Influenza Vaccines

(CIDRAP News) – A powerful motivator for getting a seasonal influenza vaccine is having suffered through the misery of the disease.

(CIDRAP News) – Public health and infectious disease experts today called on the United States to develop a "master plan" for development of pandemic influenza vaccines in order to translate scientific advances more rapidly into improved pandemic preparedness.

(CIDRAP News) – In a major push to modernize and speed the production of vaccines for pandemic influenza and other emerging threats, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week issued new guidance on how to safely and effectively develop new cell-based vaccines.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists reported yesterday that an experimental vaccine triggered a good immune response to H9N2 avian influenza virus, a type that has caused a few human infections and is considered capable of evolving into a pandemic strain.

(CIDRAP News) – Sanofi Pasteur today announced the start of the first clinical trial of an H7N1 influenza vaccine, intended to guard against the threat of a pandemic caused by H7 strains of avian influenza.

Current concern about a flu pandemic focuses mainly on the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has infected at least 247 people and killed 144. But H7 avian flu viruses have caused a number of mild illness cases and one death in the past 3 years.

(CIDRAP News) – Live-virus vaccines made from a combination of H5N1 avian influenza virus and another flu strain protected laboratory mice and ferrets from deadly infection with several different H5N1 strains, according to a report published yesterday.

Sept 7, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – In a human trial in China, a whole-virus H5N1 avian influenza vaccine generated an immune response with a relatively low dose of antigen, suggesting that it could be used to immunize more people than may be possible with some other vaccines under development.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza vaccine manufacturers expect to make and distribute more than 100 million doses in the next few months, millions more than in any previous flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

The predicted total is about 17 million more than the current record for doses distributed—83.1 million in 2003, the CDC said. Last year about 81.2 million doses were distributed.

(CIDRAP News) – Two national groups of infectious disease experts urged the White House to make the development of vaccines the most important element in the nation's pandemic influenza plan.

(CIDRAP News) – An H5N1 avian influenza vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) triggered a good immune response in human volunteers at a much lower dose than other H5N1 vaccines reported so far, which means that hundreds of millions of doses could be produced by next year, the company announced today.