Flu vaccine companies already creating record number for next year

ATLANTA The next flu season expects to be a big one and flu vaccine manufacturers are preparing for this by creating a record number of doses, according to the Associated Press.

The five companies that make flu vaccines for the U.S. market plan to make at least 143 million doses for the 2008-2009 season. They made 140 million doses for the current season.

One of the reasons for the lower number this year was that the vaccine didn’t work well against the viruses that ended up circulating. Each year, health officials essentially make an educated guess and formulate a vaccine against three viruses. Their guess usually works well.

But two of the three strains for the current season were not good matches, and the vaccine was only 44 percent effective overall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the reasons for the increased production is that recently, federal health officials expanded the age for flu shot recommendations to children as young as 6 months old. The former recommendation was for children under 5, so this becomes an increase of 30 million people.

One of the manufacturers, CSL Biotherapies, will increase production from 2 million to 6 million doses. Sanofi Pasteur is planning to make 50 million doses for the coming flu season; Novartis Vaccines, 40 million; GlaxoSmithKline, 35 million to 38 million.

In addition, MedImmune Vaccines plans to make about 12 million doses of FluMist, a nasal mist containing live virus approved for healthy people between ages 2 and 49.