Flu vaccine grown without eggs provided measurably better protection this season, FDA says

The sole influenza vaccine made in cell culture in the United States may have worked about 20 percent better this flu season than the standard vaccines made in eggs, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Thursday.

Gottlieb revealed that figure in a hearing of the congressional subcommittee on oversight and investigations, called to explore this year’s severe flu season and why flu vaccines did not appear to protect especially well.

Gottlieb has said for several weeks that the FDA had data that suggested the cell-culture vaccine performed somewhat better, but this was the first time he publicly quantified the scale of the benefit.

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