Just in case: pharmaceutical companies are ready to make a vaccine against a new substrain of bird flu
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The world’s leading vaccine manufacturers are preparing avian flu vaccines for humans just in case, after cases of bird deaths due to the new substrain H5N1 2.3.4.4b. Some companies have said they could produce hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine for humans within months if the new substrain is transmitted to humans, Reuters reported. In particular, the companies GSK Plc, Moderna Inc and CSL Seqirus have said that they are already developing or are going to test vaccine samples against the circulating subtype. And the manufacturer Sanofi ( SASY.PA ) told reporters that it is ready to start production if necessary. Also, some companies plan to develop a vaccine against bird flu for poultry. Photo: Gins Wang/GettyImages According to the WHO, there are about 20 licensed vaccines against the common H5 bird flu strain. At the same time, the transition to large-scale production of a drug against a new substrain can take months. To develop potential vaccines, it will be possible to use the traditional method of “growing” the virus in chicken eggs for four to six months. “Making the first dose is the easiest thing. The hardest thing is to produce it in large quantities,” said Raja Rajaram, head of global medical strategy at CSL Ltd-owned CSL Seqirus. Experts are also concerned about the possibility that more vaccines against the new substrain of bird flu could reach wealthy countries. “Potentially, we could face a much greater challenge of vaccine hoarding and ‘vaccine nationalism’ during a flu outbreak than during COVID-19,” said Richard Hatchett, executive director of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which helps fund vaccine research. The International Pandemic Influenza Program requires WHO to allocate 10% of global supplies to low- and middle-income countries. The UN agency said it had signed deals with 14 manufacturers for 10% of their pandemic flu vaccines. Some doses will be provided free of charge, while the agency will purchase the rest at an affordable cost. The deal involves six of the biggest seasonal flu vaccine manufacturers, including GSK, Sanofi and CSL Seqirus, the WHO said. WHO did not comment on the possibility of stockpiling vaccines during an influenza pandemic in specific countries. At the same time, the organization said it was developing mechanisms “so that countries can work together, not compete with each other” to respond to a potential crisis. We will remind, according to the CDC, Europe, America and Africa have recently recorded “unprecedented mortality” of wild and domestic birds due to the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) type A(H5N1) substrain 2.3.4.4b. An outbreak of avian influenza H5N1 substrain 2.3.4.4b led to the death of a record number of birds and infected mammals. As of January 2022, it has affected more than 58 million poultry in the United States alone. At the same time, scientists say that the risk of the virus spreading between people still remains low. Read also: The first case of human infection with the H3N8 bird flu strain was discovered in China
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