First US bird flu vaccine approved

A major breakthrough against bird flu, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first human bird flu vaccine this week.

Even if the vaccine only provoked an immune response in 45% of those tested, epidemiologists believe the vaccine is a solid start to stockpiling a vaccine against a bird flu that has spread unrelentlessly across the globe.

However, there are drawbacks to this particular vaccine manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur -

The period of time – a month- needed to administer two required doses is longer than health officials would like. Further, the amount of flu protein needed for a single course of the vaccine was also high, limiting the number of shots available. The vaccine will not commercially available. Basically, Sanofi’s client will the the US federal government only, which has already secured 6.5 million doses.

[source: baltimoresun]

Tags: human bird flu, vaccine, Sanofi Pasteur, US FDA