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Oct 26, 2009 10:53 pm US/Central
Good Question: Any Better Way To Make Vaccines?
(WCCO)
For 50 years, there has been one way to make the flu vaccine: growing the vaccine in chicken eggs. Amidst shortages and delays in getting the vaccine to market, isn't there a better way to build a vaccine?
"To make 200 million doses of the [H1N1] vaccine is going to take about 67 million eggs," said Dr. Jim Nordin, and immunization expert at HealthPartners in Bloomington.
The process starts with a "very special kind of egg," said Nordin, specifically raised and fertilized for this purpose. Then there is an injection of live flu virus, and then the clock starts ticking.
It can take six months to manufacture an influenza vaccine.
"Isn't there a better way to do this?" asked WCCO reporter Jason DeRusha.
"They're working on it," answered Nordin.
First of all, vaccines can't be created like any other pharmaceutical. Researchers are working on vaccines that use human cells as a host to multiply, rather than using chicken eggs.
"There are other vaccines that are made in what's called cell culture, where you have just essentially a petri dish with cells of some sort growing in it," said Nordin. Novartis is one of many companies working on clinical trials of the new method of creating vaccines.
However, there are advantages to the tried-and-true method of using chicken eggs.
"As it turns out, chicken eggs are a pretty good thing to grow the vaccine virus in," said Nordin.
"It's a cheap way to make vaccine. We can make as much as we need on a routine basis as well," he added. But it becomes problematic when there's a pandemic, and the need for quick production of a new vaccine arises.
The human cell method doesn't need a live virus and an egg to start, the process to create a vaccine can be cut by a third to a half.
However, federal regulators have been closely watching the new trials because of concerns about safety.
Chicken eggs are perfect hosts, because besides the flu, there isn't much that can grow in a chicken that would get a human sick. That isn't the case with human cells, said Nordin.
However, "even with a cell culture, it would take a couple months," for vaccine to be ready.
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