WSJ: Bird-Flu Vaccine Is a Fact; Need for It Is Questionable

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Bird-Flu Vaccine Is a Fact; Need for It Is Questionable

By Zamiska

Word Count: 1,010 | Companies Featured in This Article:

GlaxoKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Roche Holding, Baxter International,

Novartis

A vaccine for avian influenza is at hand. Now regulators and companies

are weighing whether to make it widely available before any outbreak

occurs.

To date, the H5N1 virus that causes the flu has passed only

occasionally from birds to humans. The possibility of a mutation of

the virus causing a large-scale, highly lethal outbreak among humans

motivated big pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoKline PLC and

Sanofi-Aventis SA to develop vaccines. The Food and Drug

Administration hasn't approved any of them yet; indeed, the vaccine

has yet to get an endorsement from any regulatory agency for use

before a pandemic, ...

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