Innovation in flu vaccines

A global flu pandemic has happened before, and it could happen again. Only in today’s highly mobile and globalized world, a flu pandemic could move even faster, quickly reaching every continent and killing between 51 million and 81 million people.

For example, the avian flu virus has already killed millions of birds and has spread from birds to humans, killing more than 100 people. Public health leaders are worried that it will evolve into a form that spreads efficiently from human to human, causing a global pandemic. A deadly flu strain could also emerge from the seasonal flu virus.

PATH is working to help prepare for an outbreak, however it may emerge.

A deadly irony

A global influenza outbreak would most likely originate in the developing world, where health systems are weak, flu can be year-round, and tight living conditions make people especially susceptible. But most of the efforts to prepare for a pandemic are concentrated in high-resource countries.

In today’s interconnected world, this irony puts all of us at risk. If a pandemic were to strike, developing-country populations would be devastated, and the virus would spread that much faster and be all the harder to contain.

Finding a solution

Vaccines—rapidly developed, produced, and distributed—could save millions of lives during a flu pandemic. Today, most influenza vaccines are egg-based and difficult to produce quickly and in large quantity. In the event of a near-term pandemic, there would not be enough vaccine to go around. And if it is indeed avian flu that becomes a pandemic strain, decimated poultry flocks could make vaccine supplies even more constrained—and even more unavailable to low-resource countries.

Through partnerships with public- and private-sector organizations, PATH is supporting the development of promising new vaccines against pandemic influenza. Our goal is to develop vaccines that could be manufactured easier, faster, and cheaper—and within the developing world.

We’re focusing on new vaccine technologies—live attenuated technologies that are egg-based or cell-based and recombinant technologies using proteins and virus-like particles.

New options for influenza vaccine development are an important component of pandemic preparedness for both poor countries and the world community.

Photo: David Jacobs.