For additional information,
Media Contact: John Bluth, Fleishman-Hillard
Phone: 212-453-2429
Investors: J. Leighton Read, M.D., and Fred Kurland, Aviron 650-919-6500
AVIRON ANNOUNCES AVIAN INFLUENZA VACCINE COLLABORATION
Mountain View, CA ñ January 30, 1998 ñ 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 AdministrationÃs (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 AvironÃs 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 CompanyÃs 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 CompanyÃs products under development are live vaccines against viral infections, including influenza, parainfluenza (PIV-3), cytomegalovirus (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.
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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 AvironÃs Prospectus dated August 13, 1997.
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