MedImmune expects to provide approximately 15 million doses of its trivalent (three-strain) nasal spray flu vaccine through a variety of private health care practices, public health departments, school-located vaccination programs, military bases, and other venues.
Earlier this year, the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP), a panel of immunisation experts advising the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expanded the recommendations for annual influenza vaccination to include all people aged six months and older.
CDC has recommended that flu vaccine be administered to eligible recipients every year as soon as the vaccine is made available.
Additionally, Global public health authorities have determined that this season’s vaccine is expected to include the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain among the three vaccine strains.
MedImmune said that ACIP voted in June 2010 to recommend that children younger than nine years who did not receive at least one dose of the H1N1 monovalent vaccine in the 2009-2010 season should receive two doses of the 2010-2011 trivalent seasonal vaccine.
Alex Zukiwski, executive vice president of clinical research and chief medical officer at MedImmune, said: “The public can be reassured that influenza vaccination with FluMist in the late summer helps protect against influenza.”