COMPARISON OF GPELISA AND NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODY-RESPONSES TO OKA MERCK LIVE VARICELLA VACCINE (VARIVAX(R)) IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS/

A comparison was made of antibody responses generated to live varicell a (OkalMerck) vaccine (Varivax(R)) produced during three different man ufacturing campaigns to evaluate the quality of the antibody responses and demonstrate consistency of the manufacturing process. Anti-varice lla tester virus (VZV) antibody titers were measured by an enhanced ne utralization assay and VZV glycoprotein-based enzyme-linked immunosorb ent assay (gpELISA). For sera taken from children who had received one dose of vaccine, an excellent linear concordance in titers was observ ed between the two assays. Sera from adults who had received two doses demonstrated continuing increased neutralization at high gpELISA tite rs. The immunogenicity measured by the two assays demonstrates that th e overall performance of the vaccine was very similar over the three p roduction series. Copyright (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd .