Yale Profs question spending on flu vaccine

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Professors question spending on flu vaccine

BY STEVEN SIEGEL, Yale Daily News

Although President W. Bush '68 announced a sweeping $7.1

billion plan Tuesday to confront the growing threat of pandemic flu,

whether Yale will see any increase in funding remains an open

question.

Some Yale experts in public health and virology said they praised the

Bush administration's new focus on the threat the flu poses, but they

questioned some of the plan details. Bush's request for funding

includes $2.8 billion earmarked for improving cell culture

technology, a step towards developing new vaccines to combat flu. But

Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, special assistant to the president for

biological defense policy, said in a press conference Tuesday that

the majority of the money would go to vaccine manufacturers in the

private sector.

Some Yale professors said they welcome the development of new

vaccines, but they are not sure if the money for such research would

be focused in the right places.

" There are those of us interested in vaccine development at the early

stages who have been frustrated trying novel approaches that aren't

ready for prime-time, " Tattersall, professor of laboratory

medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, said. " The government wants

the answer in place and doesn't realize they're not there yet. They

need to stop rubbing basic research. "

Alison Marquiss, a spokeswoman for Chiron Corporation, an Emeryville,

Cal.-based vaccine manufacturer, said Chiron does not have a

collaboration with any universities for its influenza vaccine

programs, but does for Hepatitis B. She said she doubts universities

would receive much of the funding called for by Bush.

" I know they'd be looking at organizations that have already shown

expertise in the vaccine field, " Marquiss said.

Yale professors gave different opinions on the University's ability

to meet this standard. DiMaio, professor of genetics and

therapeutic radiology, said no one at Yale has a primary focus in

developing influenza vaccines. But Rose, director of virology at

the School of Medicine, works with technologies similar to what could

be used to make new, innovative types of flu vaccines.

Rose said his research focuses on modifying VSV, a virus that

primarily infects cattle, horses, and pigs, but can cause flu-like

symptoms in humans. Rose said he has explored using VSV to create a

vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In 1997, his lab worked

on a vaccine for H5N1, the current strain of avian flu that has some

experts worried, after an outbreak in Hong Kong, he said. But he said

interest in the vaccine faded as the threat of avian flu appeared to

recede. Rose said his lab has revived its work on an H5N1 vaccine,

but VSV-based vaccines are not yet approved for human use.

Professors working in health-related fields receive government

funding as grants from two sources: the National Institutes of Health

and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Associate

professor Degutis, director of the Yale Center for Public

Health Preparedness, said this year's federal budget will include no

increase in NIH funding and will actually decrease the CDC's overall

funding, though only some of their funding is used for grants.

But some professors said they were unconcerned if the lion's share of

research funding was aimed at vaccine manufacturers rather than basic

science researchers.

" It should go to whoever has the capacity to move things quickly, "

Degutis said.

The strategy announcement came as fears mount that the H5N1 strain of

avian flu -- also called bird flu --- might mutate and be able to

infect humans, jumping from one person to another and setting off a

pandemic or global epidemic on a scale not seen for decades.

The Bush plan includes $251 million to train local responders in

foreign countries, an amount some have called insufficient.

" The problem with the plan is that there's very little money targeted

overseas and by its nature something pandemic will be worldwide, "

DiMaio said. " What you'd like is to get the pandemic in the mud, when

it's small. "

Despite their criticisms, professors said the focus on flu is well-

advised.

" You're not going to hold off an epidemic with standard methods if

you have a fast-spreading virus, " Rose said. " Its' a minimum of six

months to produce enough and I think the capacity is very limited

anyway. "

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