Germany Approves Swine Flu Vaccine from Novartis

Boston (DbTechNo) - A swine flu vaccine developed by Novartis has been approved by the German government for use across the country.

The vaccine goes by the name Celtura, and is approved to vaccinate humans older than 6 months of age.

The vaccine was developed by using dog kidney cells, opposed to the traditional method of growing the virus using chicken eggs.

This is the second vaccine given some form of approval from Novartis, as the Eu Commission has already approved their other main vaccine, Focetria.

“Our modern cell culture technology can enable a faster start-up of vaccine manufacturing, offering the ability to respond more quickly to future pandemic threats,” Andrin Oswald, Chief Executive Officer of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics said in the statement. “We quickly ramped up capacity at our licensed cell culture facility in Marburg, Germany to respond to the need for a pandemic vaccine.”

Neither vaccine has been submitted to the US for possible approval by the Food and Drug Administration.