New Flu Vaccine Gets FDA Approval

Can be produced more quickly than current medicines

A new type of flu vaccine won regulatory approval on Wednesday, and its manufacturer said that limited supplies are expected to be available this winter.

The vaccine, developed by a small company called Protein Sciences, is made with a process that does not require the virus to be grown in chicken eggs, as is now generally done. That means a vaccine could be ready weeks earlier in the event of a pandemic.

"This approval represents a technological advance in the manufacturing of an influenza vaccine," Dr. Karen Midthun, a senior official at the Food and Drug Administration, said in a statement announcing the agency's approval of the product, which is called Flublok.