April 5, 2005 - New Technique May Speed Flu Vaccine

Looking to speed up the process for producing influenza vaccine, in light of last season’s shortages and fears about a worldwide pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced April 1 that it has awarded a $97 million contract to a pharmaceutical manufacturer to develop cell-based rather than egg-based flu vaccines. Up to now, flu vaccines have been made by growing virus strains in chicken eggs, a process that can take many months. The new approach would use mammalian cells to grow the influenza viruses, and because such cells could be frozen and stored in advance of an epidemic, or developed rapidly in response to an epidemic, they could more easily meet "surge capacity needs." The new process would also have the advantage that the vaccine could be given to people who are allergic to eggs, who can’t receive the current vaccines, and it would guard against poultry-based diseases that sometimes contaminate vaccines made from eggs. The new cell-based vaccines may not be available for some years; the pharmaceutical company, Sanofi Pasteur, is just now making plans to build a cell-based manufacturing facility in the United States.