LONDON — With swine flu now an official pandemic, the race is on among drugmakers to produce a vaccine
GlaxoSmithKline said Thursday after the World Health Organization declared a global flu epidemic that it would be ready within weeks to begin large-scale vaccine production. Sanofi-Aventis also said it had started working on its own version. On Friday, Swiss pharma giant Novartis said it had created an experimental vaccine that was made via a cell-based technology that may prove faster than the traditional way of making vaccines, which relies on chicken eggs.
Many rich countries like Britain, Canada and France signed contracts with pharmaceuticals long ago, guaranteeing them access to pandemic vaccine. WHO and others estimate that about 2.4 billion doses of pandemic vaccine could be available in about a year.
The likely scramble for vaccines will leave many people in poorer countries empty-handed. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said officials were concerned people in poorer countries and those fighting other health problems like malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition and pneumonia might be more susceptible to swine flu.
In May, officials led by Chan asked vaccine makers to save a portion of their production for poor countries. WHO and nongovernment organizations like Oxfam are continuing to ask drugmakers to make some of their vaccines available for poorer countries at a cheaper price.
by the associated press
No comments:
Post a Comment