teaser
GlaxoSmithKline has confirmed that it is shipping a further 149 million doses of its swine flu vaccine having received 22 government orders since August.
That brings the total number of orders for doses of the drugs giant’s Pandemrix treatment to 440 million worldwide.
Pandemrix has already been given the green light for use by European officials and approval from the US authorities is anticipated shortly.
The company manufactures the vaccine in Dresden and Quebec but such has been the demand for the product that it is also outsourcing production to third-party manufacturers.
Glaxo began shipping the vaccines this week and deliveries are set to continue throughout the first half of 2010.
The latest estimates from the Health Protection Agency suggest there were 14,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week, up by almost half on the 9,000 cases reported in the previous week.
The Government hopes to begin vaccinating high-risk groups and frontline health workers against swine flu in the second half of October but that depends on when batches of the vaccine are delivered.
Copyright Press Association 2009
