Development of a freeze-dried, heat-stable influenza subunit vaccine formulation
An influenza pandemic remains a major public health concern. A key strategy to prevent a pandemic is to stockpile and pre-position stable influenza vaccine to allow rapid deployment in response to an outbreak. However, most influenza vaccines today are formulated as liquids that are stable only within a temperature range of 2°C to 8°C and require use of a cold chain, making vaccine transportation, distribution, and storage complicated and expensive, particularly for developing countries. To support the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza preparedness in the United States and internationally, we developed two lead dry formulations of stable H1N1 influenza subunit vaccines using freeze-drying technology.