Closing in on a Universal Flu Vaccine

For so long we’ve struggled to fight back against the flu. Its caused one of the deadliest pandemics in history and it is the biggest contender for causing the next pandemic. Every year we struggle to come out with the appropriate vaccines to fight the seasonal flu and sometimes we just can’t get it right.

But a recent multi-million dollar grant to Georgia State University’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences might solve all our flu problems with a painless vaccine that provides cross-immunity between influenza A and B.

If successfully created, this vaccine will check a lot of the boxes for what we want in a vaccine.

First, it will provide immunity to multiple strains of the flu. This is key in eliminating our current hit-or-miss technique in deciding which strains we’ll vaccinate against each flu season. We now won’t have to make risky guesses and we’ll be able to get rid of the current 6 month development time for said vaccines.

Second, it will be painless. The vaccine will take the form of dissolvable microneedle patches that can be easily applied to the skin sans any sore biceps. This will hopefully allow wider immunization because those who are currently wary of needles because of the pain will no longer have to worry.

Third, it breaks the cold-chain as in it doesn’t require constant refrigeration thanks to its dry formulation. This will be immensely helpful in getting the vaccine to everyone including those in developing areas.

While this is very exciting, we still have yet to see what the cost of this vaccine will be. If too expensive, it’s dry formulation won’t do any good in getting the vaccine to poor developing areas. However, there is promise. The Georgia Institute’s grant will last for five years and then we’ll find out whether or not we will be universally protected against the flu.

-Mailo Numazu

Source:

https://news.gsu.edu/2019/02/26/researcher-gets-3-86-million-grant-to-develop-universal-flu-vaccine-with-microneedle-patch/