Content about MedImmune

NEW YORK — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week set the stage for the first quadrivalent influenza vaccine to be introduced in the 2013-2014 flu season, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. 

Quadrivalent vaccines will contain two A strains and two B strains of flu. The triumvirate vaccines in use today contain two A strains and one B strain of flu. 

Amid an unusually strong flu season that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called an epidemic, supplies of flu vaccines are running low, and some people hoping to get immunized are having trouble finding them.

SWIFTWATER, Pa. — Sanofi Pasteur announced Monday the presentation of three clinical trials of an experimental influenza vaccine.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — AstraZeneca's biologics division has begun shipping doses of influenza vaccine to distributors for the 2012-2013 flu season, the company said.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — More people had gotten their influenza vaccine by November 2011 than they had by November 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and last year's triumvirate virus was a good match for the predominant flu strains in circulation.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved what it called the first flu vaccine to prevent four strains of the influenza virus.

STAMFORD, Conn. — In an effort to help chronically ill Americans that rely on safety net clinics for their medical care, AstraZeneca has donated $3.8 million worth of prescription medicines to AmeriCares.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Fred Meyer customers seeking to be immunized against the flu this fall now have a needle-free option.

The retailer announced Thursday that stores across Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington offer both traditional flu shots and a needle-free option, which is manufactured by Bioject Medical Technologies.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca has made the drug vandetanib available to certain thyroid cancer patients.

The drug maker announced Monday that the drug would be available to patients with medullary thyroid cancer that could not be removed surgically or that had spread to other parts of the body. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug on April 6, and it is available exclusively through the pharmacy business unit of Biologics Inc., an integrated cancer management company.

WASHINGTON Emergent BioSolutions has landed a $51 million contract from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop a new anthrax vaccine.

In the first two years of the contract, Emergent will develop the final vaccine formulation and test its stability. HHS said it can extend the contract annually for up to three years to support scale-up and optimization for large-scale manufacturing, as well as additional animal studies needed to apply for Food and Drug Administration approval of the vaccine.