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Getting rid of egg-based influenza vaccines may be easier said than done, but it may be more of a long-term solution than anything that gets done. will produce in the short term. In this exclusive video, Richard Webby, PhD, of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and birds, addresses the current problems of egg-based vaccines, as well as future flu treatments.
Here is a transcript of his remarks:
Right now, we are really fighting the way we make seasonal influenza vaccines because of the components, especially the H3N2 component, when you develop these viruses. And that's how we make the flu shot. We grow the virus then we inactivate it, break it and use it as a vaccine. What happens with some of these H3N2, when they enter the eggs, is that it changes a little. And that means that this virus is no longer as closely associated with viruses as we had hoped in the wild. So I think it will certainly help revive this whole discussion about the vast majority of the world's food and the egg-based influenza vaccine, and I think we should move away from that.
Should we get rid of the eggs completely? There is an argument to say no, it is a technology that has served us well for forty years. The manufacturing capacity is already in place, which is also important. This is not just a question of the quality of your vaccine, but you must have enough doses to vaccinate people. And so, if we have a tradeoff between maybe a little bit of vaccine but fewer doses compared to something from year to year, some years are better than others but can produce the doses I think that's another argument we must have, another discussion at least. So, I think there will probably be a movement, a reinvigorated discussion about moving away from the eggs, but personally, I find it hard to imagine that [eggs] will disappear, at least in the near future.
If we look at what is available in terms of influenza vaccine this year in the United States, there are many different manufacturers – slightly different formulations – but there are actually three main ways to make this vaccine. One of them is in the chicken eggs, and that is how our nasal aerosols and most of the vaccines we receive in our arms are made. There is a product made in cell culture. So, instead of growing the virus before making the vaccine in eggs, it is grown in culture cells. And there is another product made again in cells but not using the virus at all; it takes only parts of the virus, the active ingredient, and the product in cells in culture.
The development of a new class of anti-flu drugs is one of the most interesting aspects of recent years with regard to flu treatment options. And again, they work a little differently from the vaccine, in that they can be used to treat an infection after catching it, when a vaccine protects you from the disease, or at least the most severe .
We have basically used a class of antivirals against the flu in recent years, namely the neuraminidase inhibitor. Perhaps many of you have heard of Tamiflu. This new class of drugs targets a completely different part of the virus than our existing drugs. It is a product registered in Japan and one of the selling characteristics of this drug is that it contains only one tablet. So, rather than some of the neuraminidase inhibitors, which last 5 days, it is a single tablet to take once. The FDA is considering its use in the United States and we certainly hope to hear about it before the end of the year.
Related: Videoconferencing Journal of Identification Week 2018
2018-10-17T14: 30: 00-0400
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