Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-11-23)

23

PHOTOGRAPHS

BY

BRYAN

ANSELM

FOR

BLOOMBERG

BUSINESSWEEK.

DATA:

CDC

THEBOTTOMLINE Almost 200 millionflushotswillbeavailable

in theU.S.thisyear,butthey’retypicallyonly10%to60%effective.

IdeasborrowedfromCovidresearchpromisetoimproveresults.

phaseoutegg-basedfluvaccinesintheU.S.by2026.

OnNov.16,CSLsaidit willspendabout$585million

on a new cell-based facility in Australia to make flu

vaccines and anti-venoms for snake bites.

Only a handful of companies have embraced the

cell technology, which requires a lot of expertise

and upfront investment. Some in the business say

there’sscantreasontogiveuponfluprevention

methodstheyknow.WhileSanofiplanstoexpand

productionofitsrecombinantfluvaccine,it will

continuetouseeggsaswell.AndGlaxoSmithKline

Plcsayseggsenablefastandinexpensiveproduc-

tionofthemillionsofdosesneededtomakesuffi-

cientsupplieseveryyear.

Still,therenewedfocusoninfluenzaandthe

moneybeingspentonCovidpreventionwillhas-

tentheshiftawayfromeggsasnewtechnologies

becomemorewidelyaccepted,saysLeoPoon,

headofpublic-healthlaboratorysciencesatthe

UniversityofHongKong.“Thatwilldefinitely

helpdevelopbetterandmoreeffectivevaccines

forotherdiseases,”hesays.Pfizer,BioNTech,and

Moderna,whichdon’tofferflushotstoday,are

alreadyapplyingmRNAvaccinestomorethan

justCovid.Thetechnology“willalsodisruptthe

flumarket,”MikaelDolsten,Pfizer’schiefscientific

officer,saidona callwithanalystsinJuly.“Weseea

verylargeopportunity.”�BruceEinhorn

of Maryland’s medical school. “This is going to be

a huge boost,” she says. “The biggest hurdles will

already have been overcome.”

A second flu technology poised to get a lift from

Covid research is the so-called recombinant vac-

cine, an idea being pursued by Novavax and Sanofi.

In this process, scientists remove from the virus

DNAthattriggersa responsefromtheimmunesys-

tem.TechnicianscombinetheDNAwithgenetic

materialthatcanpenetratecellsofinsectssuchas

moths,whichgrowproteinswellandareeasyto

cultivate.Thesethenproduceantigensthatcan

beharvestedforuseina vaccine.A subsidiaryof

Sanofisigneda $226milliondeallastDecember

withtheU.S.DepartmentofHealthandHuman

Servicestoexpandproductioncapacityofrecom-

binantfluvaccinesata facilityinPennsylvania.

Growingfearsofwhatsomearecallinga “twin-

demic”havesparkedrecordinterestinflushots

thisyear,withalmost 200 milliondosesavailable

intheU.S.,anincreaseofasmuchas13%from

2019.AlthoughnotbeingusedforCovidresearch,

so-calledcell-culturevaccines—whichalsoavoid

usingeggs—arebenefitingfromthatinterest.In

thisapproach,thevirusisgrownincellsorigi-

nallyderivedfrommammals,whichareprefera-

blebecausethevirusdoesn’tseektoadapttoits

avianhost.Australia’sCSLLtd.,theNo.2 maker

offlushots,hasexpandedannualproductionof

cell-based vaccines at a North Carolina plant from

2 million doses to 30 million, and it says it will largely

▼ U.S. flu vaccine

effectiveness by

flu season

▲ A Sanofi flu vaccine

lab in Pearl River, N.Y.

50%

25

0

’04-’05 ’19-’20