SWIFTWATER, Pa. — Sanofi Pasteur announced Monday the presentation of three clinical trials of an experimental influenza vaccine.

Sanofi Pasteur, French drug maker Sanofi's vaccines division, presented an overview of phase-2 and phase-3 trials of its quadrivalent influenza vaccine at the first joint meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, an event called IDWeek, where the company announced that the Food and Drug Administration had accepted its regulatory approval application for its Fluzone quadrivalent vaccine. The vaccine is designed to prevent influenza A and B in patients ages 6 months and older.

"Rates of hospitalization and death from influenza B are higher than those seen with A (H1N1) and, overall, influenza B is a significant cause of absenteeism, clinic visits, hospitalizations and complications across all ages, but especially in children," Sanofi Pasteur senior director for U.S. scientific and medical affairs David Greenberg said. "Since two lineages of influenza type B circulate each season, public health officials have been challenged to predict which B virus to include in the vaccine to achieve the greatest effectiveness against circulating influenza strains. Due to increased vaccine production capacity in the U.S., we now have the ability to provide quadrivalent influenza vaccine to help protect against both lieges of B influenza and potentially provide a greater public health benefit from influenza immunization."

Interested in this topic? Sign up for our weekly DSN Collaborative Care e-newsletter.