A chemically defined production process for highly attenuated poxviruses.

Highly attenuated poxviruses are promising vectors for protective and therapeutic vaccines. These vectors do not replicate in human cells and can therefore be safely given even to immunocompromised recipients. They can accomodate very large inserts and provide strong stimulation of the immune system against the vectored antigen. Disadvantages include that very high numbers of infectious units are required per dose for full efficacy. Because they are difficult to produce, improved cellular substrates and processes are urgently needed to facilitate programs intended to reach a large number of vaccinees. We have developed a fully scalable and very efficient chemically-defined production process for modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), canarypox (CNPV, strain ALVAC) and fowlpox viruses (FPV) based on a continuous cell line.