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Glaxo claims bird flu breakthroughUK drug-maker says it has developed small-dose bird flu vaccine
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England (CNN) -- A British company has announced that it has developed the first effective small-dose bird flu vaccine. In a clinical trial of the H5N1 vaccine conducted by London-based GlaxoSmithKline, the company found that 80 percent of the 400 adults involved in the study showed a good immune response to the vaccine when it was given with doses of only 3.8 micrograms of antigen. "These clinical trial results represent a significant breakthrough in the development of our pandemic flu vaccine," Dr. Jean-Pierre Garnier, the company's chief executive Officer, said Wednesday. "This is the first time such a low dose of H5N1 antigen has been able to stimulate this level of strong immune response." According the company, previous candidate vaccines have only proven effective when given with high quantities of antigen, the active ingredient which triggers an immune response. GlaxoSmithKline said these small dose vaccines could also be produced in much greater quantities than large dose vaccines, making the vaccine better suited for mass immunizations. The company hopes to make regulatory filings for the vaccine in the coming months, but it's unclear how soon the vaccine would be available to the general public. The vaccine comes at an important time as bird flu continues to spread throughout southeast Asia. Wednesday brought Thailand's 15th bird flu death. A 17-year-old boy died from the flu in the country's northern province of Pichit, about 215 miles (350 kilometers) north of Bangkok. (Full story) 
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