Illinois wants to buy shots from Europe

CHICAGO – Citing “an urgent need” at a time of flu vaccine shortages, Illinois asked for federal permission Monday to buy at least 30,000 vaccine doses from Europe for the state’s nursing home residents.

A letter outlining the proposal was sent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been battling over his push to import lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada.

“I have every reason to think the FDA will work with us on this,” Blagojevich said Monday.

The acting FDA commissioner, Dr. Lester M. Crawford, said the agency would evaluate the state’s request “expeditiously.”

The U.S. supply of flu vaccine was slashed nearly in half when British manufacturer Chiron Corp. was barred from shipping any of its production because of contamination in its plant at Liverpool, England.

Blagojevich wants the FDA to inspect a manufacturing facility in France that makes the Aventis Pasteur flu vaccine for distribution in Canada and Europe. The FDA would have to test the vaccine before it could be approved, officials said. Aventis is the country’s other major supplier.

“With regard to any new sources identified, we would make sure the vaccine is safe and effective and add it to the amounts we are negotiating for from other countries,” Crawford said.

The FDA did not immediately comment further or indicate how soon it might make a decision on the Illinois request.

Illinois health officials have not clinically tested the Aventis Pasteur vaccine on U.S. flu patients, but they reviewed the literature and determined its properties are identical to those of the vaccine used in the United States, said Assistant Illinois Health Department Director Jonathan Dopkeen.

Blagojevich said state officials had negotiated a tentative deal to buy the Aventis flu vaccine for $7 per dose, well below the normal U.S. price. He also said officials had located tens of thousands more doses that could be in Illinois within days if approved.

The vaccines would supplement the 35,000 doses the state is receiving from the federal government for Medicaid patients and would be distributed to nursing home patients across the state, Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said.

Last year, Illinois requested federal approval to set up a pilot program for the state to import drugs from Canada for state employees and retirees, but the FDA refused to approve the plan, arguing it cannot vouch for the safety of imported drugs.

Blagojevich then created the I-SaveRx program, which helps Illinois residents buy lower-priced prescription drugs from pharmacies in Britain and Canada. It was through that program that the state developed a relationship with the vaccine wholesalers, Ottenhoff said.