Zika and yellow fever—vaccines without eggs

A team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg is developing methods with which viruses for vaccines can be replicated in significantly higher concentrations than before. The researchers produce the pathogens in cell cultures in small bioreactors. The production of vaccines currently requires about half a billion chicken eggs per annum, which causes some problems.
The production of vaccines often suffers from complications and bottlenecks. Because production must be planned years in advance, changes in vaccination recommendations, quality defects or even economic calculations by the few companies in the vaccine market have far-reaching consequences for the supply of the protective substances.