Positive results for Select

A pre-clinical study of Select Vaccines' [ASX: SLT] Anavax technology for an H5 avian influenza vaccine candidate have proved promising, the company announced today.

Select has demonstrated that Anavax H5 produced an immune response in mice administered the vaccine in conjunction with a traditional aluminium adjuvant, and will present the findings at local and international conferences this month.

The company said the results were achieved using virus-like particle material from a proof-of-concept study that Select completed recently with German company ARTES Biotechnology, using its yeast-based manufacturing system.

The technology was developed from research originated at Melbourne's Burnet Institute. The Burnet's Associate Professor David Anderson presented the results at the Australian Society for Microbiology conference in Melbourne today.

In seven out of eight mice, two doses were sufficient to produce an immune response.

A lower proportion of animals responded when the vaccine candidate was administered without adjuvant (five of eight mice after three doses), while responses were seen in all positive control groups (given one microgram of purified H5 protein) whether or not an adjuvant was used.