Beyond the Egg: PowderMed Joins Avian Flu Efforts

That threat of an avian flu pandemic and the well-publicized manufacturing mishaps and shortages plaguing standard egg-based annual flu vaccine production has spurred a handful of biotechnology companies to scramble to get alternative avian flu vaccines into development. Most recently in early August PowderMed Ltd., the Chiron Corp. spin-out developing DNA vaccine technology, said it would follow up on the early clinical success of its next-generation annual flu vaccine by developing a vaccine for pandemic avian flu.