The chief executive of Sanofi-Aventis has announced that the company will donate 100 million doses of swine flu vaccine to the World Health Organization, which can send them to countries in need if it decides to run vaccination campaigns against the circulating strains.
"Exceptional times call for exceptional measures," he said. "We need to act responsibly and play our part, so we decided to provide the WHO with 100 million doses to help developing countries fight the global flu."
The WHO has not yet recommended vaccination against the disease, which it has declared a pandemic (phase 6), because the illness has so far been moderate. As of 15 June 2009 there were 36,000 confirmed cases, including 163 deaths, although some experts insist hundreds of thousands of cases have gone unrecorded.
Drug companies have finished preparing seasonal flu vaccines for the coming autumn and are now getting ready to make swine flu vaccines if needed. The seasonal vaccine contains three flu strains, including an H1N1 strain different from the swine flu virus, so the two are given separately, and people may need two doses for full immunity.
The WHO believes companies can produce 4.9 billion doses, which would leave part of the world's six and a half billion people without a vaccine, especially if two doses are needed.
Sanofi said it is committed to giving the WHO 10% of its swine flu vaccine production for developing countries under a tiered pricing policy. The company can produce 100 million doses a year in its laboratories in Pennsylvania (US) and 120 million a year at Sanofi Pasteur in France. It says it makes 40% of the world's flu vaccines; other vaccine makers include Baxter International, Solvay, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline.
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