FDA considers new flu vaccine process

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- An experimental flu vaccine that relies on fermentation rather than chicken eggs is under consideration by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

For decades, chicken eggs have been used to grow viruses used in flu shots, but the process takes as long as six months and requires millions of eggs.

Protein Sciences Corp.of Meriden, Conn., makes its experimental FluBok vaccine by taking a gene from a flu virus and inserting it into cells from a virus that infects caterpillars, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Those cells are put in a fermentation vessel to multiply and produce a protein that is made into flu vaccine.

Beginning to end, the FluBok process takes no more than six weeks, company officials said.

An FDA panel is to meet next week to consider the company's request to produce a seasonal flu vaccine, though the same process could be used to make an H1N1 swine flu vaccine, the Journal reported.