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The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis has offered to donate 10% of their pandemic vaccine run to the World Health Organization for distribution to developing countries.
The eventual number of donated doses could reach 100 million, although it would probably take several years to achieve that kind of donation.
This offer is in response to a plea from Director-General Margaret Chan that vaccine manufacturers not forget the plight of the developing world.
Last week, the drug giant Novartis indicated that they would not be willing to donate vaccine.
Sanofi-Aventis Donating Swine Flu Vaccine To WHO
By Linda A. Johnson, AP Business Writer
Manufacturing.Net - June 17, 2009
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis plans to donate millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to the World Health Organization for use in poor countries, Chief Executive Christopher Viehbacher said Wednesday.
Viehbacher said his company is making a "flexible donation" of a total of 100 million doses of vaccines against swine flu and bird flu.
The company had committed last June to donating 60 million doses of pandemic vaccine to protect people against the bird flu virus, a type designated as H5N1 influenza.
Speaking at the Pacific Health Summit, a meeting of global officials in science, industry, medicine, policy and public health in Seattle, Viehbacher said he wants to support the request of World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan for common action in fighting the swine flu pandemic.
"Exceptional times require exceptional responses. We need to act responsibly, and we all have to play our part," he said in a statement.
Viehbacher said that once his company starts production of vaccine against swine flu, or H1N1 flu, it will reserve 10 percent of its output for the WHO to help fight the flu pandemic in developing countries.
