In view of the intense increase in flu cases in Brazil, mainly caused by the H3N2 influenza, the Butantan Institute is producing a new flu vaccine that will contain this strain of the virus and the Darwin subtype. According to Butantan, immunizing agents will be distributed in the Unified Health System (SUS) as early as 2022.
The new vaccine against influenza will be trivalent, comprising the H1N1, H3N2 virus of the Darwin subtype, and the B strain. According to the institute, the immunizing agent will be important to combat the outbreak of the H3N2 influenza that affects Brazil and contain the spread of the virus .
Butantan already produces 80 million doses of vaccine against influenza that are used in the national vaccination campaign. However, as it is a seasonal disease, the immunization against influenza is updated each year based on reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) that point out the three subtypes of the influenza virus that most circulated in the last year in the southern hemisphere.
In this new version of the vaccine, H1N1 is the only strain that is still present in the substance. Butantan produces the immunizing agent against influenza in its own factory, which separately produces the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (IFA) of the three strains, which are later mixed in another formulation and filling factory. The virus variants are imported from Europe.
“We already produced 100% of the IFA from H1N1 in September. We are in the process of finishing the IFA for strain B and in January we started to produce the IFA for H3N2. In the first half of February, formulations and filling are scheduled to start”, informed the production director of the Butantan Institute, Ricardo Oliveira.
According to the institute, a tetravalent version of the flu vaccine, which contains two strains of the A virus and two strains of the B virus, is also being worked on. The immunizing agent should replace the trivalent version in the future.
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Reference: CNN Brasil
