Originally published December 12 2005
FDA warns about the use of animal cells in vaccines
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Chiron Corp's introduction of animal cells into 3,000 New Zealanders as a means of testing a new flu vaccine has provoked the FDA to issue warnings about this popular new method of vaccine testing, which the FDA claims could introduce diseases like cancer from cultured cells into healthy individuals.
Chiron Corp is developing a flu vaccine using a "line" of cells line taken decades ago from the kidney of a dog, and has tried it out on 3000 patients in New Zealand and Europe.
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.
And the FDA's advisory committee that oversees proposed vaccines is holding a public hearing today and tomorrow in Bethesda, Maryland, into the use of "highly tumourigenic cells" in vaccine production.
But the FDA said it was "not possible to determine whether the use of a cell substrate that is strongly tumorigenic poses more of a risk than one that is weakly tumorigenic".
Consequently, a key and unresolved scientific question was whether and how the degree of tumorigenicity of a cell lines use in testing should influence the determination of its suitability for use in vaccine production.
The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported that FDA briefing documents showed such cell lines could yield significant production benefits for a vaccine manufacturing generally.
The risks -- such as tumours -- could be limited by careful testing of the cells and the vaccine production process.
Ordinarily this virus would be "seeded" into chicken eggs -- the traditional source of flu vaccine for a half-century.
But if the vaccine can be produced directly from the batches of cells continually reproduced in laboratories, manufacturers could overcome some of the challenges of producing inoculations for virulent strains of avian flu, which kill the embryos in chicken eggs.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml