Making vaccines is no yolk

Conventional production of influenza vaccine in eggs has multiple limitations, which has spurred work on cell-based approaches. iBio Inc.and theFraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnologyhave been working on a third approach-plant-based vaccine production-and in September took an H1N1 influenza vaccine generated using their process into a Phase I trial.

The partners believe the platform could generate vaccine more cheaply and rapidly than the traditional egg-based method of flu vaccine production while requiring less investment in manufacturing infrastructure than cell culture approaches...