(Murfreesboro, TN) For nearly ten years watchdog organization
Children of God for Life has alerted the public on existing and new
vaccines and medical products under development using aborted fetal
material, and encouraged the pharmaceutical industry to pursue moral
avenues of research.
So when Medimmune signed license agreements with Crucell NV for aborted
fetal PER C6 cell line in 2002 for flu vaccine production, Children of
God for Life immediately alerted the public and wrote to then CEO John
Mott, asking him to reconsider that decision.
They never received a response.
When Medimmune Public Relations representative Karen Lancaster
contacted Children of God for Life on June 17, 2009, the news was a
surprising relief.
“Medimmune has shifted their focus from PER C6 for swine flu cell
culture,” announced Ms. Vinnedge. “Short term, they will continue using
chick embryo as they do in all their regular flu vaccines. Long term,
they will use MDCK (Madin-Darby Canine Kidney) for cell culture
production.”
Ms Lancaster explained that they changed direction to MDCK a long and
well-established cell line. When FDA meetings last fall focused
specifically on the MDCK cell line as a viable cell substrate for flu
vaccine production, it was an easy decision for Medimmune.
To date, PER C6 has not been used successfully in any US vaccines.
In November 2007, Merck halted trials of its HIV vaccine using the cell
line.
MDCK was originally used in the early 1970’s for a moral version of
the rubella vaccine.
It is uncertain whether Medimmune will use PER C6 in the future.
Write to Medimmune to thank them:
Tony Zook, President
MedImmune, LLC.
One MedImmune Way
Gaithersburg, MD 20878 |
