Flu vaccine production to double by 2015

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that worldwide production of seasonal flu vaccine is expected to double to 1.7 billion doses by 2015, with eleven new manufacturers ramping up in developing nations. In the event of a new influenza pandemic, a projected 37 vaccine makers could potentially triple their annual production of trivalent seasonal vaccine to produce some 5.4 billion doses, the WHO said. Experts noted that the actual amount of vaccine produced would depend upon the yield of the virus grown in the egg, which is particularly low for H1N1, along with how much adjuvant is used in the pandemic vaccine. “The estimate is by 2015, if all projects that are currently going on get to successful implementation, we would have something around 1.7 billion doses of seasonal vaccine,” WHO assistant director-general Marie-Paule Kieny told reporters following a three-day meeting of the WHO’s Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines. “In making pandemic...