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Sunday, February 10, 2013

FDA Approves Next-Generation Flu Vaccine.


Coverage of the Food and Drug Administration's approval of Protein Sciences Corporation's next-generation influenza vaccine was light. But the news outlets that did cover it, were highly positive, lauding the Flublok vaccine as a scientific breakthrough and noting the impact it could have on tempering the nation's seasonal flu rates.
        The CBS Evening News (1/16, story 8, 0:20, Pelley) reported, "The FDA approved a new flu vaccine today. It's called Flublok, and unlike other flu vaccines, it is not made with the influenza virus or with eggs. The flu virus is widespread now in 47 states. It has taken the lives of 20 children."
        The New York Times Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (1/17, B6, Pollack, Subscription Publication) reports that the FDA announced Share to FacebookShare to Twitter it has approved a "new type of flu vaccine" on Wednesday. Protein Sciences Corp., which developed the Flublok vaccine, explained that it is "made with a process that does not require the virus to be grown in chicken eggs, as is now generally done." Flublok needs neither the eggs nor the live influenza virus because it is "made by putting the gene" for flu virus' hemagglutinin (HA) protein, into a virus that infects the cells of an insect, "the fall armyworm." The FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director, Dr. Karen Midthun, said the approval of Flublok "represents a technological advance in the manufacturing of an influenza vaccine."
        NBC News Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (1/17, Aleccia) on its website says that according to the FDA, the vaccine "contains three full-length recombinant HA proteins to help protect against three strains of the flu including two influenza A viruses, H1N1 and H3N2, and one strain of influenza B." Protein Sciences CEO Manon Cox noted that with the Flublok's "novel manufacturing technology," large quantities of the vaccine can be produced quickly. The Meriden, Connecticut-based biopharmaceutical firm has already produced "about 150,000 doses" of Flublok; and Cox said the company expects to begin distributing the vaccine "by mid-February to people with egg allergies and others who are unable to receive current flu vaccines."

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