HHS awards more than $1 billion to five pharmaceutical companies to develop flu vaccines

By Lisa Kerner

Erie, Pa, May 4 - U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt awarded five contracts totaling more than $1 billion for the development of new technologies for influenza vaccines within the United States as part of a $3.3 billion plan to prepare the country for a pandemic.

The contracts support the development of cell-based production technologies for influenza vaccines and the creation of an alternative to producing influenza vaccines in eggs.

Contracts were awarded to GlaxoSmithKline ($275 million), MedImmune ($169 million), Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics ($221 million), DynPort Vaccine ($41 million) and Solvay Pharmaceuticals ($299 million).

Sanofi Pasteur was previously awarded a $97 million contract for development of a cell-based vaccine in April 2005.

"Our current capacity of egg-based influenza vaccine production is not sufficient to meet increased demands during an emergency," Leavitt said in a news release.

"Accelerating the development of this vaccine technology and creating domestic capacity are critical to our preparedness efforts."

Cell-based vaccine manufacturing, because it is a scalable method, allows for surge capacity in an emergency.

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