2药企免费提供1亿多支流感疫苗

　　

生物通报道，据ScienceInsider消息，赛诺菲-安万特制药集团成为继葛兰素史克后向WHO承诺免费捐赠H1N1新型流感疫苗的企业。

 

赛诺菲-安万特捐1亿支

赛诺菲-安万特制药集团将向WHO捐赠1亿头份的流感疫苗，用于免费支援发展中国家没有经济能力负担疫苗费用的贫民。

 

头一天，葛兰素史公司表示将为穷人免费提供5000万支疫苗。

 

赛诺菲-安万特制药集团发言人Christopher Viebacher表示，将专门拨出产量的10%用于免费发放。赛诺菲-安万特制药集团副总裁表示，在未来的1年，公司的产能至少可达到8亿支疫苗。

 

WHO总干事陈冯富珍对两公司的做法表示赞赏，称这一行为十分慷慨。但是，赛诺菲-安万特制药集团一名已退休的前流感疫苗专家David Fedson表示，WHO不能高兴太早，赛诺菲-安万特制药集团生产所在地美国和法国政府未必会让疫苗如此轻松的走出国境内，除非两国都储备有足够的流感疫苗。

 

诺华拒绝捐赠 考虑打折扣

此外，据报道全球第三大制药公司诺华诺德公司拒绝免费捐赠流感疫苗，但是会考虑以折扣的方式向低收入国家提供疫苗。

（生物通 小茜）

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Second Vaccine Maker Promises Free Swine Flu Shots for Developing World

 

Vaccine maker sanofi-aventis plans to donate 100 million doses of its A(H1N1) pandemic vaccine, currently in development, to the World Health Organization for use in developing nations that cannot afford to buy it  hemselves. The donation, which came on the heels of a similar move by GlaxoSmithKline, was announced yesterday during the opening session of the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle, Washington.

 

Christopher Viehbacher pledged that sanofi-aventis will donate 10% of the vaccine it produces to WHO. Robert Sebbag, the company’s vice president for access to medicines, says sanofi-aventis believes it can make at least 800 million doses the 1st year after production starts. That number could be several times higher, however, if the vaccine contains a so-called adjuvant, a compound that amplifies the host’s immune response, meaning that less viral protein is needed per shot. How well the adjuvanted vaccine will work and whether it will receive approval from regulatory authorities remains to be seen.

 

In a statement issued yesterday, WHO Director General Margaret Chan welcomed the donation, calling it a “sizeable and generous gesture.” But David Fedson, a retired pharma executive and influenza vaccine expert living in France, cautions that the two countries where sanofi has manufacturing plants—the United States and France—may prevent vaccine from crossing their borders until they have enough to protect their own populations. Such an action that might leave WHO empty-handed.

 

Last week, GlaxoSmithKline said  it had offered WHO to convert its planned donation of 50 million doses of a so-called pre-pandemic vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza to the new A(H1N1) strain that it is now making. Novartis, the third major producer of flu vaccine, will not donate vaccine, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, but the company said it will consider a price break for developing countries.