Beyond the Egg: PowderMed Joins Avian Flu Efforts

Despite the confusion intrinsic to the old conundrum, in the case of influenza vaccine production, the egg most definitely came first. Flu strains are currently grown in and harvested from fertilized chicken eggs in a process that takes upwards of nine months. But the shortcomings and limitations of egg-based vaccine production are catching up to the 50-year old technology as worldwide governments become increasingly concerned about a potentially looming pandemic of avian influenza.

That threat—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 annual and, now, avian flu vaccines into development. Most recently in early August PowderMed Ltd. , the Chiron Corp