Influenza Vaccines

(CIDRAP News) – The nation is reaching a new milestone in its fight against pandemic flu, with the number of vaccine doses expected to reach 100 million by the end of the week and nearly half of states opening up immunization to anyone who wants it, federal officials said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Mongolia will be the first three countries to receive donated supplies of pandemic H1N1 vaccine funneled through the World Health Organization, the WHO announced today as it cautioned that it's too early to declare the pandemic over.

(CIDRAP News) – Despite a dip in cases, H1N1 influenza has not gone away and could resurge, making continued vaccination critical, government and private health officials said today.

Speaking on a webcast for health care providers conducted by the Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS), the experts urged healthcare workers to take the vaccine themselves and to continue to push it out to patients.

(CIDRAP News) – Sanofi has recalled four lots of its prefilled syringe pandemic vaccine for children ages 6 months through 35 months after its post-distribution monitoring found that antigen content dropped slightly below required levels, a problem that federal officials say isn't linked to any safety concerns.

(CIDRAP News) – New ways of producing influenza vaccine that would free the process from long-standing problems are on the horizon, federal officials said today, but they added that scientific and regulatory hurdles will slow the products' movement past licensure and into the market.

(CIDRAP News) – About the same percentage of Americans were vaccinated against seasonal influenza this year as received vaccine last year, according to a survey released today that undercuts perceptions of extraordinary demand driven by pandemic-fueled awareness.

(CIDRAP News) – A second seasonal influenza vaccine made by Novartis was approved recently by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the company said some doses may reach the market this flu season.

(CIDRAP News) – The era of cell-based influenza vaccine production in the United States seemed to move closer today as Novartis unveiled its new, nearly billion-dollar manufacturing plant in Holly Springs, N.C., but onshore production and marketing of cell-based vaccines remains a few years away.

(CIDRAP News) – Early experiences with pandemic vaccines in several countries suggest they have a similar safety profile to seasonal flu vaccines, an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal officials, along with representatives from four vaccine companies, appeared before two US House of Representatives committees today to answer questions about why the nation hasn't stretched scarce pandemic vaccine supply with adjuvants and if a more federally directed distribution system might help vaccine get to more high-risk patients.