The FDA has approved MedImmune’s FluMist Quadrivalent for the prevention of influenza, making the intranasal vaccine the first approved quadrivalent flu vaccine in the US. FluMist Quadrivalent contains two type A strains and type B strains from both B/Yamagata and B/Victoria. All other currently approved seasonal flu vaccines are trivalent.
University of Kentucky College of Medicine Professor of Clinical Pediatrics Stan Block said, “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), since the 2001-2002 season, influenza B viruses from both lineages have co-circulated in the USA. In the United States, in 5-of-the-10 influenza seasons between 2001 and 2011, the predominant circulating influenza B lineage was different from the one selected for inclusion in the trivalent vaccines. The CDC has estimated that between 2001 and 2009, 2.7 million fewer Americans would have gotten the flu if all influenza vaccines had been quadrivalent.”
“This is the first quadrivalent influenza vaccine approved and MedImmune is pleased to be able to take the next steps in making this product available to the public,” commented MedImmune Executive VP of Research and Development Bahija Jallal. “We believe that the inclusion of an additional B strain in an annual influenza vaccine could provide a direct health benefit to individual vaccine recipients in the event that the correct B lineage either is not selected for inclusion in a trivalent vaccine, or if both lineages co-circulate.”
Read the MedImmune press release.
