Pfizer Inc announces it is expanding into the vaccine market through the acquisition of PowderMed Ltd.Pfizer Inc announces it is expanding into the vaccine market through the acquisition of PowderMed Ltd, a privately-owned U.K. company that is developing needle-free DNA-based vaccines. Based in Oxford, England, PowderMed has developed a technology that delivers DNA-coated gold particles into the skin at supersonic speed supersonic speed: see aerodynamics. . Once they reach the skin, the particles then activate cells that in turn trigger an immune response immune response n. An integrated bodily response to an antigen, especially one mediated by lymphocytes and involving recognition of antigens by specific antibodies or previously sensitized lymphocytes. . As a result, the technology has the potential to overcome the drawbacks associated with current egg-based methods used to manufacture vaccines, such as storage and capacity constraints CONSTRAINTS - A language for solving constraints using value inference. ["CONSTRAINTS: A Language for Expressing Almost-Hierarchical Descriptions", G.J. Sussman et al, Artif Intell 14(1):1-39 (Aug 1980)]. . In July, PowderMed applied to U.K. regulators for permission to conduct a clinical trial to test a vaccine targeting H5N1, the virus that causes bird flu bird flu: see influenza. bird flu or avian influenza viral respiratory disease, mainly of birds including poultry and waterbirds but also transmissible to humans. . |
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