Cell-based flu vaccine prevents more hospitalizations than egg-based vaccine
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A cell-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine prevented more influenza-related hospitalizations and ED visits, all-cause hospitalizations and hospitalizations related to serious respiratory events compared with egg-based quadrivalent vaccines.
The findings were presented during the Virtual Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
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“This type of study provides real-world evidence, which is particularly relevant in the field of influenza,” Joaquin F. Mould, PhD, global pricing and health economics director of Seqirus, told Healio. “We are starting to see a paradigm shift in how it’s acknowledged by top experts globally. Because the circulating viruses are different each year, it’s especially important to evaluate influenza vaccine effectiveness on a yearly basis and we can do this with real-world evidence studies like this one.”
Mould and colleagues noted that adaptations related to egg-based vaccine production have been identified as a possible reason for the decreased effectiveness of season influenza vaccines. They performed a retrospective analysis to compare relative vaccine effectiveness of cell-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIVc) vs. standard, egg-based quadrivalent vaccines (QIVe-SD) in commercially insured U.S. people aged between 4 and 64 years during the 2017-2018 influenza season.
According to the abstract, they calculated the adjusted number of events and rates of influenza-related hospitalizations; respiratory-related hospitalizations such as pneumonia, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchial and other respiratory events; and all-cause hospitalizations per 1,000 vaccinated subject-seasons.
Overall, they identified 555,538 QIVc recipients and 2,528,524 QIVe recipients for the study. Data showed that the relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) for QIVc was significantly higher compared with that of QIVe for influenza-related hospitalizations and ED visits overall (14.4%; 95% CI, 8.83%-19.63%). According to the researchers, the findings were similar for the 18-to-64 and 50-to-64 year subgroups and for the high-risk subgroup with rVEs of 13.09% (95% CI, 6.79%-18.96%), 9.36% (95% CI, 0.31%-17.58%) and 10.07% (95% CI, 1.14%-18.18%), respectively.
Additionally, the study showed that QIVc was 11.77% (95% CI, 10.43%-13.09%), 8.32% (95% CI, 5.94%-10.65%), and 6.86% (95% CI, 4.93%-8.76%) more effective than QIVe for prevention of all-cause hospitalizations, and hospitalization and ED visits related to asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as bronchial and other respiratory events, respectively. The researchers again observed similar results for the 18-to-64 year and 50-to-64 year-old subgroups, as well as the high-risk subgroups.
“This is the first time Seqirus has evaluated relative vaccine effectiveness of Flucelvax compared to standard-dose egg vaccine in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations and other serious respiratory events among four 64-year-olds in a commercially insured population,” Mould said. “This is significant because this population segment is an important contributor to the influenza burden of disease in the United States, underscoring that individuals aged 4 to 64 years should be vaccinated each year.
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Mould J, et al. Vaccine effectiveness against influenza-related hospitalizations and serious respiratory events during the 2017-2018 influenza season: comparison between equivalent cell-based and egg-based influenza vaccines. Presented at: NFID Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research; June 18-19, 2020 (virtual meeting).
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