Universal flu vaccine

In 2009, the Wistar Institute in Pennsylvania received a patent for using "a variety of peptides" in a flu vaccine, and announced it was seeking a corporate partner.

[10] In 2010, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the U.S. NIH announced a breakthrough; the effort targets the stem, which mutates less often than the head of the viral HA.

[19] Other companies pursuing the vaccine as of 2009 and 2010 include Theraclone,[20] VaxInnate,[21] Crucell NV,[22] Inovio Pharmaceuticals,[17] Immune Targeting Systems (ITS)[23] and iQur.

[30] In July 2011, researchers created an antibody, which targets a protein found on the surface of all influenza A viruses called haemagglutinin.

[31][32][33] The subdomain of the hemagglutinin that is targeted by FI6, namely the stalk domain, was actually successfully used earlier as universal influenza virus vaccine by Peter Palese's research group at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

[35] A study from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where researchers deleted gD-2 from the herpes virus, which is responsible for HSV microbes entering in and out of cells showed as of May 1, 2018 the same vaccine can be used in a modified way to contain hemagglutinin and invoke a special ADCC immune response.

[37] Simultaneously the NIAID is working on a peptide vaccine that is starting human clinical trials in the 2019 flu season.

Their pivotal Phase III study with 12,400 participants was completed and results of the data analysis were published in October 2020, indicating that the vaccine did not show any statistical difference from the placebo group in reduction of flu illness and severity.

[44][45][46] In 2019–2020, a vaccine candidate from Peter Palese's group at Mount Sinai Hospital emerged from a phase 1 clinical trial with positive results.