Medicago initiates work on Swine Flu strain

30-Apr-2009 - Canada

Medicago Inc. announced that it has received a genetic sequence of the new strain of influenza A (H1N1) that has recently been identified in USA and Mexico, and has commenced laboratory work with its VLP vaccine technology to produce material for testing.

According to the World Health Organization ("WHO"), a genetic analysis shows this new flu strain is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses and has the potential of becoming a pandemic.

The Company has already expressed VLPs of the following pandemic strains in plants: Singapore (H2N2), Anhui (H5N1), Vietnam (H5N1), Hong Kong (H6N1 and H9N2), Equine/Prague (H7N7), and of the seasonal strains New Caledonia (H1N1), Solomon Island (H1N1) and Brisbane (H1N1). Medicago is keeping health authorities informed on its work.

According to the company, Medicago's H5N1 pandemic VLP vaccine has shown to be immunogenic at doses as low as 5 micrograms in preclinical studies and provided 100% cross-protection to different strains of the H5N1 virus in an animal model.

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