# 7369
I don’t usually give `forward looking’, promotional, press releases from pharmaceutical companies any space in this blog because they are generally to medical science what P.T. Barnum was to the study of Zoology.
But today I’ll make an exception, as the press release from Novavax this morning – announcing their creation of a MERS vaccine candidate – is likely to generate a fair amount of media hoopla today.
Without taking anything away from Novavax - or their announced development of a candidate vaccine - it needs to be stated upfront that any vaccine for a novel coronavirus is going to take a very long time getting to market.
Even if this candidate vaccine is a home run (and we can always hope), we are talking years to get through the grueling safety and efficacy testing that would be required (in animals and then in humans) before the vaccine could be released.
So first, a link and a brief excerpt from the Novavax press release, then I’ll be back with a little more on the difficulties of creating a commercial MERS vaccine.
Novavax Produces MERS-CoV Vaccine Candidate
Novavax Produces MERS-CoV Vaccine Candidate
ROCKVILLE, Md., June 6, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq:NVAX) announced today that it had successfully produced a vaccine candidate designed to provide protection against the recently emerging Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The vaccine candidate, which was made using Novavax' recombinant nanoparticle vaccine technology, is based on the major surface spike (S) protein. The Company believes that its MERS-CoV vaccine candidate may provide a path forward for a vaccine for this emerging threat.
Ever since the 2003 SARS epidemic the World Health Organization has continued to urge research into, and the development of, a SARS vaccine.
But after more than 10 years of trying, the results have not been encouraging.
In 2004 it was widely reported that China had developed, and administered a SARS vaccine to 36 volunteers, and again in 2009, China once again announced they were working on a new SARS vaccine.
But to date, no viable (safe and effective) vaccine seems to have been developed.
In 2012, SARS vaccine research suffered a setback when a PloS One research article found that mice vaccinated with four different experimental SARS candidate vaccines developed the expected antibodies, but experienced lung damage when challenged with the virus.
Immunization with SARS Coronavirus Vaccines Leads to Pulmonary Immunopathology on Challenge with the SARS Virus
Chien-Te Tseng, Elena Sbrana, Naoko Iwata-Yoshikawa, Patrick C. Newman, Tania Garron, Robert L. Atmar, Clarence J. Peters, Robert B. Couch
Conclusions
These SARS-CoV vaccines all induced antibody and protection against infection with SARS-CoV. However, challenge of mice given any of the vaccines led to occurrence of Th2-type immunopathology suggesting hypersensitivity to SARS-CoV components was induced. Caution in proceeding to application of a SARS-CoV vaccine in humans is indicated.
Last year, recognizing that a crucial gap exists in our pandemic response, the NIH agreed to fund SARS vaccine research over the next five years at Baylor College.
Simply put, while Novavax’ development of a vaccine candidate is an important first step, it is far too soon to start popping the champagne corks.
