US company gets approval for bird flu patch

A US biotechnology company has won government approval to test an immune boosting patch against bird flu.

Iomai has showed that the skin patch, coupled with a single dose of vaccine, was enough to protect patients from the H5N1 strain of the disease.

The US health and human services department gave the company $128 million (£64 million) to work on the patch last year and has now approved a phase two safety trial.

If the phase two trial is successful it will lead to a phase three study designed to prove the product works before final approval by the US food and drug administration.

Stanley Erck, chief executive officer of Iomai, said: "The Iomai immunostimulant patch has the potential to change how we react to an influenza pandemic and we will move ahead quickly with the development of this technology."

The majority of approaches to a bird flu vaccine currently require two doses and the company claims a single-dose strategy would simplify a mass vaccination programme in the future.

Reuters reports that the Japanese health ministry is planning to vaccinate 6,000 medical officers to check the effectiveness of stockpiled bird flu vaccines.