7N9 on our last few blogs  Blog post 1, Blog post 2, Blog post 3