MedImmune needs the expanded capability to meet its commitments to a five-year, approximately $170 million contract awarded last year by the US government.
“While we are currently expanding our biologics manufacturing facility in Frederick, MD, for potential use in producing pandemic vaccine as well as other products in our pipeline, the immediate availability of the existing Human Genome Sciences facility allows us to expedite certain development steps toward expanding our capacity to produce cell culture-based influenza vaccines,” stated Alan Taggart, MedImmune’s vice president of government project management.
MedImmune currently develops, manufactures and markets FluMist and is working with the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to apply MedImmune’s proprietary technology to develop pandemic influenza vaccines.
Currently, flu vaccines are produced using chicken eggs. However, in the event of an avian flu pandemic, a shortage of eggs would potentially delay development of a vaccine. MedImmune is developing advanced cell culture-based manufacturing methods to produce influenza vaccines, eliminating the need for chicken eggs.