25th Sep 2009 07:00
25 SEPTEMBER 2009
HENDERSON MORLEY PLC
(AIM:HML)
EPSTEIN BARR VIRUS VACCINE CANDIDATE UPDATE
The Board of Henderson Morley plc ("Henderson Morley" or the "Company"), the Aim quoted biotechnology company, is pleased to announce that the scientific team lead by Dr. John Burden, has successfully produced vaccine candidates for Epstein Barr Virus ("EBV").
Numerous novel and innovative techniques have been employed in the production, purification and validation of the vaccine candidates.
The product candidates have been validated and are ready for delivery to the Australian Centre for Vaccine Development ("ACVD") in Brisbane, once the appropriate regulatory permissions have been granted for import into Australia. It is anticipated that import permission will be granted in early October.
The vaccine candidates will be tested in the model systems developed by internationally renowned Professor Rajiv Khanna, the Director of the ACVD. It is expected that preliminary results of these studies will be available within three months of receipt of the vaccine candidates.
Commenting, Executive Chairman, Andrew Knight said: "Our scientific team has spent the last 18 months working on the production of these important vaccine candidates, and we are pleased that we are now able to send these to the ACVD for further testing."
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Enquires
HENDERSON MORLEY PLC 0121 442 4600
Andrew Knight, Chairman
BISHOPSGATECOMMUNICATIONS LTD 0207 562 3350
Maxine Barnes
Gemma O'Hara
BREWIN DOLPHIN INVESTMENT BANKING 0113 241 0126
Neil Baldwin
RIVINGTON STREET CORPORATE FINANCE 0207 562 3380
Monisha Varadan
Notes to editors
Epstein Barr Virus
The Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), also called Human Herpes virus 4 (HHV4), is a virus of the herpes family (which includes Herpes simplex virus) and is one of the most commonly causes infectious mononucleosis (also know as glandular fever).
It has been discovered that EBV is implicated in the aetiology of Hodgkin's lymphoma - a cancer of the blood cell, and Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma - cancer of the tissues behind the nose (prevalent in South East Asia).
Development of vaccine strategies for EBV - associated cancers - nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL) is a major focus of the ACVD laboratory. Human immune response to EBV proteins expressed in these cancers, make it an ideal target for immunotherapy. Since both these cancers express identical viral proteins, it is anticipated that a common immunotherapeutic protocol may provide curative benefit to cancer bearing patients. The ACVD have successfully identified immunogenic determinants from the EBV proteins expressed in NCP and HL and laboratory tests have shown that killer T cells specific for these determinants can efficiently kill these cancer cells.
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