[health-vn] WHO seeks swine flu vaccine help for poor nations

[Vern Weitzel]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_re_eu/med_swine_flu;_ylt=AjN8fv9ZIcZL5rmXcS6k8klvaA8F

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."
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Cheng reported from London.