Expert: GenVec cattle vaccine safer

Monday, Aug. 6, 2007

Expert: GenVec cattle vaccine safer

Britain probes possible link between foot-and-mouth outbreak and drug manufacturer

by Steve Berberich | Staff Writer

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A new kind of foot-and-mouth disease vaccine being developed by GenVec Inc. of Gaithersburg and federal agencies would be safer than current vaccines because it does not require the live virus to be manufactured, say researchers.

Over the weekend, the British government announced that a strain of foot-and-mouth disease virus found Friday in cattle on a farm in southern England is the same as the one used to produce a commercial vaccine at nearby laboratories of Merial Ltd.

A link has not been verified, but Merial has volunteered to stop production. Three separate investigations are under way to see if the airborne virus escaped the lab and infected the cattle.

Globally, many outbreaks of the disease occur near the very laboratories that are making vaccines, and it is possible the recent outbreak is one such instance, said Siba K. Samal, associate dean of the Va.-Md. Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

If and when the GenVec vaccine is marketed, however, it would not pose such a threat, said Samal, confirming similar statements from the company and federal scientists.

Douglas J. Swirsky, GenVec’s CFO, said the vaccine, made from bits of the causal virus, not the whole virus, is safe to make. He said it could be on the market in 18 to 30 months.

‘‘Yes, this could be commercially viable and remove some of the hurdles in advance of any outbreak,” Swirsky said.

The company anticipates a $300 million to $500 million annual market for its vaccine and has been contacted by veterinary companies as potential partners, Swirsky said.