Dynavax (NASDAQ:DVAX) will collaborate with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai to develop a universal influenza vaccine combined with the company’s CpG 1018 adjuvant.
The Mt. Sinai team will evaluate a novel approach they have developed called chimeric hemagglutinin designed to protect against all flu strains.
A universal annual flu vaccine, if successfully developed, will be big winner. Current seasonal vaccines are are only 10 – 60% effective due to the rapidly mutating nature of the virus.
Influenza A viruses are divided into subtypes based on two surface proteins: hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). There are 18 different H subtypes and 11 different N subtypes meaning that there are 198 types of the virus (for example, highly infectious avian flu is H5N1). Since vaccine makers have to pick the types of flu to inoculate against about a year before the season to allow for production, many times the most virulent types are different than planned, greatly diminishing effectiveness.
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