During the 1930s influenza was found to be caused by a virus and the race began to develop a new vaccine. In 1942, our parent company CSL, produced one million doses of the new virus vaccine using an egg-based method pioneered by the Australian virologist, Macfarlane Burnet. Seasonal production began thereafter and to the present day, egg-based manufacturing has been the mainstay of influenza vaccine production globally, which we continue to refine and optimise. Egg-based influenza vaccines are the standard of care and will continue to be important in years to come to ensure sufficient global supply of influenza vaccines is maintained, while newer technologies like cell-based production will continue to evolve. 

Click here to see how egg-based influenza vaccine is made

CSL Seqirus is the largest cell-based influenza vaccine manufacturer in the world. We produce these novel vaccines at our manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, which was purpose-built in partnership with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to combat pandemic threats. The facility harnesses cell-based technology as a modern, efficient and highly scalable alternative to traditional egg-based manufacturing for seasonal influenza vaccine production and rapid pandemic response. To produce a cell-based influenza vaccine, the influenza virus is isolated and grown in cultured cells instead of eggs.

Since acquiring this promising technology in 2015, CSL Seqirus has been able to accelerate production from pilot scale to industrial scale, significantly increasing supply of seasonal influenza vaccines and strengthening the CSL Seqirus’ capacity to respond to pandemic threats.