Researchers have developed a cell culture-based flu vaccine that they claim is almost 80 percent effective, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet on Feb. 16.
Cell-culture technology, which derives flu vaccines from animal cells, could increase the reliability and effectiveness of vaccine supplies and also production speed, an important factor during pandemics.
Influenza expert Dr. W. Paul Glezen, from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, wrote a commentary to accompany the study. He said the culture-based manufacture of the vaccine might reduce production time by 10 weeks, compared with the current method, which uses chicken eggs.
This “might be crucial in a pandemic alert,” Glezen said, according to Medpage Today.
Glezen said that by culturing the vaccine in Vero cells from African green monkeys, vaccines might be better matched to flu strains, compared with the chicken egg method.
A vaccine made from chicken eggs “may not match the circulating virus as much as a vaccine made in mammalian cells,” Glezen said, according to the New York Times.
The study was based on a randomized, placebo-controlled trial using three vaccine strains on more than 7,000 participants in 36 centers in the United States and was funded in part by the U.S. government.
Of the participants who developed influenza, 60 cases occurred in those who were given a placebo, while 13 had received a vaccine, an efficacy rate of 78.5 percent.
Immunogenicity, or the development of antibodies, was measured and the levels met U.S. standards for all three vaccine strains, the researchers said, according to Medpage Today.
Chief researcher Dr. P. Noel Barrett, vice president for research and development at Baxter Bioscience, said the company is investigating what data the Food and Drug Administration will need to approve the technique. He said more research is needed to determine whether immunogenicity in children and the elderly meets the standards.
“We are certainly committed to moving this forward into the U.S. as fast as possible,” Barrett said, according to the Times.
Cell-culture technology, which derives flu vaccines from animal cells, could increase the reliability and effectiveness of vaccine supplies and also production speed, an important factor during pandemics.
Influenza expert Dr. W. Paul Glezen, from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, wrote a commentary to accompany the study. He said the culture-based manufacture of the vaccine might reduce production time by 10 weeks, compared with the current method, which uses chicken eggs.
This “might be crucial in a pandemic alert,” Glezen said, according to Medpage Today.
Glezen said that by culturing the vaccine in Vero cells from African green monkeys, vaccines might be better matched to flu strains, compared with the chicken egg method.
A vaccine made from chicken eggs “may not match the circulating virus as much as a vaccine made in mammalian cells,” Glezen said, according to the New York Times.
The study was based on a randomized, placebo-controlled trial using three vaccine strains on more than 7,000 participants in 36 centers in the United States and was funded in part by the U.S. government.
Of the participants who developed influenza, 60 cases occurred in those who were given a placebo, while 13 had received a vaccine, an efficacy rate of 78.5 percent.
Immunogenicity, or the development of antibodies, was measured and the levels met U.S. standards for all three vaccine strains, the researchers said, according to Medpage Today.
Chief researcher Dr. P. Noel Barrett, vice president for research and development at Baxter Bioscience, said the company is investigating what data the Food and Drug Administration will need to approve the technique. He said more research is needed to determine whether immunogenicity in children and the elderly meets the standards.
“We are certainly committed to moving this forward into the U.S. as fast as possible,” Barrett said, according to the Times.
Friends Read Free