E-DRUG: WHO seeks swine flu vaccine help for poor nations
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[ Cross posted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" <health-vn@anu.edu.au>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_re_eu/med_swine_flu;_ylt=AjN8f
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WHO seeks swine flu vaccine help for poor nations
By FRANK JORDANS and MARIA CHENG, Associated Press Writers - Wed May 20,
12:49 am ET
GENEVA - The World Health Organization urged drugmakers to reserve some
of their pandemic swine flu vaccine for poor countries, but received few
concrete offers as experts disclosed that an effective flu shot is still
months away. The global body wants companies to donate at least 10
percent of their production or offer reduced prices for poor countries
that could otherwise be left without vaccines if there is a sudden surge
in demand.
But some are skeptical about what such a commitment could mean for their
business. "I don't think that all of the answers are there yet," said
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG spokesman Eric Althoff. U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who met with 30 major pharmaceutical
manufacturers, called Tuesday for global solidarity in confronting the
disease. Solidarity "must mean that all have access to drugs and
vaccines," he added. The only major drugmaker that publicly agreed to
the WHO request Tuesday was Britain's GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which said it
would donate 50 million doses in a pandemic and offer more that WHO
could buy at a discount for poor countries. A second drugmaker with only
limited production capacity said it would share half of its vaccine
doses. WHO officials declined to identify the company because the deal
has yet to be signed. Smaller vaccine makers from developing countries
also promised to share 10 percent of their vaccines with the U.N. at
cheaper prices. "I can reassure you I have received very serious
commitments," WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan told reporters
after meeting with the drugmakers. Nearby, health ministers from around
the world gathered for WHO's annual assembly and discussed how to tackle
the outbreak.
Swine flu has been confirmed in more than 9,830 people in at least 40
countries, with most of the cases in Mexico and the U.S. That figure
does not include Taiwan which reported its first confirmed case on
Wednesday. The global death toll was at least 83 - 74 in Mexico, seven
in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica. The impact of a
pandemic - a global epidemic - is expected to be worse in poor
countries, where people with other diseases such as AIDS and malaria are
more susceptible to swine flu and national health systems are less able
to respond.
Many rich countries - including Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and
Switzerland - have already signed deals with vaccine makers that promise
them millions of pandemic vaccines as soon as they're available. Others
companies that attended the Geneva meeting, including Sanofi-Aventis and
Baxter International, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Manufacturers won't be able to start making the vaccine until mid-July
at the earliest, weeks later than previous predictions, according to an
expert panel convened by WHO. It will then take months to produce the
vaccine in large quantities.
The swine flu virus is not growing very fast in laboratories, making it
difficult for scientists to get the key ingredient they need for a
vaccine, the "seed stock" from the virus, WHO said. Experts also found
no evidence that regular flu vaccines offer any protection against swine
flu. They estimated that under the best conditions, drug companies could
produce nearly 5 billion doses of swine flu vaccine in the year after
beginning full-scale production.
One expert, however, thought the 5 billion dose estimate was too
optimistic. "We should go forward with production as quickly as
possible, but we should be cautious" about predictions, said David
Fedson, a vaccine expert and former medical professor at the University
of Virginia. Chan has warned that it would be impossible to produce
enough vaccine for all 6.8 billion people on the planet.
In any case, mass producing a pandemic vaccine would be a gamble, as it
would take away manufacturing capacity for the seasonal flu vaccine that
kills up to 500,000 people each year. Some experts have wondered whether
the world really needs a vaccine for an illness that so far appears
mild. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said
Tuesday the U.S. felt it had a responsibility to ensure that both
antiviral drugs and any new vaccine are also available to poor
countries. The United States has so far refrained from reserving any new
vaccine. Sebelius said the United States is working to boost its
production capacity for seasonal flu vaccines so those factories could
switch to the pandemic swine flu strain if needed. "At this point we
have not placed orders for vaccine," Sebelius told reporters in Geneva.
"There is still so much uncertainty about this virus that it is really
premature for us to even make a determination of how many people would
appropriately be vaccinated, in what order, how many doses would be
required."
Submitted by:
Vern Weitzel
vern.weitzel@gmail.com