Caterpillars?

Every year when there are flu vaccine shortages, people always bring up the antiquated manufacturing process of growing the vaccine in chicken eggs. There are a variety of more contemporary methods being examined currently, from vero cell based technology to virus like particles, but a new process by Protein Sciences might be the strangest yet...

Protein Sciences has a vaccine called FluBlok which allegedly can be manufactured in two months (a big step up from the chicken egg process) by growing vaccine in caterpillar ovaries. Basically the company uses an insect virus as a vector to insert to the vaccine into the ovarian cells, which then grow the vaccine much more quickly than growing them in chicken eggs. The company submitted their data to the FDA, but a panel recommended (in a close 6-5 vote) that more safety data was required before an approval can be handed down. I'm not entirely sold on this caterpillar idea...something about it brings up ideas about "The Fly," but if the process works then it would be a great alternative to current flu vaccine production methods. My question is that would the public be weary about taking this shot given it's origins? Hopefully Protein Sciences will submit the data and give us a chance to answer that question....

Read more about the technology here

and the FDA ruling here

Plavix has proven to be a very good drug, not only in terms of effectiveness, but also in terms of being a moneymaker for Sanofi/Bristol Myers Squibb. However new data has emerged that could change the way the drug is used. It seems that patients who take drugs that utilize certain metabolic pathways will not be recommended to use them while taking Plavix because these drugs apparently interfere with the effectiveness of the blood thinner. This is not good news because this list of drugs is potentially fairly large and includes medications like Prilosec, Luvox, Nexium, Tagament, and Prozac. Some people feel this warrants the dreaded "black-box" warning for Plavix, but the FDA felt that wasn't necessary quite yet. The data was just released, but keep an eye on this news to see just how deep this issue could go...

Check out the FiercePharma article

And..if you're interested, see the FDA public advisory here