Pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline has urged Canadian doctors not to perform swine flu vaccinations where a certain batch of its H1N1 vaccine is concerned. Its urge comes in light of instances where a number of patients have reported experiencing extreme side effects, post-vaccination.

The Canadian flu vaccine batch in question consists of a good 170,000 individual doses, supply of which has now been suspended pending investigation.

GSK Swine Flu Vaccine

According to reports emanating from Canada, GSK's swine flu vaccine induced an adverse reaction in one out of every 20,000 patients given it, when one out of 100,000 would normally be expected. It should be stressed, however, that none of those affected were reported to have suffered ill-effects on a long-term basis.

"We have advised health care professionals not to use that batch while health authorities and GlaxoSmithKline investigate", a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, Gwenan White, stated.

No information has emerged on how many doses out of the 170,000 had been supplied to patients at the point that Glaxo's intervention occurred. According to White, though, Canada as a whole has received 7.5 million doses to date. White also emphasised that it's just a single vaccine batch that's being looked into: all other swine flu vaccine doses supplied globally being reportedly unaffected.

Swine Flu Vaccine Side Effects

Canada aside, 37 million doses of the vaccine are set to soon be exported to Japan. As a result of the firm's new swine flu vaccine side effects guidance, officials in Japan now plan to visit Canada in December to check out the situation, according to reports in the Japanese media.

In terms of sales figures, GlaxoSmithKline is the second most significant drug manufacturing firm in the world, and its vaccine was approved for US use at the beginning of November 2009.

See also:

UK Swine Flu Vaccinations to Begin