# 3344
In 2007 the idea was floated by the World Health Organization(WHO) of creating a `virtual stockpile' of bird flu vaccine to ensure that developing countries get their `fair share' in a pandemic.
Vaccine developing nations would pledge a certain amount of their vaccine to this stockpile for dispersal to developing nations during a pandemic.
In May of 2007, at the WHO assembly, the idea was adopted. And in June, 2007 GlaxoSmithKline promised to donate 50 million doses and in 2008, Sanofi-Aventis pledged to donate 60 million doses of its H5N1 vaccine over the next 3 years.
Fast forward to the Spring of 2009, and the pandemic virus threatening is not H5N1, but H1N1.
Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, immediately asked vaccine manufacturers to set aside a portion of their production run for developing nations.
Some companies indicated they would go along (of course there are political realities that may complicate the shipment of any vaccine from a country during a pandemic), but over the weekend, Novartis has balked at the suggestion.
Despite this apparent setback, the WHO is trying to put the best face on this news.
This from DPA.
WHO brushes off Novartis' rejection of calls for vaccine donations
Health News
Jun 15, 2009, 15:12 GMT
Geneva - The World Health Organization on Monday brushed aside an announcement by Novartis, the Swiss drug-maker, that it would not donate a vaccine it was developing against swine flu to poor countries.
'There are many ways in which a vaccine manufacturer can show solidarity,' Thomas Abraham, a spokesman for the WHO told the German Press Agency dpa.
Novartis chief executive, Daniel Vasella, was quoted by the London-based Financial Times newspaper that he would consider offering discounted pricing to low-income nations, but would not offer vaccines for free.
'If you want to make production sustainable, you have to create financial incentives,' Vasella was quoted as saying.
This was seen as defying a call by WHO chief Margaret Chan last week for the wealthy to display 'solidarity' with the poor, as she declared swine flu to be a 'pandemic.'
