As Vaccine Firms Prep For A Busy Season, Influenza May Hit

Flu season is just around the horizon as the summer draws to a close and fall looms. Influenza still poses a threat, and leading vaccine developers are preparing to help fight it, even if the majority of the population is still concentrating on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to COVID-19 countermeasures, there has been very, very low flu activity lately, but this year, according to vice president of Seqirus’ North American commercial operations, Dave Ross, patterns are likely to change. People are starting to travel, according to Ross. Masks are off, and everyone has returned to their offices. It doesn’t matter whether influenza returns. The only questions are when and how severely.

According to Ross, influenza is spreading widely in the Southern Hemisphere. The Seqirus executive remarked that the Southern Hemisphere is typically a bellwether for forecasting the intensity of flu activity in the Northern Hemisphere.

According to Ross, Seqirus is on schedule to give American healthcare providers more than 55 million doses. GSK is also stocking up on more than 50 million medicines in anticipation of the season.

As per vaccine chief Thomas Triomphe, Sanofi anticipates a record year for influenza vaccine sales as a result of its “plan to concentrate on high-value vaccinations. For those 65 and older, Sanofi sells the high-dose Fluzone vaccine, and it also makes the Flublok recombinant protein-based vaccine.

Seqirus has also attempted to concentrate on vaccinations with differences. According to Ross, Fluad Quadrivalent, its adjuvanted vaccine, was recommended for seniors 65 and over by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is intended to have a stronger immune response. For people six months of age and older, Seqirus also provides Flucelvax Quadrivalent, a cell-based vaccination created to correspond with influenza strains chosen by the World Health Organization.

As COVID-19 will continue to be “a highly unpredictable virus” in the coming months, Ross warned, flu vaccination also helps decrease the impact of flu on the healthcare system.

According to Ross, there are three reasons why the flu vaccination rate needs to rise. For two reasons, it’s important to prevent the flu’s immediate effects on people and to lower the possibility of contracting the flu and a coronavirus at the same time.