Government finds new sources of flu vaccine

WASHINGTON – The federal government has identified more than 5 million doses of injectable flu vaccine available from foreign manufacturers and another 300,000 doses that will be redistributed from supplies intended for federal employees, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Thursday.

Thompson said that about 4 million doses are available from a manufacturing facility of GlaxoSmithKline in Germany and about 1.2 million doses are available from IDBiomedical’s facility in Vancouver, B.C. He said U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection teams will visit the manufacturing plants to confirm the availability of the vaccine doses and assure that they meet U.S. quality standards.

Lester Crawford, acting FDA commissioner, said if all goes well, the supplies could be ready for shipment by early to mid-December. They would supplement the 58 million doses of vaccine expected from Aventis Pasteur, the sole remaining U.S.-licensed maker of injectable vaccine for this season, and 3 million doses of FluMist, a nasal spray flu vaccine appropriate only for healthy people.

Thompson also announced at a news briefing that 300,000 doses of flu vaccine purchased by the federal government for its workers will be redirected to the states for distribution to high-risk populations such as those over age 65, the chronically ill, pregnant women and children age 6 months to 23 months.

Of those doses, 200,000 had been purchased for the military, which will replace them with FluMist. The other 100,000 doses come from Federal Occupational Health, an arm of HHS that serves federal agencies. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said agencies with surplus doses are returning them. He cited the National Institutes of Health, which he said is expected to contribute about 2,000 to 4,000 doses.

Thompson also announced that Merck & Co. would triple its production of pneumococcal vaccine used to prevent pneumonia, one of the major complications of flu. The company, which typically sells about 6 million to 7 million doses of the vaccine each year, has agreed to increase its output to between 17 million and 18 million doses this flu season, Thompson said.

Fauci said the pneumonia vaccine is good for three to five years and many elderly people already have received it as a part of their routine medical care.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has established a secure Internet site, Thompson said, where state health commissioners can find information on vaccine supplies coming to their states. CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said the site will help state health authorities determine where there may be gaps in coverage.

“They are letting us know, based on the gaps, exactly what they need and where they need it,” Gerberding said.