Experimental avian flu vaccine shows promise in early trial

The first human test of an experimental vaccine against a deadly strain of avian flu, using novel technology that could produce millions of doses very quickly, produced protective antibodies in the vast majority of those who received it, scientists said on Wednesday. The encouraging results in the early stage trial from Novavax, a biopharmaceutical company based in Rockville, Maryland, were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. “These are very preliminary results, but it appears for the first time that we may have a vaccine that would work against an outbreak” of avian flu, said Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, the federal agency in charge of developing countermeasures against public health emergencies. Because other candidate vaccines against avian flu have failed, “this is a very important milestone,” he said. “We have a promising vaccine where before we had none.” The H7N9 strain of avian...