MSD Animal Health gets European Commission marketing nod for INNOVAX-ND-H5 vaccine for chickens

“We are pleased that the European Commission has approved INNOVAX-ND-H5 vaccine for chickens,” said Maxim Nakhodko, Global Poultry Business Unit Lead, MSD Animal Health. “This vaccine bolsters MSD Animal Health’s avian influenza portfolio, which consists of inactivated vaccines for the H5 and H9 hemagglutinin subtypes and can help reduce the challenges raised by avian influenza and offer an optimized HPAI control system.”

INNOVAX-ND-H5 is a single-dose product administered in ovo or subcutaneously at one day of age to reduce mortality, clinical signs and virus excretion due to infection with highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus of the H5 type. In addition, the vaccine induces active immunity against Marek’s disease and Newcastle disease and data is available that the vaccine can safely be administered in combination with NOBILIS RISMAVAC, MSD Animal Health’s Rispens strain Marek’s disease vaccine.

INNOVAX-ND-H5 forms part of a holistic Avian influenza solution strategy aiming to clinically protect poultry and minimizing or ideally eliminating avian influenza virus shed over the whole life cycle of the birds. In fact, the 180+ countries of the World Health Organisation for Animals (WOAH) agreed in a 2023 Resolution that “conventional control measures of biosecurity, stamping out and movement restrictions…can be insufficient and unsustainable” and that “vaccination should be considered as a complementary disease control tool.”