Vaccine for Swine Flu?

Swine flu: small drug developer Lipoxen jumps on vaccine results

By Telegraph Staff
Last Updated: 10:42AM BST 30 Apr 2009

Lipoxen, a small British biopharmaceutical company, saw its shares more than double after the company announced positive results for tests on a flu vaccine that it claims may work on swine flu.

Shares in the company rose 117pc to 15.25p, valuing the company at £18m, after it made the announcement.

Lipoxen, working with Cambridge Biostability, a developer of temperature stable vaccines, said it had achieved positive pre-clinical results for the delivery of a novel and enhanced influenza vaccine.

M. Scott Maguire, chief executive of Lipoxen, said in a regulatory news announcement: "This new very positive data on a novel flu vaccine candidate comes at a critical time for the world particularly in light of the current potential for a swine flu outbreak where the death toll is climbing daily and the spread of disease is an enormous current global threat."

He claimed the results show that the company had the technology "to develop a novel flu vaccine candidate suitable for pandemic planning".

Mr Maguire said: "We are encouraged to believe that it would also work for the new swine flu 2009 strain since an earlier human-derived H1N1 strain was used in the studies reported today. We look forward to working with Cambridge Biostability to maximize the commercial potential of this flu vaccine candidate."

Lipoxen and Cambridge Biostability said they were in discussion with major vaccine manufacturers with a view to licensing the new technology package for pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines.