FDA Panel OKs 3 New Flu Strains for Next Year's Vaccine

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, February 21, 2008; 6:00 PM

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THURSDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel on Thursday approved the inclusion of three new flu strains in next year's batch of flu vaccine, in an unusual move that health officials hope will avoid the shortcomings of this year's vaccine.

Typically, only one or two strains are changed each year, and flu vaccine manufacturers need a long lead time, about eight months, to complete the entire production process for the 100 million doses due by the fall.

"We have things in the pipeline, but we are not in a situation we'd like to be this time of year with working seeds ready to go," Tony Colegate, of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, told the FDA panel, according to Dow Jones Newswire. "We think this will be a very, very difficult year."

The expansion of flu strains for next year comes during a current flu season that has not been easy so far.

This year's flu shot has missed its mark badly, and the end result has been widespread or regional flu activity in virtually every state. Many of the infections are being caused by strains not covered by this year's vaccine, U.S. health officials have said. And some strains are becoming resistant to a common antiviral medication.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported last week that this year's flu vaccine doesn't match two of the three strains of influenza currently circulating in the United States.

"Clearly, there is influenza going around in a lot of states," said Dr. Peter C. Welch, an infectious diseases expert at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. "Part of the issue is that the vaccine which was produced this year is not the most effective vaccine that we've had for influenza."

Because the influenza virus constantly changes structure, the vaccine must be reformulated every year. The World Health Organization announced last week its recommendations for next year's flu vaccine, which includes protection against the H3N2 strain and other strains not in this year's vaccine.