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May 05, 2003
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"SARS Vaccine Development Progresses at Accelerated Pace"
Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (05/05/03); Regalado, Antonio; Waldholz, Michael; Naik, Gautam
Merck, Aventis, and government and private labs are working hard to find a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and they are making rapid headway compared to the usual timetable for such work, though the process will not be easy. A working vaccine could still take several years to become available for the general public, but companies say that potential vaccines which pass animal trials could be tested sooner in clinical trials. A number of drug and biotechnology companies have responded to SARS quickly, despite any potential liabilities and the low likelihood of profit, though a SARS vaccine would be excellent publicity for whoever produced it. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department is encouraging the research, and different labs are working on different approaches to vaccines. Aventis and the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases are both hoping to create a vaccine with a deactivated virus, while Merck and the Vaccine Research Institute, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, are concentrating on using parts of the coronavirus, instead of the entire virus.
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