WHO warns of lengthy wait for bird flu vaccine

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WHO warns of lengthy wait for bird flu vaccine Feb 24, 2009

GENEVA (AFP) – The production capacity of bird flu vaccines has

tripled since 2007 but it could still take up to four years to meet

global demand if a pandemic were to occur, a WHO-backed study said on

Tuesday.

Even in the best case scenario, 18 months would be required for

sufficient doses of medication to be produced to cover the worldwide

population, the study said.

Marie-e Kieny, who heads the World Health Organization's

initiative for vaccine research, expressed concern that production

facilities might cut back because supply had more than met demand for

regular, seasonal vaccines.

" We still don't have enough production capability to cover the whole

world in the early months of the pandemic... and what is worrying

especially is that the capacity to make seasonal vaccines ... is now

much larger than the demand for these vaccines. "

Kieny noted that global demand at the moment for regular flu vaccines

stands at 500 million doses per year, but capacity is running at 800

million doses a year and climbing up to 1.7 billion doses in 2014.

" We are now building a surplus capacity. What will the manufacturers

do with it? Either they maintain it... or they close some of them

down, " she said.

Gardner from pharmaceutical giant GlaxoKline warned: " You

cannot create vaccine capacity and then mothball this capacity until a

pandemic outbreak. "

He pointed out the need to use surplus capacity to produce stockpiles

of H5N1 bird flu vaccines, as well as to encourage more seasonal

vaccination.

In Europe, for instance, only 20 percent of the population gets

seasonal vaccination, Gardner said.

Some 408 people have been infected by the bird flu since 2003, with

255 of them dying, most of them in Asia, according to official figures.

The H5N1 virus typically spreads from birds to humans via direct

contact, but experts fear that it could mutate into a form easily

transmissible between humans, with the potential to kill millions in a

pandemic.

The study was conducted by the WHO, consulting group Oliver Wyman and

industry group the International Federation of Pharmaceutical

Manufacturers and Associations.

http://news./s/afp/20090224/hl_afp/healthfluvaccinepharma_2009022416563\

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