Biotech Values

[vinmantoo]

As you know there have been multiple attempts at a universal flu vaccine using conserved epitopes. This is more of a shotgun approach. The problem is you need to increase the dose for every epitope so unless you can get a very low effective dose per antigen you give up tolerability.

Yes. But you also have to consider that while not a perfect match, there might be some weak cross-antigenicity to an epitope that could provide some protection or at least partially protect the immune system. That is more likely with 20+ variants than say 3 or 4 in current shots. That isn't ideal but might be better than nothing.

As you know there have been multiple attempts at a universal flu vaccine using conserved epitopes.

Yes. I believe the Wistar Institute was working one on but I haven't heard anything in a long while form them. I just did a quick search but this is behind a paywall.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2795046

I do think mRNA is the future for flu now because of speed. You can create a vaccine in record time so you can wait until the strains that are circulating are known with better certainty.

I agree completely. As far as Moderna's failure, I didn't expand on my comment but yes, I saw it was due to weaker protection against B strains. Thanks for your detailed commentary.