Some of the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturers are working on bird flu vaccines in preparation for human epidemics.
H5N1 is the official designation for bird flu or avian flu. The virus typically spreads among several types of chicken. Human infections are still extremely infrequent. However, the majority of human infections have been attributed to direct contact with sick birds.
Bird Flu Vaccine
GSK Plc Moderna and CSL Seqirus, both owned by CSL Ltd, executives told Reuters that they are already creating or about to test sample human vaccines that better match the circulating subtype as a preventive move against a future pandemic.
There has also been a push among corporations to create a bird flu vaccine for poultry, which might have a much larger market than humans.
There has also been a push among corporations to create a bird flu vaccine for poultry, which might have a much larger market than humans.
Less reassuring is that the majority of potential human doses are reserved for wealthy countries under long-standing preparedness contracts, according to global health experts and firms.
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14 Manufacturers Explore Approaches Against The Disease
A pandemic flu international framework gives 10% of the world supply to the World Health Organization for distribution to low- and middle-income nations. In the aftermath of COVID, the WHO is seeking guarantees of 20% worldwide supply for different types of pandemics.
The U.N. The agency claimed it has inked legally binding agreements with 14 manufacturers to purchase 10% of their pandemic flu vaccine “as it comes off the production line,” in a mix of donated doses and doses purchased at a low cost by the agency.
In the event of a pandemic, vaccine manufacturers would stop producing seasonal flu vaccines and instead produce doses tailored to the new outbreak as needed. They are already capable of producing hundreds of millions of doses.
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