GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is teaming up with researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, to develop new manufacturing methods to make vaccines cheaper for children in the developing world. The news comes a month after Glaxo and Pfizer ($PFE) faced renewed pressure from Médecins Sans Frontières to reduce the prices of their pneumococcal vaccines. The company is working on applying blow-fill-seal technology for its oral vaccines, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. This involves making plastic vials and filling them with vaccine. One of the challenges the company identified was keeping the vaccine at a low enough temperature not to kill it while heating the plastic vials to 160 degrees Celsius during their formation. More
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> Stanford University immunologists have identified patterns of gene expression that distinguish people with a viral infection from those with a bacterial infection, and another pattern that distinguishes people who have the flu from those who have other respiratory infections. This can help determine if someone is responding to vaccination. Release