Protein Sciences Corp., the producer of Flublok, recently received approval from Mexico to distribute the company’s Flublok influenza vaccine to the Mexican market.
COFEPRIS, the Mexican regulatory agency, has granted its approval for Laboratorios Liomont, SA de CV, a top Mexican pharmaceutical company as well as a licensee of Flublok, to work with Protein Sciences Corp. to distribute the new vaccine. The approval is limited to adults.
This is a significant milestone for Flublok, as it is the first recombinant influenza vaccine accessible in Mexico. Traditional influenza vaccines use an egg-based technology that is 70 years old that can easily have mutations, compromising the health of the vaccine recipients.
“We are very pleased with the rapid approval of Flublok in Mexico and the approval of the longer shelf life,”
Protein Sciences
President and CEO
Manon Cox said. “Recombinant technology is the only technology that can produce an influenza vaccine with the precision to exactly match circulating flu strains. We saw the benefit of this last year with a field study in 9,000 older adults that showed that Flublok protected people against the flu better than a traditional, egg-based flu vaccine – Flublok recipients were over 50 percent less likely to become infected with the mismatched H3N2 influenza strain that was the predominant circulating strain last season. In addition, Mexico will now also be a nation better prepared in the event of a pandemic as Flublok is expected to be available within eight to 12 weeks post-declaration of a pandemic.”
