Swine Flu vaccine race is pushing the boundaries of pharmaceutical technology
By Wes | September 5th, 2009
Much like “just-in-time production” revolutionized the nature of industrial manufacturing, a new process for developing influenza vaccines may do the same for the vaccine industry. Novavax, a Maryland based biotech company, has reportedly developed the technology and methods to produce effective vaccines, including one for H1N1, while bypassing the need for eggs to incubate and host the viruses. The traditional egg based method for creating vaccines has been often criticised as antiquated and time consuming, not to mention increasingly impractical if there were to be an outbreak of a seriously virulent strain of flu. If a lethal flu pandemic were to hit currently, it would take months to generate enough stockpiles of a vaccine using the traditional method- plus for every individual who receives a dose, three eggs would be needed. So to create a vaccine for Canada, it would take nearly 100,000,000 eggs. For the united states, just short of 1 billion- if the governments of both countries wanted to ensure the health of every single citizen.
The new method pioneered by Novavax uses a recombinant, cell culture based Virus-Like-Particle (VPL) technology to create a genetic match to a particular flu strain, instead of using live flu virus seeds that have to be adapted to grow in thos eeggs. Research thus far has shown that the vaccines created using this new method not only have a strong response but also have other positive benefits. The Novavax H1n1 vaccine showed a strong response to other flu strains as well- meaning it could be a dual purpose and broad flu season defense without being re-tooled or enhanced. Also, because it is a recombinated and synthetic virus that the body is responding to, the Novavax vaccine eliminates the threat that the doses containing real H1N1 have where the virus can infect cells and replicate. Needless to say the company’s stock has soared.
New emergency management software from Upp Technolgoy of Illinois, is also giving flu response planners a boost in confidence. Their new management system streamlines the vaccine ordering processes so that large batches of antivirals and vaccines can be more effectively distributed, monitored, tracked, prioritized and analyzed during a pandemic response. So it all sounds good so far right? The testing for the Novavax vaccine is still being conducted, so we’ll find out in a year of two if the new style vaccine in fact protects against swine flu but transforms you into a flesh craving zombie.
In the meantime, if you’re scared of being transformed into a flesh craving Zombie by the Novavax vaccine, below is a list of the current companies working on vaccines using the traditional method- as compiled by Sam Cage for Reuters- complete with links to their h1n1 Swine Flu updates. The Canadian swine flu vaccine will apparently be here in October according to our chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones. Oh…and we’re supposed to stop calling it Swine Flu.
H1N1 Vaccine Producers:
GLAXOSMITHKLINE (United Kingdom-US) SANOFI-AVENTIS (France-International)
NOVARTIS (Switzerland-International) ASTRAZENECA (only available in America)
SINOVAC (China) CSL (Australia) BAXTER (USA- International)
SOLVAY (Belgium-International) GREEN CROSS (South Korea)
HUALAN BIOLOGICAL (China) INOVIO BIOMEDICAL (USA)
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- Software, hardware, and who brings home the bacon in a Swine Flu outbreak
- Top ten inventions of 2009
- Can we have some new jobs please? Canada falling behind in technology race
Tags: Canadian swine flu vaccine, Emergency management software, Flesh craving zombie, H1N1, Novavax, swine flu, Upp Technology, Vaccine, Virus-like-particle technology
