Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii's new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.
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October 9, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Vaccines Aim at Travelers' Dilemma"
Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (10/09/02) P. B3C; Ahlberg, Erik
Britain's PowderJect and Acambis, and Gaithersburg, Md.-based Antex Biologics are on a short list of drug makers working on vaccines to combat the symptoms that cause travelers' diarrhea. PowderJect already has a drinkable vaccine on the market called Dukoral that targets the enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) bacteria--one of several bacteria known to induce travelers' diarrhea. Dukoral has been sold at travel clinics in Sweden and Norway for several years, and PowderJect is now working to get U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the product. Acambis' ETEC vaccine, tentatively called HolaVax-ETEC, combines five of the worst strains of the ETEC bacteria into one compound. Acambis officials said clinical trials for the vaccine will begin sometime in the next two years, with applications to regulatory agencies in the United States and overseas expected around 2007. Meanwhile, like PowderJect's travelers' diarrhea vaccine, Antex Biologics' vaccine singles out specific bacterial strains, except in this case, the strains are the campylobacter and shigella bacteria. Antex expects to have a product within the next three to five years.
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