Current Severe Outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease Predicted by Replikins' BioRadar(TM) One Year in Advance (June 2009)

LONDON, July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- BioRadar UK Ltd. predicted one year ago the current severe Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks after recording an increase of the Replikin Count (ref. 1) of the FMD Virus (FMDV) to its highest level in 52 years. Based on these findings, a new synthetic Replikins Trans-Strain FMD Vaccine, called TransFMDV(TM), has been developed and is now available. The announcement was made at the recent Biorbis Conference on Vaccine Production and Manufacturing in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The conference was attended by major pharmaceutical company executives to examine how vaccine production could be accelerated in view of the problem last year of responding "too little, too late" to the H1N1 influenza pandemic.

The Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks now rampant in Asia are moving west to the Middle East and south to Africa. The last major FMD outbreak followed the same path of spread, and cost approximately 17 billion pounds sterling when it reached the U.K. in 2001.

BioRadar(TM) also gave warning one year in advance (January 2009, ref. 2) of the re-emergence of H5N1 (bird) influenza. H5N1 is now producing outbreaks in chickens in 63 countries. In Egypt, H5N1 has appeared in 31 human cases (40% mortality). The accuracy of these predictions is supported by the fact that BioRadar(TM) predicted, one year in advance, the H1N1 pandemic of 2009.

Dr. Samuel Bogoch, chairman of BioRadar UK Ltd., reported to the Amsterdam conference that the new technology gives accurate advance notice of virus outbreaks.

Further, two Replikins synthetic vaccines have been found by others to be effective against H5N1 influenza in chickens (TransFlu(TM)) (ref. 3) and against lethal Taura Syndrome virus in shrimp. These synthetic non-biological methods produce Replikins vaccines in 7 days rather than the six to eight months required by older biological methods. Regardless of which method of vaccine production is used, even using standard biological methods, one year of additional time to produce and test vaccines is now possible.

United Kingdom's UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) announced that BioRadar UK Ltd. has "one of the first reliable systems for accurately predicting the strain of future flu outbreaks together with the severity and duration." Subscriptions to the Replikins BioRadar Global Surveillance System(TM) are being received by BioRadar UK Ltd.

Contact: John McKenney, [email protected], 617-536-0220

References:

1. Bogoch S. and Bogoch ES. Replikins: the chemistry of rapid replication. Begell House, N.Y. 2005. Library of Congress.  

2. Website: http://replikins.com, Replikins Press - 35 online reports, 2006-2010.

3. Jackwood, M. et al. Efficacy of a Replikin Peptide Vaccine Against Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenza H5 Virus. doi: 2009.10.637/8892-042509; full paper in Avian Diseases 2009.

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SOURCE Replikins