A method for manufacturing recombinant neuraminidase by culturing in a
suitable culture medium host cells which are transformed with a
neuraminidase expression vector or infected with a virus which is
transformed with a neuraminidase expression vector, wherein the
expression vector comprises at least a part of the coding region of a
neuraminidase gene of an influenza virus minus the region which codes for
the membrane anchor, or a modified version thereof, preceded in phase by
a signal sequence; and isolating the expression product neuraminidase
from the culture medium. The invention further relates to vectors
expressing the neuraminidase.