MedImmune’s FluMist nasal influenza vaccine should be included in the U.S. government’s Vaccines for Children program, federal advisers said on Thursday.

MedImmune said the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting in Atlanta had expanded its recommendations on FluMist to include children and adolescents aged 5 to 18 for the 2005-2006 season.

The Vaccines for Children program supplies free vaccine to children enrolled in Medicaid, who lack insurance, and to American Indian or Alaskan Native children.

“As a result of this vote by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, healthy children ages 5 to 18 years who meet the eligibility requirements of the VFC program may receive FluMist at no cost next season,” the Maryland-based company said in a statement.

The vaccine, a weakened version of the influenza virus dripped into the nose, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for healthy individuals aged 5 to 50.

After poor sales last year, MedImmune cut its production of FluMist from 5 million doses last year to 2 million this year. It squeezed out an extra 1 million doses, making 3 million, after Chiron Corp. lost its British license and 48 million flu shots because of contamination at a plant in Liverpool.

MedImmune said in June that only 900,000 doses of the vaccine were sold last season, of which 50 percent were returned because of poor demand. It has lowered its price for the vaccine by about half, to $16.00 wholesale per nonreturnable dose or $23.50 wholesale per returnable dose.