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Local vaccine developers testing potential defenses against deadly flu viruses said they are prepared to act quickly if the recent swine flu outbreak that started in Mexico escalates into a pandemic.

Public health officials could look to local businesses with experimental technologies to help supply large batches of vaccines quickly.

And for local biotechs with early stage technologies, government intervention might help accelerate their research.

San Diego-based Vical, which is developing a bird flu vaccine based on a modified form of the organism? DNA, said its technology could make a swine flu vaccine available in six to nine weeks after receiving information about the virus? genetic makeup, if Washington requires one.

?e have the ability to move very quickly on this,?said Vical spokesman Alan Engbring. ?s of yet, we haven? been asked to do so.?

Vical, which in November trimmed its work force by 29 employees (about 20 percent of its staff) and announced the closure of a research facility, has been trying to find a development partner for its vaccine since last summer.

As of Dec. 31, it had cash and cash equivalents of $23.8 million.

An early stage study showed the vaccine, when combined with an adjuvant to boost immune response, to be safe and well tolerated in 100 healthy volunteers.

Data from the Phase 1 trial suggested that the vaccine achieved potentially protective levels of antibody responses in at least half of study participants and up to 67 percent in high doses.

The vaccine also induced T-cell responses against another unidentified strain in the trial, Vical said.


Benefiting From Attention

The company could benefit from increased attention on flu vaccines whether or not it actually takes a role in developing one, according to Rodman & Renshaw senior biotech analyst Reni Benjamin.

?e believe Vical? vaccine candidates are well-timed, as many currently marketed vaccines are raising concerns among medical thought leaders as either poorly protective or too inflexible in their protection profiles to effectively serve their intended medical needs,?Benjamin said.

Shares of Vical, traded under the symbol VICL on Nasdaq, spiked as high as $3.30 on April 27, a day after the United States declared swine flu a public health emergency. Shares closed at $2.70 that day, up 7 percent from the previous session? close.

Likewise, San Diego-based Inovio Biomedical, which makes a vaccine delivery system that uses a brief electrical pulse, saw its shares close up 19 percent to 43 cents the same day. Inovio plans to merge with privately held VGX Pharmaceuticals of Pennsylvania in June.

Most local companies, however, said they are moving cautiously before making decisions related to swine flu. In an environment where venture capital funding has been hard to come by, many firms said they hesitate to act too quickly and risk spending large amounts of money on a program with unforeseen market potential.

?ou don? want to spend the money to pursue something that? not needed,?Engbring said.

For privately held San Diego biotech MediVas, it will wait to obtain the genetic code of the swine flu from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention until it makes a decision whether to pursue any new vaccine programs, according to CEO Ken Carpenter.


Vaccine In 4 Weeks?

The company? technique, which relies on E. coli rather than eggs, could produce a vaccine within four weeks instead of the typical nine months, Carpenter said.

The vaccine comes in freeze-dried powder form, making it suitable for travel by eliminating the need for refrigeration.

?ith newly emerging pathogens, we could start producing a million doses per week,?Carpenter said.

Most government estimates said a new swine flu vaccine could take months to produce, although local companies say their technologies could make it faster.

The last time the U.S. recommended nationwide vaccination against suspected swine flu was in 1976, under President Ford.

Fearful of another Spanish flu outbreak, vaccine manufacturers rushed to produce a product and administered it to 45 million Americans at a cost of $135 million.

People developed Guillain-Barr?syndrome, a paralyzing immune-system disorder sometimes caused by vaccine. Federal officials stopped the program nine months later after more than 30 people had died.

The federal government eventually paid out nearly $90 million in damages.

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