A Cell-Based Solution to Avian Flu

On June 15, 2006, HepaLife Technologies entered into a worldwide license agreement for the development of new cell-culture based flu vaccines to protect against the spread of influenza viruses among humans, including potentially the high pathogenicity H5N1 virus.

The exclusive agreement is supported by five issued patents, including US patent 5,989,805 (“Immortal Avian Cell Line To Grow Avian and Animal Viruses To Produce Vaccines”), US patent 5,827,738, US patent 5,833,980, US patent 5,866,117 and US patent 5,874,303.

A cell-culture vaccine would have an important advantage over traditional vaccines, which pose high risk of contamination, and require a long production cycle. Traditional flu vaccines are produced using embryonated hens' eggs. This decades old technology involves injecting a small amount of a targeted virus into fertilized chicken eggs, where the virus multiplies. After the virus is harvested from the eggs, chemicals inactivate and purify the virus, which is then blended into a vaccine and bottled in vials.  This production method takes at least six months.

In the event of a flu pandemic, it is unlikely that current egg-based vaccines will be produced fast enough to meet expected demand due to the lengthy production time. Additionally, vaccines go stale quickly, and small changes in a virus's makeup can render them useless.  

Cell-culture vaccine production would significantly reduce cost, production time, and risk

Transferring production to a cell-culture based system will avoid many of these problems and reduce lot to lot variation in vaccine efficacy and potency.

Vaccine manufacturers have long wanted to replace their existing methods of production with an immortal cell line. An immortal avian cell line would significantly reduce the cost of the vaccine by eliminating reliance on embryonated eggs. A successful cell-culture based avian flu vaccine has the potential to reduce production time compared to traditional vaccine production methods and should allow rapid expansion of vaccine production in the face of a pandemic.