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In what can only be described as a positive move, the WHO yesterday received pledges from several manufacturers to help supply a global stockpile of pre-pandemic vaccine. The biggest player, GSK, has pledged 50 million doses over the next 3 years, while other companies pledged support but did not give numbers.
Fifty Million doses will only inoculate 25 million people (2 shots are required), and so this isn't a cure all, but it is a start.
Glaxo gives 50m doses of flu vaccine to start stockpile to protect world's poor
By Andrew Jack in London
Published: June 14 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 14 2007 03:00
GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceuticals group, gave impetus on Wednesday to an international flu vaccine stockpile designed to assuage concerns that the poor will be unable to protect themselves during the next pandemic.
The company said that it would donate 50m doses of its pre-pandemic H5N1 vaccine to the World Health Organisation. It also pledged to supply at low cost further doses and its proprietary "adjuvant" - a chemical that makes vaccines more potent.
Omninvest of Hungary, Baxter, Sanofi Pasteur and Novartis Vaccines also pledged support for the scheme, while holding back from providing details of their contribution pending technical agreement. The initiative is a response to protests from developing nations likely to be in the front line of any futurepandemic that the vaccines being produced will be too costly and scarce to be made available to their citizens.
Indonesia, which has suffered most cases of the lethal H5N1 strain in humans to date, until recently blocked co-operation with the WHO's system of sharing virus samples to highlight fears that it would not have access to vaccines subsequently made with them.
Margaret Chan, the director-general of the WHO, unveiled the new stockpile yesterday, following discussions with pharmaceutical companies in recent weeks.
