influenza vaccine

The first U.S. facility to use a faster and more flexible technology to make influenza vaccine was dedicated today, as part of an initiative that could provide vaccine supplies sooner in an influenza pandemic.

The plant in Holly Springs, N.C., can create vaccine using cultured animal cells instead of the conventional process of using fertilized eggs.

The facility is a public-private partnership of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.

This partnership will be maintained under contract for at least 25 years.

(MedPage Today) -- A trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) that contains the MF59 adjuvant is more effective than a nonadjuvanted vaccine at preventing influenza illness in infants and young children, a randomized trial showed.

(MedPage Today) -- Race and the presence of hematologic abnormalities were among the factors influencing response to influenza vaccine among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, a prospective study found.

(MedPage Today) -- A single dose of the monovalent pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine was not enough to protect immunocompromised pediatric liver transplant recipients, a small study suggested.

WASHINGTON (MedPage Today) -- The FDA has approved the influenza vaccine formulation for the 2011 to 2012 flu season.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) A universal influenza vaccine targeting a protein common to all strains of influenza A has safely produced an immune response in humans.

If proven effective, the vaccine could eliminate the practice of creating a new flu vaccine annually to match predicted strains, with major implications for global health.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded two contracts today to help make vaccine available more quickly for seasonal flu outbreaks and pandemics.

The contracts for advanced development of new types of vaccine and new ways to make flu vaccine known as next-generation recombinant influenza vaccine total $215 million.

(MedPage Today) -- The FDA and CDC have detected an increase in reports of febrile seizures among children younger than 2 who received Fluzone, the trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine made by Sanofi Pasteur.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Results from a government-sponsored clinical trial of inactivated 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine in people with asthma indicate that a single dose of vaccine was safe and induced a strong immune response predictive of protection.

The findings also suggest that individuals over the age of 60 who have severe asthma may require a larger dose of vaccine.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) The costly, time-consuming process of making, distributing and administering millions of seasonal flu vaccines would become obsolete if researchers could design a vaccine that confers decades-long protection from any flu virus strain.

Making such a universal influenza vaccine is feasible but licensing it may require innovation on several fronts, including finding new ways to evaluate the efficacy of vaccine candidates in clinical trials