ABSTRACT
More than half a million people die every year from complications of seasonal influenza, and vaccination stands as the most effective method to prevent and limit outbreaks of the disease. Constant vaccine development based on emerging strains and worldwide distribution of vaccines is a great challenge for public health and vaccine manufacturers, particularly in a potential pandemic scenario. This chapter begins with an introduction to the biology of the influenza virus and continues by covering the annual cycle of influenza vaccine manufacturing, which includes the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, coordinated by the World Health Organisation, and the critical timelines for vaccine production. The chapter examines influenza vaccine technologies currently in the market (inactivated, live attenuated and recombinant vaccines), the different production platforms (egg‐based and cell culture‐based production), and emerging vaccine technologies (mRNA, DNA and viral vectored vaccines). Finally, the bottlenecks in influenza vaccine quantification, along with current downstream processing of influenza are presented.
