Sanofi Donates 100 Million Doses of Swine Flu Vaccine
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June 17, 2009 by fluoutbreak
By Trista Kelley and Albertina Torsoli, Bloomberg
Sanofi-Aventis SA will donate 100 million doses of swine-flu vaccine to the World Health Organization.
Once production of a vaccine begins, Sanofi will reserve 10 percent of output for the donations, the Paris-based company said today in a statement. The donation will help ensure that the poorest countries have access to the shots, Sanofi said.
“ It’s a call for collective action,” Sanofi Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher said in a telephone interview from Seattle today. “We all have to play our part. It can’t be only the rich countries having access to the vaccines, in case of a pandemic.” GlaxoSmithKline Plc also plans to donate 50 million doses to the WHO, spokesman Stephen Rea said in an interview today.
The decisions by Sanofi and Glaxo contrast with that of Novartis AG, which said this week it wouldn’t donate the vaccine. The Basel, Switzerland-based company may look at pricing and other ways to assure access, spokesman Eric Althoff said today in a telephone interview. Donations won’t address the current pandemic or create sustainable access, Althoff said.
“In principle, I agree that you don’t want to rely on donations, they are not a sustainable model,” Viehbacher said. “But a pandemic is an exceptional event, it’s not on-going. We have to do what we can to help the WHO fight it.” The decision won’t affect Sanofi’s margins, he said.
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