POTENCY TESTS OF HEPATITIS B VACCINES BY THE PARALLEL LINE ASSAY METHOD IN MICE

: Adequate conditions for the potency test of hepatitis B (HB) vaccines in mice were looked for. Preliminary tests showed that BALB/c female mice of 5 weeks of age are adequate for the test. An immunization period of 5 weeks was found satisfactory for the test. Under these conditions, mice were immunized with each of serial dilutions of the test vaccine and a reference vaccine. The use of the parallel line assay method and the expression of the potency relative to that of the reference vaccine gave a reliable estimate of the potency of HB vaccine.