Manufactuing By-Products

There are products used in the manufacturing process that are not in the actual vaccine. The first is egg protein or albumin, which are used primarily in the manufacturing of the flu vaccine. So the flu vaccine might contain trace amounts of the albumin as the influenza virus is grown on fertilized chicken eggs. Yeast protein like albumin is used to grown the HPV for the Gardasil vaccine, so again there may be trace amounts within the finished vaccine. Another by product that could be latex, which is used in the packaging and storage of the finished vaccine. The needle of the vaccine loaded shot, could be covered in a latex protector (2).

There are multiple by-products that are in a group known as acidity regulators. these are used to stabilize the pH of the environment in which the virus or bacteria is being grown in. These are use in small quantities and some examples of these are disodium adipate, sodium borate, sodium hydroxide, and hydrogen chloride (2).

(1)

The final class of by products are organic products such as human cell lines, animal cell lines, GMOs, and bovine products. Human and animal cells are used to grow the viruses for the vaccines, during the process these cells are lysed and the then removed during the cleaning process so there are no cells within the finished vaccines. In the UK they create a vaccine for the flu which uses GMOs, this allows for the two flu virus strains to naturally recombine making new strains that can be placed in vaccines. Bovine products come from the cows and are used as growing serum for bacteria cells. Though when the bacteria is killed or weakened for the vaccines, and bovine products are cleaned from the cells (2).

¹pH scale images. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2020, from https://www.shutterstock.com/search/ph scale 

²Vaccine ingredients. (2019, August 30). Retrieved May 6, 2020, from https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/vaccine-ingredients#human-cell-strains