Development of a novel influenza vaccine derived from a continuous cell line

Influenza viruses for production are presently produced in embryonated hen' s eggs. This conventional standard methodology is extremely cumbersome; it requires millions of eggs and an extensive purification to reduce the amoun t of contaminating egg proteins. The shortage of eggs in a pandemic situati on, the selection of egg-adapted variants and the presence of adventitious viruses has emphasised the necessity for production of Influenza vaccines o n a well characterised stable cell line. Our established absolutely serum f ree Vero cell technology has been successfully adapted to large scale produ ction of a huge variety of Influenza virus strains. The production in 1200 liter fermenter cultures under serum free conditions gave antigen yields co mparable to the conventional embryonated egg technology. The development of a rapid and efficient purification scheme resulted in a safe high purity v accine which was at least as immunogenic as conventional egg-derived vaccin es in a mouse model. Clinical trials in the UK, Poland and Austria demonstr ated that the Vero cell derived influenza vaccine is well tolerated, safe a nd highly immunogenic in humans.