UNISEC, the European consortium, recently announced that it has launched a clinical trial as the next phase of its research for a Universal Influenza Vaccine.
UNISEC, established in The Netherlands, is one of the original companies to learn the true dangers of a pandemic influenza on the world health scene. Thanks to their research, the medical community now sees influenza as an expensive, serious threat to public health.
Currently, the strategy to avoid health risks associated with influenza is to receive yearly vaccines. Unfortunately, because vaccines must be changed every year and may not match the new virus, this becomes an expensive process. One example is the influenza vaccine that was created for the Mexican Flu pandemic of 2009.
Creating a universal influenza vaccine could efficiently protect people from a wide range of influenza virus strains. Universal vaccines would be founded on conserved constituents from the virus, increasing humoral and cellular immunity to protect people from illnesses.
UNISEC includes five National Health Institutes, three academic partners, as well as three companies. All of these partners have experience as leaders in research and development for influenza vaccines. UNISEC creates and studies several vaccines to further detect and then develop and clinically test the leads that show the most evidence for hope.
