Bethesda, MD, USA (Nov. 1, 2012)The technology used to develop a new vaccine as an aid in the prevention of clinical disease caused by Hendra virus in horses has been licensed from The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF) by Pfizer Animal Health, a multinational animal health company with expertise in the discovery, development and manufacturing of innovative vaccines. The new vaccine, called Equivac HeV, is now available for use in Australia. The vaccine's availability was announced today during a news conference held by Pfizer Animal Health in Brisbane, Australia.
The vaccine is derived from the original work of Christopher C. Broder, Ph.D., of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and Katharine Bossart, Ph.D., a USU alumna and assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, supported the work.
Progression of the technology is the result of a close, ongoing collaboration with Pfizer Animal Health and a team at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's (CSIRO) Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, Australia. The bio-security facility at AAHL is the only laboratory in the world where Hendra virus challenge testing of the vaccine in horses could have been accomplished, work presently under the direction of Deborah Middleton, D.V.P. Two years ago, Pfizer Animal Health joined this collaborative effort, bringing its development and regulatory expertise to facilitate the unprecedented rapid development, approval and deployment of this breakthrough vaccine.
Since its first appearance in 1994, the Hendra virus has killed more than 80 horses and four of the seven people infected to date. An equine vaccine is crucial to breaking the cycle of Hendra virus transmission from flying foxes to horses and then to peopl
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| Contact: Colleen Franklin cfranklin@hjf.org 240-694-2075 Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Source:Eurekalert |