The use of BHK suspension cells for the commercial production of foot and mouth disease vaccines over a twenty year period.

The Wellcome Foundation Ltd first used BHK suspension cells for the commercial production of foot and mouth disease vaccine in 1964. Since that time both the scale of operation and the volume of production has increased dramatically and in 1983 the Wellcome Group produced almost 350 million monovalent equivalent doses of vaccine from just over 2 million litres of antigen. Experience gained during this period has shown that with careful attention to plant design and operation this large industrial scale tissue culture process can be managed reliably and efficiently. Data will be presented to show the level of production and success rate achieved in our Foot and Mouth Vaccine production units together with an analysis of antigen yields and the comparatively few failures experienced.