Holly Springs company on the forefront of new flu shot technology

While preparing for flu season and getting vaccinated early, consider this: a growing number of people are getting the vaccine from a manufacturer in the town of Holly Springs.

The company is called Seqirus, and it is leading the world in producing a new type of flu vaccine.

"We're charged with a mission for keeping healthy people healthy," said Chad Salisbury, director of supply chain and strategy with Seqirus.

For more than 70 years, the most common way of producing a flu vaccine has involved an egg-based manufacturing process.

Seqirus became the first influenza vaccine company to produce a cell-based influenza vaccine on a commercial scale. This is a vaccine grown in cells, rather than eggs.

Dr. Patrick Bastek says their new quadrivalent vaccine is produced through cell-culture technology, which more closely mimics the virus in our own bodies.

"So, it's the potential that it will provide a greater match, so this might confer greater protection for our patients for this coming flu season," Bastek said.

Plus, it's a faster method of producing vaccine.

Every year, the World Health Organization declares which virus strains will be in a vaccine. Seqirus tests a variety of seasonal flu virus samples.

"At that point, we will have screened those candidate viruses. Which will work best in our system," Bastek said.

The result is produced for distribution to healthcare providers to give to patients. The company also partners with the U.S. government to work with emerging flu strains that could lead to a more devastating pandemic flu.

"Then help to create a stockpile for the U.S. government that's part of their overall pandemic preparedness effort," Bastek said.

Salisbury says their egg-based vaccine products are still effective weapons against the flu, but only if people get immunized.

He says the number of flu vaccine doses produced in Holly Springs will keep more than four million people from getting sick.

"Almost 4,000 people won't die of flu-related illness, based on what this site has been able to produce this year," Salisbury said.

WRAL's Dr. Allen Mask says more manufacturers are moving to produce the quadrivalent vaccine, which covers four flu strains, rather than the trivalent vaccine, which covers three strains. Some insurers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, are not yet covering the cost of the new cell based quadrivalent vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control does not recommend one form of the vaccine over the other at this time.