Posted on 10/29/2009 8:24:40 AM PDT by Renkluaf
BENEATH ALL of the anger and frustration surrounding the current flu vaccine supply problem is a simple fact - as we gear up to fight a new flu strain in our first pandemic winter in 40 years, we employ a really old technology to make flu vaccines. The nation needs to find a better option.
The basic way we make flu vaccines has changed little since the 1950’s. It relies on hen’s eggs. Each year, a seasonal flu vaccine is developed to cover three strains of flu that are circulating. And, each year the flu viruses change a little bit, requiring the production of a new vaccine annually. Manufacturers use separate eggs to brew vaccine to cover each strain, so that means that one dose of vaccine requires at least three eggs to produce. This method has sufficed in most years; indeed, there’s a surplus of flu vaccine at the end of most flu seasons.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Maybe someone should tell Mr. Lyons that "we" don't make vaccines, companies do. And, unfortunatley, since the gov't intervened in the purchase of vaccines 15 years ago, there used to be a lot more companies making them.
Lacking profits courtesy of the gov't reimbursement rates, vaccine manufacturers exited the business leaving this country largely dependent upon foreign manufacturers. It's those same evil "profits" that help develop new manufacturing techniques that this dolt now whines about.
Actions have consequences! Welcome to the future of gov't controlled healthcare.
As opposed to Rooster's eggs?
There were two things that destroyed our vaccine industry: Lawyers and Hillary Clinton. Google Vaccines for the Children.
Never fear; the government is handling the matter.
I don’t know that we want ‘a new way’.
A new way is very likely to involve immoral techniques using fetuses, etc. We must be vigilant.
BINGO
Them there rooster eggs is expensive!
“At a press conference last Friday, CDC Director Tom Frieden said that no matter how often or loud we yell, it’s not going to make the virus and the eggs cooperate and speed the flu vaccine production process to our liking. He’s right. Which is why it’s so crucial to find a faster way to grow vaccines.”
Now they are blaming the hen’s eggs for not delivering on the H1N1 flu vaccine? Have they no shame? ;-)
As opposed to eggs from ducks, geese, or cows.
Vaccines are a perfect place where the desire to do good has created a horrible evil. By removing the profit motive the government has doomed us to the first virulent pandemic that comes along. I’ve heard people complain that vaccination cost $10 or $20, or horrors, $25. At the same time government stepped in to limit supply by fixing the prices they allowed unlimited lawsuits. So, I make these things for, say, $8/ each and I sell them for anywhere from $10-25, and I can get sued from millions/billions…Oh, yeah, give me some of that action.
Vaccines are a perfect place where the desire to do good has created a horrible evil. By removing the profit motive the government has doomed us to the first virulent pandemic that comes along. I’ve heard people complain that vaccination cost $10 or $20, or horrors, $25. At the same time government stepped in to limit supply by fixing the prices they allowed unlimited lawsuits. So, I make these things for, say, $8/ each and I sell them for anywhere from $10-25, and I can get sued from millions/billions…Oh, yeah, give me some of that action.
Not excusing the lack of planning on the govt's part, but you may recall the flu vaccine conatmination which occurred at Aviron a few years ago, and vaccine contamiation at Wyeth in 2000 that closed their Mariettta, PA facility in the course of their Consent Decree remediation.
Lilly experienced contaminations that were unsolvable for a host of its sterile processs in their older Indiannapolis facilities and actually had to build new elsewhere (NoVA). Genzyme is in the midst of a viral contamination necessitating a plant-wide shut down, clean up and remediation widely publicized since June.
It is serious stuff.
The egg albumin route of production is the least expensive method at present for producing the vaccine and generally requires a 6-month production lead time. Ramping up bioreactors being commissioned for use in energency situations generally proves to be cost prohibitive, and validation of the process cannot be completed in time to deliver product of uniform quality.
Back to lead times: the US gov't had knowledge of the first wave of this virus back in March. They knew the second wave was coming in the fall. It's almost Novemeber. Had they started in March sufficient vaccine could likely have been made available by early October.
Shade of Nat'l health care to come if they indeed get it.
All that said, this Swine Flu virus to date has shown itself to be nowhere near as virulent as the gov't "planners" and "response teams" are making it out to be. As always, it's just all about control.
Nilla -- weren't you the guy working on AIDS vaccines? As I hear, efficacy of what's been developed to date isn't quite what its been billed to be, and the variants are so numerous its like chasing cats. Got any insight?
Thanks for the info. The other thing that is going on is every reported case of flu is being called H1N1 unless they actually test the person. I think this whole story is just a big distraction to everything else that is going on.
I dont work on HIV, but from what I understand, it is very poorly immunogenic.
Immunogenic on acount of albumin process? I thought most research was being done with "bench scale" bioreactors.
No I mean the virus itself , not the vaccination process. The way I understood it was that HIV doesnt elict that great of an immune response. There is not much that can be done to ‘boost’ it. I could be wrong though, I dont follow this field.
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