Vaccine failure underscores antiquated productions system.

2004 NOV 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The crisis in the flu vaccine supply in the United States has led to renewed calls to modernize a half-century-old manufacturing system that relies on millions of chicken eggs and a lot of educated guesswork.

Because it takes at least 6 months to produce the annual flu vaccine, no manufacturer can replace the 46 million shots Chiron Corp. won't ship this season.

Citing manufacturing problems, British regulators shut down Chiron's factory in England where roughly 46 million doses destined for the United States had been made.

That leaves the U.S. with only 58 million shots for the more than 100 million people most vulnerable to the flu, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"In the face of a pandemic this is exactly what we will be faced with," said Robert Webster, MD, a leading flu expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "This is unacceptable in the United States. It is a bloody scandal."

Experts said the shortfall has exposed a clumsy manufacturing system woefully unprepared for emergencies such as the 1918 flu pandemic, a public health crisis that scientists warn could happen again at any moment.

The manufacturing process could be improved by genetically engineering flu strains and brewing vaccines in human and monkey cells instead of chicken eggs, many scientists and health officials argue.