Stockpiling Glaxo's Bird Flu Vaccine In UK

UK Prime MInister, Tony Blair, and Chancellor, Gordon Brown, had talks with J. P. Garnier, Glaxo's CEO, about building up a stockpile of H5N1 bird flu vaccines. Glaxo has signed a deal with Singapore, according to The Times (UK). Switzerland has ordered 8 million doses, the order provides enough doses for one per head of the entire Swiss population. Click here to read about the Swiss order.


Andrew Witty, President Pharmaceuticals Europe, GlaxoSmithkline, said: "This (Swiss contract) is the first major contract that GSK has signed for its candidate H5N1 vaccine. The Swiss Government have adopted a comprehensive strategy to help protect their population. Our vaccine, which has already demonstrated strong immunogenicity at the lowest dose seen with a split cell vaccine, provides an attractive option for Governments currently considering how best to combat the threat of a flu pandemic. We continue to work with Governments across Europeon their pandemic plans and are on track to file our adjuvanted H5N1 vaccine with the European regulators by the end of 2006."


Apparently, Glaxo has also been in talks with US and French authorities.


All three nations, USA, UK and France are looking at the possibility of carrying out mass vaccination programs.


The Glaxo vaccine is supposed to offer humans protection from the H5N1 bird flu strain. The company expects to submit its vaccine for approval with the European Medicines Agency at the end of this year. Even though the vaccine has been shown to offer some protection against H5N1, nobody really knows how effective it would be against a new, mutant strain.


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