Bird 'Flu Vaccine to be Stockpiled by World Health Organisation
Major vaccine manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Baxter International, have made pledges of donating H5N1 vaccine before a pandemic starts. The vaccine would be made available to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in their initiative to help poor countries. GSK has offered 50 million doses - sufficient to vaccinate 25 million people as two injections per person are needed to provide inoculation. The vaccines will be made available over a term of 3 years.
Baxter's offering is for an unspecified "multi-year" donation. Baxter also released a statement saying that it will make available further pandemic vaccine "at a price that recognises the economic and financial circumstances in different parts of the world."
The WHO announced that it would initiate a stockpile of vaccine last month and is also considering the development of guidelines for public health to halt pandemics - these might be along the lines of quarantines, for example.
Dr Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation, states that: "This is another significant step towards creating a global resource to help the world and especially to help developing countries in case of a major outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza.
"WHO welcomes this contribution from the vaccines industry and is also working with countries to develop capacity for the production of influenza vaccines."
The drug companies' pledges are also welcomed by Dr John Oxford, who is a professor of virology at London's Queen Mary School of Medicine. "This is excellent news," he said. "It's just what we need to reassure countries like Indonesia that they will get something in return from the viruses they provide, which will form the basis of these vaccines," he added.
"By having this vaccine stockpile, we will have a way to help reward countries like Indonesia and Vietnam who have provided virus samples in the past," Dr Oxford noted.
However, while the WHO's stockpile is a comforting development in preparing for an H5N1 pandemic, there remain many unanswered questions. As yet the WHO has not explained how it would distribute the vaccine, nor how it would be delivered.
This last question is important, because countries that have the greatest need are also most likely to have tentative infrastructures for the delivery of public health, and it is not known how people who need the vaccine would be able receive it, even if it had been provided.
Pharmaceutical International's Newsdesk
