AS THE world awaits the next wave of the swine flu pandemic, delays plague vaccine production. Now new, faster-growing strains of the vaccine virus could speed up the process.
The first batches of pandemic vaccine were made in early August. After testing is completed, the rate of vaccination will depend on how fast the vaccine virus can be grown in chicken eggs. So far even the best strains have grown disappointingly slowly, at half the rate of ordinary flu vaccine strains. The US admitted late last week that it will have only 45 million doses of vaccine by mid-October, compared with the 120 million it originally forecast.
Now researchers at the in Valhalla have created improved strains by growing one sample of the virus repeatedly in chicken eggs until it adapted and grew faster. They will send two to vaccine manufacturers this week, says John Wood of the UK鈥檚 National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC).
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A vaccine made from these strains will still take time to roll out, warns Luc Hessel, head of public affairs at the biggest flu-vaccine maker, France鈥檚 Sanofi Pasteur. The new strains must prove themselves under manufacturing conditions, and companies must make seed batches.
NIBSC has also created a faster-growing virus, which it sent to manufacturers earlier this month. It poses an extra problem, however: it was made using methods not used before for commercial vaccines.
