26 Jan 2010

What about the vaccine safety?



Maybe MF59 adjuvated vaccine, like the Focetria vaccine by Novartis, used in Italy against the swine flu, could protect people from more types of virus. In a paper published by Science Translational Medicine, researchers from FDA, Novartis and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, said that the MF59 adjuvant can make the trick. They said that they can boost the efficacy of the vaccine against the avian virus adding the adjuvant. "MF59 adjuvant improves the immune response to a H5N1 vaccine by inducing qualitative and quantitative expansion of the antibody repertoires with protective potential" they write. So, the MF59 vaccine generates an immune response non only against the selected strain, but also against others. According to the journal, this can be really useful in large scale vaccination.
Ironically, the safety of the MF59 got questioned by Italians, that preferred to skip the vaccine against the swine flu. Right now the Minister of Health don't know what to do with all the stocked doses.

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