NZers in flu vaccine trial

New Zealanders have been used by a big British drug company to test a new way of making flu vaccines using animal cells, which may also have the potential to trigger tumours in humans.

Chiron Corp is developing a flu vaccine using a "line" of cells taken decades ago from the kidney of a dog, and has tried it out on 3000 patients in New Zealand and Europe.

It wants to use the process to produce vaccine if the bird flu now spreading in the Northern Hemisphere triggers a pandemic of human influenza.

Companies, including Chiron, have also looked into using monkey cells to make flu vaccine. Some have already been used to produce a polio vaccine. But the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has raised concerns that the use of animal cells could mean other viruses or cancer cells could make their way from the cell cultures to the vaccine and, ultimately, into people.

An FDA advisory committee that oversees proposed vaccines held a public hearing on the question on November 17 and 18 in Bethesda, Maryland.

- NZPA