USA: U.S.manufacturer of bird flu vaccine prepares to boost output

Influenza vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur has unveiled a factory that will become its lead North American manufacturing facility in the event of a pandemic outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus. The company hopes to triple its production of the vaccine as U.S. officials seek to boost output amid fears of a pandemic. The vaccine arm of Sanofi-Aventis is the only U.S.-based producer of injectable flu vaccine. The plant will produce 150 million doses a year after the new 140,000-square-foot (13,000- square-metre) facility comes on line by 2010. The 150 million U.S. dollar facility will also be capable of producing vaccine against other pandemic strains of flu. Experts expect a pandemic of influenza of some sort and the No. 1 suspect is the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has so far infected 318 people and killed 192 of them. "We don't know if the H5N1 virus will be the spark of the next pandemic but we do know that pandemics happen and that we will see a pandemic," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said. Sanofi's increased production is being aided by a 77 million U.S. dollar grant for the retooled facility from the federal government. The federal government is spending one billion U.S. dollars to expand vaccine production over the next five years. At the new facility in northeast Pennsylvania, vaccine is generated from millions of chicken eggs. In super-clean, climate-controlled rooms, the eggs are inoculated with the virus strain that is identified by international health authorities in February each year. The virus is then incubated for two to three days, and the eggs then go through a process called candling in which each one is inspected to check that is intact, fertile, and contains clear fluids. Technicians harvest the virus by using machines to decap the eggs and emptying their contents. The resulting fluids are separated and concentrated to produce a clear liquid that is finally made into the vaccine.

ITN Source | July 21, 2007

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