MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviron (Nasdaq: AVIR)
announced today that it is working with the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) to collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
to prepare two vaccine candidates, or source material, for potential use in
the event of a pandemic of the "Hong Kong flu" resulting from the avian
A/Hong Kong/97 (H5N1) influenza virus.
    The Aviron research team provided an update on their progress to the Food
and Drug Administration's (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products
Advisory Committee, which today held a regularly scheduled meeting to discuss
the influenza virus vaccine formulation for the 1998-99 flu season.
    The "avian" influenza vaccine candidates are being prepared by taking
weakened and modified hemagglutinin and neuraminidase surface proteins from
avian influenza viruses, and genetically inserting them into human master
strains which have been used safely in more than 9,000 subjects who have
received Aviron's cold-adapted influenza vaccine in clinical trials.
    "We thought it was prudent from a public health perspective to use our
unique technology to prepare vaccine candidates for this potentially
devastating strain of influenza," said J. Leighton Read, MD, Chairman and CEO
of Aviron.  "We will continue to cooperate with the CDC, NIH, FDA and other
government agencies who have responded so impressively to this situation."
    The development of these vaccine candidates is taking place at Aviron and
at the California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of
California at Davis.
    Aviron is an emerging biopharmaceutical company based in Mountain View,
California, whose strategy is to focus on the prevention of disease.  The
Company's goal is to develop vaccines to prevent a wide range of viral
infections that affect the general population, providing a cost-effective
means of addressing a number of major diseases.  The majority of the Company's
products under development are live vaccines against viral infections,
including influenza, parainfluenza (PIV-3), cytornegalovirus (CMV), genital
herpes (HSV-2) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).  Aviron has a
Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the NIH to
develop the intranasal influenza vaccine, and plans to file a Product License
Application (PLA) with the FDA by mid-1998.
    This press release contains forward-looking statements.  Actual results
may differ materially from those suggested here.  Additional information
concerning factors that could cause such a difference is contained in Aviron's
Prospectus dated August 13, 1997.

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