US company makes first batch of swine flu vaccine

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - ? A US company that was awarded a 35-million-dollar contract to develop an influenza vaccine using insect cell technology has produced a first batch against (A)H1N1 flu, company boss Dan Adams said.

"We turned out our first batch of doses -- about 100,000 -- against (A)H1N1 flu last week and we're continuing to manufacture it," Adams, chief executive officer of Connecticut-based Protein Sciences Corporation, told AFP. The US Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced that it has awarded a 35-million-dollar contract to Protein Sciences, which could be extended for another five years to reach 147 million dollars.

The insect cell technology "has advanced in recent years to a point that we believe it could help meet a surge in demand for US-based vaccine for seasonal and pandemic flu," Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090624/tts-health-flu-us-vaccine-972e412.html

 

[tyto]

Re: US company makes first batch of swine flu vaccine

I thought insect cell technology sounded a bit weird. But apparently this company, Protein Sciences has a patent on the process. (See below). I only wished someone would patent a process to sort rotten sunflower seeds from the tasty ones. I hate rancid sunflower seeds!



United States Patent 5,858,368
Smith , et al. January 12, 1999
Vaccine comprising a baculovirus produced influenza hemagglutinin protein fused to a second protein

Abstract

A method of preparing a recombinant influenza vaccine using DNA technology is provided. The resulting vaccine is a multivalent, preferably trivalent, influenza vaccine based on a mixture of recombinant hemagglutinin antigens cloned from influenza viruses having epidemic potential. The recombinant hemagglutinin antigens are full length, uncleaved (HAO), glycoproteins produced from baculovirus expression vectors in cultured insect cells and purified under non-denaturing conditions. The recombinant vaccine can be developed from primary sources of influenza, for example, nasal secretions from infected individuals, rather than from virus adapted to and cultured in chicken eggs. The process for cloning influenza hemagglutinin genes from influenza A and B viruses uses specially designed oligonucleotide probes and PCR. In the preferred embodiment, the cloned HA genes are then modified by deletion of the natural hydrophobic signal peptide sequences and replacing them with a new baculovirus signal peptide.

Inventors: Smith; Gale E. (Middlefield, CT), Volvovitz; Franklin (New Haven, CT), Wilkinson; Bethanie E. (Middletown, CT), Voznesensky; Andrei I. (West Hartford, CT), Hackett; Craig S. (Wallingford, CT)
Assignee: Protein Sciences Corporation (Meriden, CT)
Appl. No.: 08/453,848
Filed: May 30, 1995
Related U.S. Patent Documents

Application Number Filing Date Patent Number Issue Date
120607 Sep., 1993 5762939 Jun., 1998