Vaccine Maker To Give 100 Million Swine Flu Shots To WHO

Sanofi-aventis, a French global healthcare company that makes vaccines announced on Wednesday that it will be giving the World Health Organization (WHO) 100 million doses of vaccine for H1N1 swine flu so it can distribute them to the countries that most need them. Sanofi-aventis Chief Executive Officer Christopher A Viehbacher told the opening session of the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle, Washington that he wanted to back WHO Director General’s call for common action.

“Exceptional times require exceptional responses. We need to act responsibly and we all have to play our part,” said Viehbacher.

“That is the reason why we intend to donate 100 million doses of influenza vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO) to help developing countries face the influenza pandemic,” he added.

Although the WHO says it has now received reports of nearly 40,000 worldwide lab-confirmed cases of novel A(H1N1) swine flu, including 167 deaths, and has raised the status level to phase 6, indicating global pandemic, the organization has not yet said anything about who should get vaccinated.

Also, because this strain has not infected people before, it is not clear if one or two doses will be needed to achieve full immunization.

Vaccine producers are just coming to the end of producing seasonal flu vaccine, after which they will start making vaccine against the new swine flu virus. It will be several weeks before the first batches are ready, which is probably too late for countries in the southern hemisphere who are about to enter the height of their annual flu season.

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