Mount Sinai School Of Medicine Licenses Avian Flu Vaccine To Avimex

Mount Sinai School of Medicine today announced that it has entered into a territory limited license agreement with Avimex* Animal Health. The privately owned world-leader in the avian influenza H5 emulsified vaccine market will use Mount Sinai’s patented live recombinant Newcastle disease technology that contains an insertion of the H5 gene, for use in Brazil, India, Japan, Mexico, and Taiwan.

Inventors, Peter Palese, PhD, Chairman and Professor, Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, PhD, Professor, Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, added the H5 gene to the Newcastle vaccine. When chickens were exposed to avian influenza and the Newcastle virus, birds vaccinated with the recombinant vaccine produced protection for both viruses.

“This effective combination vaccine protects against both Newcastle disease and avian influenza, and gives us the opportunity to eliminate two dreaded diseases in the poultry population, worldwide, for the first time,” said Dr. Palese. “This vaccine became possible through extraordinary advances in the laboratory which allowed for the development of genetic engineering techniques for these RNA viruses, Newcastle disease and avian influenza.”

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