Austrian biotechnology company Intercell AG announced that they are expecting that the Food and Drug Administration will clear by early 2009, marketing approval for its Japanese Encephalitis vaccine, Ixiaro.

Biotechnology Dynavax Technologies Corp and US based Merck & Co announced the termination of their global agreement signed at the end of 2007 to develop a Phase 3 hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine, Heplisav. Reasons are related to adverse reactions of the product with Wegener's granulomatosis, a disease in which blood vessels get inflamed.

According to data presented by GlaxoSmithKline Plc, and published by the New England Journal of Medicine, two separate clinical trials in Kenia and Tanzania of experimental malaria vaccine showed up to 65 percent of protection in toddlers. The product will begin Phase III test next year.

A new study suggests Merck & Co.'s Gardasil vaccine, which is primarily given to prevent cervical cancer in girls and women, may also be effective in preventing genital warts and penile cancer when given to males. According to scientist, 90 percent fewer men ages 16 to 26 years developed genital warts and other lesions after receiving the human papillomavirus vaccine. Merck plans to ask the FDA later this year to approve Gardasil’s use in males.

According to further data from clinical trials with Wyeth´s new pneumoccocal vaccine Prevnar 13, this expanded version of Prevnar may be as just as effective as the currently approved vaccine. Wyeth presented the data at the joint annual meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Oxford BioMedica Plc said that a cross-trial of data from nine diferent studies of its experimental cancer vaccine TroVax analysis in colorectal, renal and prostate cancer showed a positive correlation between immune response and patient survival. Trovax belongs to a new class of cancer drugs known as therapeutic vaccines that are designed to enhance the body's immune system, prompting it to kill tumor cells. Further Details.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, has initiated the community acquired pneumonia immunization trial in adults, with their investigational 13-valent conjugate vaccine Prevnar designed to help prevent pneumococcal pneumonia, as part of a Phase IV commitment with the Food and Drug Administration.

Novartis vaccine MF59 induces a protective antibody level against diverse strains of bird flu in individuals already vaccinated six years earlier, showed a study presented at the European Influenza Conference. Further details.

U.S. health regulators have approved Merck and Co's Gardasil vaccine to prevent women against vaginal and vulvar cancers. The FDA also added new information to Gardasil´s prescribing information about reports of deaths (and illnesses) among those getting the shot. Further Details.

Sanofi-Aventis and Merck & Co´s European joint venture to market vaccines in the EU, Sanofi-Pasteur, announced the product information of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil in Europe has been updated to include other cancer-causing HPV types not directly targeted by the vaccine.

Novartis revealed results of its second study with an experimental vaccine against the meningococcal B bacteria, showing that more than 95 percent of infants six to 12 months generated a protective immune response against strains representing multiple antigens in the vaccine. This is the first meningitis B vaccine that has reached Phase III trials, state Novartis. Further details.

Intercell AG today announced that its collaborator Merck & Co., Inc. has initiated a Phase II clinical trial of V710, an investigational vaccine for the prevention of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections. The trial start follows the initiation of a separate Phase II trial in December 2007.

Researchers revealed in a study with Merck & Co´s cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil that having an application of this isn´t cost-effective for women over 18 years old, an unfavorable piece of news for the company already going through declining sales of this vaccine as well as its cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia. Further details.