No delay for FluMist, even with FDA warning

MedImmune's nasal-applied FluMist won't see any problems with U.S. availability, even after manufacturing issues at a United Kingdom plant showed up. The FDA appears to not be concerned here. Is it for good reason? Read on.

MedImmune deviated from standard manufacturing processed in making bulk lots of the FluMist nasal vaccine at its UK plant, which resulted in some bacteria and mold contamination. With the contamination happening at a very early stage of the manufacturing process, no huge warning signals were fired.

Also, since the finished lots of FluMist had zero contamination, the FDA saw no reason to suspend sales at this time.