Drugs giant to ship new swine flu batch

Oct 7 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

DRUGS giant GlaxoSmithKline said today that it was shipping another 149m doses of its swine flu vaccine as governments step up their fight against the pandemic.

The firm, which has around 1,000 staff in the North East, has received 22 government orders since August, bringing the total doses of its Pandemrix treatment ordered to 440m.

Glaxo makes Pandemrix in Dresden and Quebec but the demand is so great – around 60% higher than for usual seasonal vaccines – that it is also outsourcing production to third-party manufacturers. The firm began shipping the vaccines this week and deliveries will continue throughout the first half of next year.

Pandemrix has been given the green light by European officials and approval from US authorities is expected shortly.

It is a so-called “adjuvanted” vaccine which needs to include less of the virus to produce an immune response - meaning that more of it can be produced. Glaxo said talks were under way with governments over further supplies.

The latest estimates from the Health Protection Agency suggest there were 14,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week, up by almost half on the 9,000 reported in the previous week.

The Government hopes to begin vaccinating high-risk groups and frontline health workers against swine flu in the second half of October.

Glaxo also makes the Relenza flu treatment and to boost production of the drug to 190 million doses by the end of this year.

Sales of Relenza jumped to £60m between April and June compared with just £3m a year earlier as Governments built up stockpiles.