Meditations and Learnings

Meditations and Learnings

Egg-Based Vaccine Manufacturing

The egg-based production process begins with CDC or another laboratory partner in the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System providing private sector manufacturers with candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs) grown in eggs per current FDA regulatory requirements. These CVVs are then injected into fertilized hen’s eggs and incubated for several days to allow the viruses to replicate. The fluid containing virus is harvested from the eggs. For inactivated influenza vaccines (i.e., flu shots), the vaccine viruses are then inactivated (killed), and the virus antigen is purified.