Scientific Dictatorship

New Alzheimer Vaccine To Be Tested In Europe

VIENNA (AFP) – A new vaccine against Alzheimer's, developed by the Austrian biotechnology firm Affiris, will soon be tested in six European countries, the company announced Friday.

Some 420 patients will be recruited to take part in clinical trials in Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany and Slovakia, Affiris said in a statement.

The AD02 vaccine, developed with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, was already tested for safety and tolerability over the past year.

The clinical trials will now test its efficacy, with results expected as early as 2012, the company said.

ADO2 is meant to prevent the building up of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain, which cause the degradation of nerve cells and are believed to play a crucial role in causing Alzheimer's disease.

The vaccine works by causing the body to attack these plaques by producing more antibodies, Till Jelitto, a spokesman for Affiris, told AFP...

Labels: Alzheimers, GlaxoSmithKline, vaccination, vaccine

Rotarix Rotavirus Vaccine Contaminated, Officials Say

(CNN) -- Federal health authorities recommended Monday that doctors suspend using Rotarix, one of two vaccines licensed in the United States against rotavirus, saying the vaccine is contaminated with material from a pig virus.

"There is no evidence at this time that this material poses a safety risk," Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg told reporters in a conference call.

Rotarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved by the FDA in 2008. The contaminant material is DNA from porcine circovirus 1, a virus from pigs that is not known to cause disease in humans or animals, Hamburg said...

Labels: GlaxoSmithKline, rotavirus, vaccination, vaccine, virus

FDA Suspends Use Of Major Glaxo Vaccine

Doses of Rotarix - Used to Combat Diarrhea-Causing rotavirus - Contaminated with Pig Virus, but Apparently Harmless

(AP) U.S. health officials told pediatricians Monday to temporarily quit using one of two vaccines against a leading cause of diarrhea in babies, after discovering that doses of GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix were contaminated with bits of an apparently benign pig virus.

Glaxo's vaccine has been used in millions of children worldwide, including 1 million in the U.S., with no signs of safety problems - and the pig virus isn't known to cause any kind of illness in people or animals, said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

But vaccines are supposed to be sterile, and because there is a competing vaccine against diarrhea-causing rotavirus that has tested clean - Merck's RotaTeq - the FDA decided to err on the side of caution...

Labels: contamination, GlaxoSmithKline, vaccination, vaccine