February 7, 2003

Preliminary Approval of Nasal Flu Vaccine Pleases U. of Michigan

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor hopes to see an uptick in its licensing revenues, now that an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration has recommended partial approval for a new nasal-spray flu vaccine based on an invention developed there.

The FDA panel said FluMist could be marketed to healthy people ages 5 to 49. Michigan had licensed rights to the invention to Aviron, which was acquired by Medimmune, of Gaithersburg, Md., in January 2002. The university's