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All for one and one for all to fight flu

Antibodies have been engineered to recognize diverse strains of influenza, including both the A and B types of virus that cause human epidemics. Are we moving closer to achieving ‘universal’ protection against all flu strains?
  1. Gary J. Nabel

    1. Gary J. Nabel is at Sanofi, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

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  2. John W. Shiver

    1. John W. Shiver is at Sanofi Pasteur, Swiftwater, Pennsylvania 18370, USA.

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The First World War, one of the world’s deadliest conflicts, claimed approximately 20 million lives. But in the year that it ended, an even deadlier calamity swept the globe. The 1918 influenza pandemic is estimated to have killed between 50 million and 100 million people1. Within months, a simple virus took a greater toll on human life than had the brutal four-year war. Although flu vaccines now save countless lives and have undoubtedly helped to avert other worldwide pandemics, their manufacture must vary annually to match the current circulating viral strains. Flu continues to pose a threat to human health, and there is a pressing need to develop countermeasures that can confer broad protection against the different flu strains. Moreover, vaccines are usually less effective at providing protection for children and for older individuals than they are for the rest of the population2.

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Nature 565, 29-31 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07654-w

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Competing Interests

G.J.N. and J.W.S. are employees of Sanofi, whose Sanofi-Pasteur vaccine subsidiary develops and manufactures influenza vaccines and whose Ablynx subsidiary develops nanobody medicines. G.J.N. is chief scientific officer and J.W.S. is director of Sanofi-Pasteur vaccine research and development.

G.J.N. is listed on intellectual property developed and owned by the National Institutes of Health that relates to the development of novel influenza vaccines.

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