Topic: cell-based vaccine
Sanofi will increase the supplies of Flublok Quadrivalent and Fluzone High-Dose to 25 million doses for the coming flu season.
Since it was born in 2015, when Australia’s CSL acquired Novartis’ flu vaccines, Seqirus has become the world’s second-largest flu shot company behind Sanofi. And it boasts a flu shot that isn’t made with eggs, a production process whose efficacy has been called into question lately.
Seqirus' cell-based flu vaccine was 26.5% effective at keeping those 65 and older out of the hospital in the past flu season, an FDA study finds.
Thanks to widely used egg-based manufacturing, this fall's flu vaccine will be only 20% effective against the dominant strain, according to a study.
Vaccine protection against H3N2 viruses—the predominant strain that tends to cause more severe illness—was only 25% this year.
The licensing deal provides Sanofi Pasteur access to a cell culture technology for use in its universal influenza vaccine.
Health experts presented flu vaccination guidelines stressing there's no difference in safety for shots given people allergic to eggs.
The U.S. could run into a vaccine supply predicament if an influenza pandemic hits, since only one drugmaker has a domestic facility with egg-based vaccine production capabilities.
Argentina's Sinergium Biotech, which is in a consortium to develop a Zika virus vaccine, intends to build a new plant that will use cell biology that can be utilized for a Zika vaccine or for the flu vaccine production it already does.
