Flu vaccine

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:00 pm

How does our country have a flu vaccine shortage just one year after have a flu vaccine shortage? Isn't like kind of like trying to drive from Ekalaka to Yaak on half a tank of gas two times in a row?

briannell · Post by **briannell** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:11 pm

well Chiron was put on hold of Production. they were sanctioned and they produce the majority of flu vaccine used in the US. trying to make up for the tainted vaccine puts them behind in the available amounts to US caregivers and hospitals.

Chiron offers several varities of Flu vaccine and is world wide. in 1991 it bought out a biopharm company out of SF (Cetus) we (extended family) helped financially back Cetus so i know a bunch about Chiron.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:54 pm

It'd sure be nice if we could go ahead and have plans to make a bunch of it every year. Just in case there's a bad bug going around. I wonder if they have a plan for something like that. Seems like we used to always have lots of flu vaccine. It's not like we don't know how to make it.

briannell · Post by **briannell** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 9:30 pm

if the us gov. would flip the bill to ensure there was no financial loss by Chiron I'm sure they would.

lifeloyalsigmsu · Post by **lifeloyalsigmsu** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:04 pm

iaafan wrote:It'd sure be nice if we could go ahead and have plans to make a bunch of it every year. Just in case there's a bad bug going around. I wonder if they have a plan for something like that. Seems like we used to always have lots of flu vaccine. It's not like we don't know how to make it.

Last year's shortage was due to the FDA finding that Chiron's factories where they produced the flu vaccine (located in England) weren't up to snuff in terms of satisfactory production requirements. You know, all that industrial hygeine stuff. They didn't feel the product's production process was up to their standards for allowing it to be used in the US.

One of the US companies (it might be Merck) got approved for one of their own vaccines this year so there won't be a vaccine shortage this year. I'm not sure if pharmacists are allowed to vaccinate in Montana, but that would be the place to go in lieu of a doctor's office where you not only have to pay for the vaccine, but you have to pay the doctor who really doesn't deserve your money. I vaccinated nearly 5000 people in Washington back in 2001-2002 in places like Fred Meyer and Walgreens. For 10-20 bucks a pop, it's not a bad deal. At this point, I'm not sure how widespread the release of the vaccine is as of yet. At my hospital down here, I don't think we've received any of our major flu vaccine shipments yet.

The interesting thing about the flu vaccine is that epidemiologists and drug developers more less have to "guess" which strains are going to problematic for the upcoming flu seasons. They take into consideration which strains were problematic in some countries on the other side of the world during the prior season for example. They isolate these problematic strains and sort of combine them into their formulation to be used for the upcoming flu season. It's generally accurate for the majority of the population in terms of adequate coverage but some strains aren't accounted for and even with a flu shot, it doesn't mean you wont' get the influenza virus.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:39 am

I guess as long as they have it for the young and elderly. It just ticks me off that they have everyone all stressed out about it. I hope you're right, that they have plenty to go around. I haven't heard that.