Hawaii Biotech vaccine
guards against West Nile
virus, study shows
A Hawaii-based biopharmaceutical company announced yesterday that a second study again shows its synthetic vaccine protected 100 percent of test animals from both illness and death from West Nile virus.
The West Nile virus, which surfaced in the United States in 1999, infected nearly 10,000 people nationwide last year and was responsible for 262 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In its control test, 53 percent of the golden hamsters not given the vaccine died and survivors showed signs of illness, according to Hawaii Biotech Inc., a company with 60 employees and a 25,000-square-foot laboratory in Aiea.
In preliminary trials last year, the vaccine protected all 60 test animals injected with the virus while 77 percent of the 30 control animals injected with the virus, but not the vaccine, died.
"The study results are promising and validate last year's study results of this sub-unit vaccine," said Professor Robert B. Tesh, of the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas, who conducted the test.
Hawaii Biotech President and Chief Executive Officer David Watumull said the vaccine differs from traditional vaccines because instead of using a weakened live virus, it uses synthetic proteins resembling West Nile virus to spark an immune response from the body.
Watumull said he's encouraged by the latest tests in the 10-year-old project and expects testing in humans to begin in 12 to 15 months, using the vaccine in volunteers to determine if it generates a human immune response.
While healthy people often fight off infection from West Nile, those with weak immune systems can develop severe fever or potentially fatal brain inflammations from the disease.
If developed into a commercial vaccine, it initially would be given to the elderly or others most vulnerable to the disease, Watumull said.
The company has had a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration, which would have to authorize the release of the vaccine for general use.