$1 Billion Flu Contract Awarded To Five Companies

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines;  Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry;  Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 05 May 2006 - 6:00 PDT

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The US government has awarded $1 billion dollars' worth of contracts to five pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines for a possible flu pandemic as well as for seasonal flu. The money is allocated to the following companies:

$298.6 million - Solvay Pharmaceuticals
$274.8 million - GlaxoSmithKline
$220.5 million - Novartis
$169.5 million - MedImmune Inc.
$41 million - DynPort Vaccine Co., with Baxter International Inc.

Mike Leavitt, US Health and Human Services Secretary, said the companies will create cell-based vaccines - these will be grown in labs in cell cultures or batches of cells. This method is faster than egg-based systems.

The companies have been given the job of finding vaccines to fight against:

-- Seasonal flu
-- Bird flu and the pandemic it may cause

The aim is to set up a stock of vaccines, large enough all Americans, within six months of the birth of a flu pandemic.

The current system of developing vaccines is over 40 years old. It is slow and cumbersome. The new method should speed things up.

The USA is currently very vulnerable as most of its vaccine supplies come from abroad. The aim of these awards is to make sure America can produce its own vaccines in the event of a pandemic.

Most experts agree that the H5N1 avian flu virus strain will probably mutate and start a human flu pandemic. At the moment it is very hard for a human to become infected. Nearly 200 million birds that have died over the last three years from avian influenza, the number of human deaths stands at around 100.

If the virus mutates, and learns how to spread from human-to-human, it could spread around the world within weeks - it would become a flu pandemic.

Bird Flu = Avian Flu = Avian Influenza
Flu = Influenza
H5N1 = An avian influenza virus strain. The most dangerous one for humans.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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