USA' HHS awards contracts totaling over $1B to develop cell-based flu vaccine

As part of the US President George W Bush's plan to prepare for a pandemic, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt today awarded more than $1.0 billion to accelerate development and production of new technologies for influenza vaccines within the USA. The five contracts support the advanced development of cell-based production technologies for influenza vaccines and will help to modernize and strengthen the nation's flu vaccine production by creating an alternative to making the products in eggs, says the HHS. These funds are part of $3.3 billion proposed by the President and appropriated by Congress to HHS for the fiscal year 2006 to help the nation prepare for a pandemic.

First step in prreparedness

"Today, we're taking a step closer to preparedness by investing more than $1.0 billion to develop vaccines more quickly and to produce them here in the USA," said Secretary Leavitt . He added: "we have the opportunity to be the first generation that prepares for pandemic. Our current capacity of egg-based influenza vaccine production is not sufficient to meet increased demands during an emergency. Accelerating the development of this vaccine technology and creating domestic capacity are critical to our preparedness efforts."