"...For these reasons, Secretary Leavitt announced two weeks ago that the Department of Health and Human Services issued a five-year contract on March 31, 2005 to Sanofi Pasteur to develop and clinically evaluate their cell culture influenza vaccine technology with the goal of obtaining an FDA license for this vaccine approach. As importantly, this contract also establishes plans for creating domestic facilities with a capacity to manufacture 300 million doses of a monovalent pandemic vaccine using cell culture.
Using a cell culture approach to producing influenza vaccine offers a number of benefits. Vaccine manufacturers can bypass the step needed to adapt the virus strains to grow in eggs. In addition, cell culture-based influenza vaccines will help meet surge capacity needs in the event of a pandemic or shortage. U.S. licensure and manufacture of influenza vaccines produced in cell culture will also provide security against risks associated with egg-based production, such as the potential for egg supplies to be contaminated by various poultry-based diseases.
With that said, the current 50 year old egg-based method for culturing new vaccines is woefully inadequate in producing sufficient vaccine quantities in a timely fashion (the egg method currently takes 6 - 9 months.....by then the first and perhaps 2nd wave of a pandemic virus has killed many many people).
While this new approach to vaccine development will not be without its problems and dangers and while it may not become the be-all end-all approach, it along with any other approachs to find a way to speed the development and production of new flu vaccines is imperative before the next pandemic strikes (whether it's avian flu or something else.) IMHO we can't afford to not pursue this approach, until something better comes along. I just pray the people working on this method are careful enough not to create something or release something more harmful than what they are seeking to cure. - OB1