Acambis shares jump on flu vaccine offer

Shares in UK biotechnology company Acambis rose by over three percent on Thursday on the news that the company is in the process of developing a new flu vaccine that could give lifetime protection from all strains of the flu.

If the new vaccine is successful it would be a significant breakthrough at a time when health care officials are increasingly worried that a flu pandemic could spread globally, especially in light of the emerging problem of bird flu spreading to humans.

Such a vaccine would be especially important because of the current long delays in developing vaccines when new strains of flu emerge. Acambis is working with Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, a Belgian research center, in the development and licensing of the vaccine.

This is the second bit of good news from Acambis in two weeks. The company said recently that it has a vaccine in trials that could prove to be the first effective treatment for clostridium difficile, a new “super bug” that has been seen in outbreaks in 15 UK hospitals.