First GMO Flu Vaccine Approved for U.S. Patients

In a technological leap forward, medical company Protein Sciences has produced and gotten approval by the FDA for a flu vaccine made of genetically engineered proteins gathered from caterpillars. Adults aged 18 – 49 years are cleared to receive the shot, with doses available in limited supply for the current flu season.

The vaccine, called Flublok, is produced by isolating a protein from the flu virus and inserting it into a virus that affects fall army worms. Then, billions of cells derived from army worms are infected with this recombinant virus. Once enough of the protein is produced, scientists extract and purify it for the season’s vaccine.

“Flublok is truly a modern vaccine. We use advanced scientific technology to make just the active ingredient of the vaccine without any other viral components. This is the first influenza vaccine on the market to do so,” said Manon Cox, CEO of Protein Sciences, in a statement.

The vaccine is considered a breakthrough because it significantly reduces the time needed to produce a flu vaccine and it is not produced using live viruses, which present a hazardous manufacturing risk.

Since strains of the flu virus change every year, scientists must produce a different vaccine each season. Current vaccines are made with millions of chicken eggs using a 60-year-old process. Hybridized strains of the virus are injected into the eggs, where they grow before being extracted. This process is time-consuming, imprecise, and poses a problem for those with egg allergies. Government officials have also expressed concern that if there were ever a widespread epidemic infecting birds, an egg shortage would prove a disaster for manufacturing the vaccine.

Flublok protects against three different flu strains just like currently available vaccines. However, it is 44 percent effective against all circulating strains of influenza, not just the ones the vaccine targets. It also trumps current vaccines in that it contains no preservatives and three times the amount of active ingredient to protect against the flu.

Detractors point out that the vaccine may not be any more effective than current vaccines at preventing illness, which protect people 62 percent of the time. What is needed, says Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, is a vaccine that protects 80 to 90 percent of the time. He was one of the lead researchers in a report released last November that said the flu vaccine was over-promoted, over-hyped and less effective than the CDC says it is.

But scientists are racing to produce an improved vaccine, especially a universal flu vaccine that would only have to be administered every 5 to 10 years. Already, two seasonal vaccines are approved that fight against four strains of flu rather than the usual three, and another manufacturing process akin to the caterpillar cell one uses dog kidney cells, also speeding up how fast vaccines can be ready for the public. More vaccines manufacturers are also now located in America rather than overseas in the case of a global pandemic. Flublok’s sister vaccine, Panblok, is designed to protect against pandemic influenza.

Also Read:

Boy Scouts Sell GMO-Free Popcorn for a Healthier Food Fundraiser

Too Little Sleep May Weaken Our Body’s Response to Vaccines

5 Natural Flu and Cold Remedies

Written by Sarah Shultz for Diets in Review

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Mit W.

7:48AM PST on Mar 2, 2013

There once was a girl named Ophelia
who shunned shots for measles, mumps and diptheria.
Her excuses were inane.
Then measles atttacked her brain.
And now she has total amnesia !

March 2
send a green star

Dave C.

6:02PM PST on Feb 21, 2013

fascinating........still waiting for the 5 to 10 yr flu vaccine, but for now get vaccinated keep yourself and others healthy.....flu still kills and you wouldn't want to be the one spreading it.....

February 21
send a green star

Mari G.

5:55PM PST on Feb 21, 2013

This is fascinating! I almost want to read the paranoid ramblings of the scientific illiterate.

Autumn S.

4:05AM PST on Feb 21, 2013

thank you

Heidi A.

4:52PM PST on Feb 20, 2013

GMO's are going to be the terrible vice of the detriment of health for generations to come. It is FOREIGN (to the body) DNA. It has absolutely no place in food system or in vaccines.

As a country we are diving in head first into a pool where we can't see the bottom. Shallow? Deep? No can honestly say. I say it will turn out for the worst(for us).

February 20
send a green star

Seth E.

9:15AM PST on Feb 16, 2013

Norma, what would that "population control" be? The insidious, dastardly physicians and scientists trying to save lives by creating a vaccine or letting the virus run rampant?

After all, the 1918 flu pandemic only killed close to 100 million people worldwide.

This ignorance and unfounded skepticism of science and medicine is the more likely way to control the population because not taking the precautions we've learned to take is a great way of getting killed by something that can be prevented or cured.

February 16
send a green star

Norma V.

5:12AM PST on Feb 16, 2013

Another way of population control?

Tal H.

8:53PM PST on Feb 15, 2013

thanks for the share!

February 15
send a green star

2:59PM PST on Feb 15, 2013

P.S.: Interstellar (and others against vaccination), even WITH current vaccines available, influenza kills thousands to tens of thousands of people annually in the US, and in the hundreds of thousands worldwide. During pandemics, deaths can rise into the millions.

Obviously natural resistances and remedies didn't help before flu vaccines were developed, and even if they don't work 100% of the time now, it would be absolutely moronic to think that it's not worth using the only means we have of preventing one of the highest causes of mortality in human history.

And P.P.S.: As I said in a previous comment, these aren't "caterpillars", and there's not even necessarily any harm to them as cells can be extracted without killing, but even if it had to be done, considering how destructive armyworms are to crops, it's not exactly tragic.

2:42PM PST on Feb 15, 2013

Wesley, I agree, and I merely forgot to explain my thinking in that respect.

While antibiotics cannot do anything against viruses, by using a vaccine, such as this, the prevention of viral infection would lessen the need to use antibiotics because the secondary bacterial infections wouldn't occur.

Therefore, for those concerned about overuse of antibiotics, preventing infections in the first place is a great way to reduce such usage, whether directly, by taking precautions to avoid harmful bacteria, or indirectly, by preventing the viral infections which cause damage that causes vulnerability to bacterial infections.