Flu Shots From Caterpillars? Not Yet

Caterpillars apparently aren't the answer to making a safe flu vaccine that can be produced more quickly.

A panel of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration say safety concerns are too great to approve an experimental vaccine called FluBlok made by Protein Sciences Corp.

The closely held Meriden, Connecticut-based company uses caterpillar ovaries to grow its vaccine rather than the standard half-century-old method of producing shots through chicken eggs. For years, scientists have tried to come up with an alternative to the chicken-egg model of producing vaccine. The method is slow, and the shots are potentially dangerous for people with egg allergies.

It also takes millions of fertilized eggs to make vaccine. In fact, one egg produces just one injectable dose of vaccine (though many more doses of the inhaled version can be made with the same egg).

Protein Sciences said it can make its vaccine in about two months, or a third of the time shots are made using the chicken eggs.

One of the reasons the government is so far behind passing out swine flu vaccines is because of production problems among the drug companies making the stuff. The U.S. government ordered 250 million doses of swine flu from several manufacturers. That's a lot of eggs.