Race is on for flu vaccine

Drug companies are using adjuvants to boost their vaccines in a bid to be ready for a flu pandemic. The cell-surface proteins of flu viruses change, or drift, over time, so vaccine makers can't develop a vaccine in advance that they know will work if bird flu acquires the ability to pass between humans, triggering a pandemic. What is more, there aren not many companies in the race, afterlow profits drove many to stop producing vaccines at all.