[의학신문·일간보사=김상일 기자]While warnings about this year’s flu vaccine epidemic are growing, parents of children allergic to the flu vaccine are in trouble as the vaccine is removed from the NIP.
Unlike other flu vaccines that use fertilized egg culture, SK Bioscience, which was producing the cell-cultured flu vaccine ‘Sky Cell Flu 4’, decided to focus on the production of a COVID-19 vaccine this year as well, in the aftermath of the omission from the national NIP vaccination.
SK Bioscience’s influenza vaccine ‘Sky Cell Flu’ is a cell-cultured influenza vaccine and was the only option for patients with severe egg allergy who were allergic to multiple fertilized egg-based influenza vaccines.
However, last year, when SK Bioscience announced that it would stop production of Sky Cell Flu, and it became impossible to supply influenza vaccines for patients with severe egg allergy, the government urgently introduced Securus Korea’s Flucellbox. Flucellbox was introduced and used in a limited dose of 7200 during the 2021-2022 season.
Securus Korea’s Flucellbox is the only cell-cultured influenza vaccine approved by the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency. This year, as there was a gap in the production of cell-cultured influenza vaccines in Korea, the emergency introduction of about 14,000 doses of Flucellbox was confirmed.
Securus Korea plans to pursue the domestic official approval of Flucellbox in the future. Flucellbox was approved by the FDA in 2012 and uses a cell-based candidate vaccine virus isolated and propagated from cells other than fertilized eggs.
Cell culture vaccines are designed to prevent vaccine variants that may appear in connection with the manufacture of fertilized egg-based influenza vaccines, and have the advantage of speeding up vaccine production in preparation for influenza epidemics.
Flucellbox confirmed its effectiveness in children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years through the first study to evaluate the absolute effectiveness of a cell-cultured influenza vaccine published in the medical journal ‘NEJM’ on October 14 last year.
Currently, the FDA has approved vaccination for infants and children over 6 months of age, and from this year’s emergency introduction in Korea, vaccination will begin targeting the extended age of vaccination. Information on influenza cell culture vaccine recipients and inoculation institutions can be checked when searching for designated medical institutions on the Vaccination Helper website of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition to Flucellbox, Securus Korea is also known for its plans to introduce an influenza vaccine in Korea that strengthens the immune response of the vaccine in vulnerable groups, such as the elderly 65 years and older, by adding MF59® immune enhancer.
An official from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said, “Like last year, as the production of cell culture vaccines from domestic manufacturers has been halted this year, we plan to introduce 14,000 doses of Securus Korea Flucellbox to vaccinate people with anaphylactic reactions to eggs.” said.
