HHS Funds the Advanced Development of Vaccines Against the H5N1 Influenza Strain

January 19, 2007 – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently awarded three new contracts, worth a total of $132.5 million, to three vaccine manufactures for the advanced deployment of vaccines to prevent the transmission of the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza. These vaccines will use an immune-system booster, referred to as an adjuvant, that increases the body’s response to the vaccine’s active ingredient, antigen. Funding under these contracts will build each company’s capacity to produce, within six months after the onset of an influenza pandemic, either 150 million doses of an adjuvant-based pandemic-influenza vaccine, or enough adjuvant for 150 million doses of a pandemic-influenza vaccine.

For more information:

• HHS Funds Advanced Development of H5N1 Influenza Vaccines
• PandemicFlu.gov

Last revised: October 11, 2007