Probiomics to commence flu vaccine trial

Probiomics' (ASX:PCC) shares increased by more than 25 per cent yesterday on news that the company will undertake a clinical trial to examine the ability of its proprietary probiotic strain PCC to boost the immune response to a vaccine for influenza.

Probiomics will recruit 300 healthy volunteers aged 18 - 49, through Good Health Solutions Clinics, and test two doses of PCC against a placebo capsule in a randomised, double blind trial.

All subjects will receive an influenza vaccine as part of the trial, and will take 1 capsule per day of PCC or placebo for a period of six weeks. The trial is planned to take four months.

The subjects' response to the vaccine will be tested by measuring the titre of haemagglutinin antibody inhibition (HI). This assay measures the ability of antibody present in a serum sample to inhibit agglutination of red blood cells by a standardised dose of virus.

"If the trial demonstrates significant efficacy of PCC in enhancing the immune response to influenza vaccine, we would then seek to test it using an H5N1 (avian flu) vaccine," said Probiomics director Prof Ron Penny in a statement.

In experiments in rats, PCC has been shown to enhance the response to a bacterial antigen (H. influenzae) and in clinical studies, PCC has been shown to significantly decrease the incidence of respiratory illness.

If shown to be an effective 'bioadjuvant', PCC would have a number of advantages over conventional adjuvants, such as alum, because it provides a systemic mucosal immune response, has no known adverse effects and has already been shown in its own right to reduce the number of respiratory tract infections in adults and infants.

An adjuvant is used to enhance the immune response to a vaccine.

SPP closing date extended

Probiomics has also extended the closing date for its share purchase plan (SPP) from November 25 to November 30 in view of its announcement of the company's flu vaccine clinical trial.

The SPP could raise AUD$2 million if fully subscribed and eligible shareholders can purchase up to $5000 worth of new shares at an offer price of $0.075 per share -- an 8 per cent discount to the average price of Probiomics' shares over the five days up to October 25.

The company said that the closing date extension was to allow shareholders more time to lodge applications for shares.

Probiomics shares were trading at $0.09 at the time of writing, down $0.01 since trade opened this morning.