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Published online 3 June 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.543
Corrected online: 4 June 2009

News: Briefing

US ramps up swine flu protection

New technologies may help boost H1N1 vaccine production.

Declan Butler

The United States has awarded a US$90-million contract to biotech company MedImmune to produce a new live attenuated virus vaccine against influenza A (H1N1) swine flu. The 1 June announcement follows the placing of almost $1 billion in vaccine-supply contracts to pharmaceutical companies a fortnight ago.

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  • Dear Declan, I would like to add the following re: the BEVS-insect cells technolgy: Protein Sciences estimates that it can make 100,000 doses of monovalent H1 vaccine containing 15 mcg of protein per 5 days production cycle. The true power of this technology b/s not having to use a "live" influenza virus is the possibility of tech transfer to low-income countries, for example: Celltrion in Korea and Lonza in Singapore have cell culture bioreactors that could produce millions of doses per week. If foundations like Gates were to act with leadership unlimited quantities of vaccine could be produced within months. Manon Cox, Protein Sciences Corp.

    • 04 Jun, 2009
    • Posted by: Manon Cox

  • What happened to scientific writing? para. 3, line 1: "cottoned on".

    • 09 Jun, 2009
    • Posted by: Matthew Nelson