FluMist was originally developed by Hunein "John" Maassab, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan and later by Aviron, in Mountain View, California, under the sponsorship of NIH in the mid-1990s.
The U.S. FDA initially approved FluMist only for healthy people ages 5 to 49 because of concerns over possible side effects.