# 3187
Of the more than 190 countries in the world, fewer than a dozen are major manufacturers of vaccines. A handful of others are poised to enter the influenza vaccine manufacturing fray, but as yet, have yet to produce significant amounts of vaccine.
Global manufacturing capacity has been estimated at between 1 billion and 2 billion doses of vaccine per year.
That is a rough estimate, and depends greatly on the amount of antigen required in a `dose’ to confer a reasonable level of immunity.
The real capacity?
Ask again year from now, and maybe we can tell you.
Even under the most optimistic scenarios, 2/3rds of the world’s population won’t see a pandemic vaccine in the first year.
Because of that, and the likely scramble by nations to get in line for the limited production run, some countries are moving quick to get in the ordering queue.
Fearing that if they wait for WHO to raise the pandemic level to 6 that Scotland would have trouble procuring a vaccine, their government today announced their intention to purchase enough vaccine to cover their entire country.
This from the Daily Record:
Scottish government to buy up enough swine flu vaccine for entire population
THE Scottish government is to buy up enough swine flu vaccine to immunise the entire population, it was revealed today.
The move was disclosed by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon when she updated Parliament on latest efforts in the fight to contain the virus.
In recent days, scientists had identified the genetic fingerprint of the European strain of the virus, she told MSPs.
That was "a crucial first step" in the production of a vaccine and the aim in the UK was to secure supplies of an effective vaccine as soon as it became available.
The aim was to secure enough supplies to allow vaccination of the whole population.
Ms Sturgeon said the UK had advance supply contracts in place for a pandemic vaccine, but this could only be triggered in certain circumstances - like the World Health Organization declaring Phase 6 of a pandemic.
"Obviously we do not know when or if these triggers will be reached," she said.
"We do know that if we simply wait until then we risk losing the capacity manufacturers have available now which would allow us to build up a stockpile and get a vaccination programme under way before the winter.
