Influenza Research & Clinical Trials
Influenza, commonly known as “the flu”, causes seasonal epidemics that result in about three to five million cases yearly of severe illness and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths yearly globally (WHO), rising to millions in some pandemic years. While the most well-known pandemic was in 1918, recent pandemics have been caused by a variety of strains and even evolved from animals, such as swine flu.
Proven flu disease model
A leader in virology research, hVIVO has been studying influenza for over 20 years and been conducting influenza human challenge studies with our flu disease model for more than 15 years.
We have conducted dozens of human flu challenge studies for a range of leading industry, governmental and academic clients, making it one of the most well-used commercial flu disease models available on the market. hVIVO achieved many firsts with these studies such as
- Pioneering the use of hVIVO flu disease model for achieving proofs of concepts
- Determining optimum doses and dosing schedules of new compounds and vaccines leading to subsequently successful field studies.
- Developing early stage diagnostics
- Understanding the correlates of protection against disease, the transmission of viruses between people, and the course of respiratory virus infections.
- Evaluating vaccines and antiviral agents, including neuraminidase inhibitors, for both prophylaxis and treatment, as well as for the study of person to person transmission.
- Demonstrating the first POC of an T cell based influenza vaccine
hVIVO has also authored numerous peer reviewed papers discussing how human challenge studies with our influenza model has been used to support Influenza research. Learn More
Standardised flu study process
Our in house recruitment group manages recruitment and enrolment based on specific study requirements, working in tight alignment with our operational and analytical teams. For our influenza challenge studies, healthy adults are selected for relative susceptibility by serum antibody levels and infected intra-nasally with a well characterised pool of wild-type Influenza virus. Under these conditions, the majority of subjects (typically 60% to 80%) will be infected and develop a mild, influenza-like illness (ILI), accompanied by recovery of virus from the nasopharynx. Typically, once enrolled, volunteers stay in our quarantine unit for 7-10 days for flu challenge studies and may have clinic follow up visits, the number and timing vary depending upon the study.
Rigorously characterized hVIVO influenza library
hVIVO brings over two decades of experience in influenza research working with a wide variety of strains including Influenza B, H3N2, H1H1 and H5N1. We have an extensive library of viruses for testing. The viruses used in our challenge studies are produced to pharmaceutical grade (cGMP) and undergo rigorous qualification to demonstrate they are suitable for use in clinical trials.
For more information or to make a specific research or collaboration enquiry please use the Contact Us form.
Interested in participating in a clinical trial? Learn more here